homemade pizza

homemade pizza recipe, how to make pizza

Every great pizza begins with a great crust. Some like it thin, some like it crispy, some like it fluffy and thick.



My homemade pizza crust recipe is thin, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside - my children's favourite way to eat it.

Homemade pizza crust may sound difficult to you. Why waste time when you can buy frozen? But trust me homemade crust tastes far more better than store brought ones or even restaurant ones.
Always making pizza at home is fun and especially with children.

Flour - For best results, I suggest you to use this traditional Italian pizza flour Type 00. You can find it any Italian supermarket, if not you can go with all purpose flour.

Sauce - Making sauce will be quick and easy by using pasta sauce as base or specially made pizza sauce which are available in stores.

Homemade Vegetable Pizza Recipe:

Prep Time: 20mins
Cooking Time: 8mins
Yield: 2 Pizzas/3-4 persons

Ingredients:

YEAST+ DOUGH:

Pizza flour/All purpose flour - 250g
Instant yeast - 6g
Salt - 1/2tsp
Sugar - 1/2tsp
Extra virgin olive oil - 1tsp+2tbsp
Lukewarm water - 40ml+100ml
Flour for dusting - 2tbsp

Pizza SAUCE:

Tomato basil pasta sauce - 10tbsp
Garlic  - 1pod(grated)
Salt - 1/3tsp
Olive oil - 1/3tsp

Pizza CHEESE:

Fresh Mozzarella - 100g
Cheddar cheese - 100g

Pizza TOPPINGS:

Zucchini
Sweet corn - 1tbsp
Onion - 1small
Jalapeno chili - 1small/optional
Olives - 4 to 5

Method:

Making YEAST Mixture:

-Take 40ml of lukewarm water in a bowl along with salt+sugar+yeast, mix it with fork and leave for few minutes.

Making DOUGH:

-Put the flour in a big bowl,make a well in the centre and add olive oil.

-Now add the yeast mixture to the well which is resting.

-Once all of the ingredients are mixed, Knead for 7 minutes by hand or with your dough hook on low-medium speed. If your dough is too wet, add up to 1/4 cup more flour. Drizzle some more olive oil and make it like a chapati dough by kneading the dough  rolling it backward and forward repeat  this for 2mins. After kneading, your dough should be smooth and elastic. Poke it with your finger - if it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. If not, keep kneading.

-Grease the bowl+dough with some more olive oil and cover it with clingfilm.

-Rest the dough in a warmest place in your house.I kept the bowl in oven for good results.
-Rest it for 40mins to 1hour or until it is double in size.

Making SAUCE:

-Take all the ingredients to a bowl,mix well and keep it aside.

Cheese:

-I used two kinds of cheeses, grate both the cheeses separately  and keep it aside.

Making TOPPINGS:

Zucchini is chopped into fine circles.
Sweet corn
Onion is chopped into lengthwise,1 inch thick
Jalapeño chilli is  chopped into fine circles
Olives
Or as shown  in the picture.

Pre-heat the OVEN:

-It is very important to preheat the oven for 15 mins @ maximum temperature given on the oven.

Making PIZZA:

-Make sure you switch on the oven to preheat  by now as we will be ready to bake the pizza in 15 mins.

- Take out the dough on a dusted surface, punch the dough down to release the air.
-Divide the dough in two. Put one half  back in a bowl and cover it with clingfilm for another pizza.

-Take a piece of the dough,dust your surface and dough with a little flour,and roll it out(just like a thin chapati) into a rough circle about 0.5cm thick.

-Now take the circle onto a pizza tray/baking tray(if you are using baking tray ,i suggest you to use parchment paper/baking sheet.Place the circle on parchment paper and rest of the procedure is same).

-Brush the pizza circle with little olive oil and spread the pizza sauce as shown in the picture.

-Sprinkle 50g of grated mozzarella + 20g of cheddar cheese.

-Now add your favourite toppings,keep it simple and don't overload it with toppings so it has a chance to cook through.

-Last but not least and don't be shy,add left over 30g cheddar cheese and ready to bake

-Bake it at maximum temp for 7mins 30sec(7:30 baking time) or until the pizza is golden and crispy.
-Take out the pizza and cut it into slices by using pizza cutter and enjoy eating them with your loved ones.