Pizza With Wheat Base

Being a foodie I’m always on the lookout for a new recipe. I am inspired by my family members, friends or food bloggers around me. Just the other day I was chatting with my cousin who inspired me to make pizza base at home. She mentioned she always makes pizza base at home & it doesn’t take much time to make them as it’s an easy process. I had been reluctant to give it a try as I was quite skeptical about working with yeast. But this time,  I decided to give it a try & bake pizza base at home but I was running out of self-raising flour, so I decided to make the base with wheat flour.

My verdict: The pizza base turned out exactly similar to the one we buy from local bakeries or shops. My son who loves cooking helped me in making the base and it was a fun activity for him. As per the measurements mentioned below you can make 10 mini pizza base of ¼” thickness each. (Recipe adapted from WikiHow with some changes)

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup warm water
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 1½ cup wheat flour + some more for kneading & rolling the base
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar

Method:

1. In a large bowl add warm water, yeast & sugar. Give it a quick stir and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until the yeast is activated & turns into foam on the top of the water. Then add the salt & oil.
2. Gradually add wheat flour as you stir the mixture simultaneously, when the mixture becomes too thick to stir you will know you have added enough flour.
3. Knead the dough. Sprinkle some flour on the kitchen top & knead the flour by adding more flour to make dough which is not very moist or sticky.
4. Gather the dough, press it firmly with the heel of your hands, pushing it forward lightly. The dough should resemble a chapaati dough.
5. Cover the dough with cling film and let it rise for 1 hour at room temperature. After an hour the dough must have doubled in size. Punch down the dough to remove air and knead it again.
6. Sprinkle some flour on the kitchen top & using a rolling pin make small circles of ¼” thickness. I used a circular bowl with sharp edge to make mini pizza base. Prick each pizza base with a fork.
7. Preheat the microwave at 180°C and bake the base for 8-10 minutes.

How to prepare Pizza Sauce & toppings?

For pizza sauce

• 4 medium size tomatoes (roughly chopped)
• 2 small onions (roughly chopped)
• 5 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• 1 tsp oil
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp oregano
• Salt as per taste

For toppings
Chopped Mushrooms, onions, capsicum & grated cheese.

Method

1. Heat oil in  a pan
2. Add garlic, onions & tomatoes.
3. When the onions turn transparent, turn off the gas and add pepper, salt & oregano.
4. Grind the vegetables to a smooth paste to make pizza sauce.
5. Adjust the salt & pepper as per your liking.
6. You can add the pizza sauce & toppings along with the mini pizza and bake it in the microwave at 180°C for 15 minutes OR Prepare the pizza base, add the pizza sauce, toppings & cheese & grill it until cheese melts.

Picture courtesy: Soni Khadilkar

Soni is based in Bahrain, and she blogs at Soni’s Kitchen. She is hooked to cooking since childhood and often helped out her mother in the kitchen. She makes the most of her time baking, blogging, clicking pictures and of course eating different types of cuisines and experimenting in her kitchen. Soni loves to share traditional recipes inspired by her mother, tried and tasted by her family and friends. Soni also conducts basic baking workshops. You can find her on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.