RECIPE: Sumptuous Pizza for a mid-week treat

Lip-smacking pizza - better than restaurant!

Are you one of those people who secretly wish that mid-week holidays should be mandatory? I sure am... I can't do much to fulfil secret wishes, but I certainly can give you the recipe for some killer pizza to beat the mid-week blues.

My entire family loves having pizza. But, every time I tried making it at home with pre-baked pizza base, the result was just... meh. Resultantly, we always ended up ordering it. Until COVID-19 came into our lives. The strict lockdown, combined with a fear of outside food, necessitated that we bake our pizza from scratch, and the results were uh-mazing!! The pizza was so good, we seriously thought that we should be doing pizza delivery for our pizza-starved folks.

What makes this recipe even better is that it's easy enough for beginners, and most of the work is hands-off. The pizza dough is versatile, so you can use it to make garlic bread, pizza pockets, and Italian bread. It can also be frozen for future use.

Do try this out, and be prepared to be flooded with pizza requests!

Ingredients:

For the pizza dough:

If you use a 250 ml cup, these measurements will make dough enough for 4 personal pizzas.

• 2 cups all purpose flour (maida)
• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour (atta)
  
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp curd
• 4 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 + 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast (I use Gloripan brand)

For making one pizza:

• 1/4 of the pizza dough
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Store bought pizza sauce
• Grated mozzarella cheese
• Toppings of choice - onion/tomato/capsicum/black olives/paneer/sausage

Recipe:

1. Take 1 cup warm water. You should be able to comfortably dip your finger in it. Too hot, and it'll kill the yeast. If it is cold, the yeast will not activate.
2. To this water, add sugar and instant dry yeast. Mix well. Then leave undisturbed for about 10 minutes until the yeast activates, and the water becomes frothy. DO NOT ADD SALT in this water. Salt inhibits the activation of yeast.
3. In a mixing bowl or praat take the remaining dough ingredients - maida, atta, olive oil, curd, and salt.
4. Add the activated yeast solution and knead well.
5. If the dough feels dry, dip your hands in water and then knead. This will moisten the dough but will prevent it from getting too sticky.
6. Knead well for about 10 minutes till the dough is soft and pliable.
7. Now, cover the mixing bowl with the dough with cling wrap and allow the it to rest in a warm place for about 1 hr until the dough rises and doubles in size.
8. If the temperature in your kitchen is not warm, you may heat your oven to 100 degrees C/220 degrees F for 1 minute, and keep the dough inside the warm oven. Make sure the oven is turned off when you keep the dough in it.
9. After one hour the dough would have doubled. Punch it lightly to release the air, and knead gently for a minute.
10. At this stage, you can wrap the dough in cling wrap and freeze it for later use.
11. If you want to use it right away, take one fourth of the dough and roll it out into a circle on a flat surface. Fold the edges so that they rise above the centre. This prevents the topping from bubbling over when the pizza bakes. 
12. Allow the rolled out dough to rest for 15 minutes. You may use this time to prep the toppings.
13. Brush some olive oil on the surface. This ensures that the pizza doesn't become soggy when we put the toppings.
14. Spread a generous amount of pizza sauce. Then sprinkle cheese to cover it well. 
15. Add toppings of choice.
16. Now bake the pizza in a pre-heated oven at 250 degrees C/480 degrees F for about 20 minutes until the cheese has melted and the edges look golden brown.
17. Take out the baked pizza and slice it. 
18. Serve hot with pizza seasoning and mustard sauce.

Tips:

• For a healthier version, you can replace maida entirely with atta. You might need to use a little extra water for kneading then.
• When making for kids, you can use tomato ketchup instead of pizza sauce for a milder flavour.
• With some slight modifications, this pizza dough can also be used to make pizza pockets, garlic bread, and Italian bread.
• To freeze the pizza dough, apply some olive oil and wrap the dough tightly in cling wrap. Then freeze.
• To thaw the frozen dough, take it out from the freezer, and keep it in the fridge for about 8 hours/overnight. Then, bring it out to room temperature about 1 hour before you plan on making the pizza.

Step by step recipe with photos:

Step 1. Take 1 cup warm water. You should be able to comfortably dip your finger in it.

Step 2. Mix sugar and yeast in this water. Allow to rest for 10 minutes until frothy. Do not add salt in this water.

Step 3. In a mixing bowl or praat take the remaining dough ingredients - maida, atta, olive oil, curd, and salt.

Step 4.  Add the activated yeast solution and knead well for about 10 minutes till the dough is soft and pliable.

Step 5. Cover the mixing bowl with the dough with cling wrap and allow the it to rest in a warm place for about 1 hr until the dough rises and doubles in size.

Step 6. After one hour, the dough would have risen and doubled in size.

Step 7. Punch it lightly to release the air, and knead gently for a minute.

Step 8.  Take one fourth of the dough and roll it out into a circle on a flat surface. Fold the edges so that they rise above the centre. Brush the surface with olive oil. Allow the rolled out dough to rest for 15 minutes. 

Step 9. Spread a generous amount of pizza sauce, and sprinkle the cheese.

Step 10. Take toppings of choice and spread then evenly over the sprinkled cheese.

Step 11. Now bake the pizza in a pre-heated oven at 250 degrees C/480 degrees F for about 20 minutes until the cheese has melted and the edges look golden brown.

Step 12. Take out the baked pizza and slice it. Enjoy the pizza with some seasoning and mustard sauce.

So this was my sumptuous pizza recipe. I hope you enjoy making and having it as much as I do. Bon appetit!