Fresh Baked Pizza :: Sunday Funday

Would you go for a home baked pizza if you have an option?

Pizza is easy to make at home, having the same softness, cheesiness and yummyness. Yes, it does requires patience. Plus there is a 100% chance you might fail a few times. Like first time I made, the crust got over baked, and the pizza was too much crunchy in each bite. I didnt lose hope and give up. I looked up on baking techniques which resulted in knowledge about science of baking. This science says measurements are most important for all the ingredients involved. If you alter amount of even one ingredient, the end result would turn out different than expected. Subsequently, few experiments later involving different quantities of ingredients, this recipe turned out perfect.

So what happened this sunday evening was we got a sudden craving for pizza. Yet, we stayed in and made not one but three pizzas at home. We(my husband and I) made them together. Old hindi songs were playing on speaker. I was making the dough and alfredo sauce. He was cutting the vegetables. It was a lot of fun getting messy while rolling dough and decorating the pizza base. We got excited when our dough got doubled. Another moment of ecstasy was when our pizzas started to rise in oven. In that instant we started jumping with joy like kids…. Ah!! I can still clearly recall when we both had our first bites…. It was heaven!! 

Each pizza turned out well, with crunchy sides, completely soft middle area, and totally cheesy. They were so damn delicious that we gobbled them up within half an hour. Can you believe it, one medium pizza, one small pizza and one almost medium pizza, all gone in one sitting!!!! On the other hand, when ordering or going out for pizza, we feel full with only one medium pizza. At home, we ate to our hearts content and our stomach limits got extended a little bit.

Spinach alfredo pizza – This pizza has alfredo sauce spread over base followed by spinach leaves and lots of cheese. Each bite has dripping cheese and sauces, making it look yummilicious and hard to resist.The slightly salty taste of creamy alfredo sauce combines with the taste of spinach resulting in mouthwatering, fingerlicking, superliciouly delicious delight.

Onion Capsicum pizza – Each bite is a delightful fusion of crispiness of onion and capsicum, sourness of pizza sauce, and lots of cheese. Top it with red chilly flakes and oregano, would make you forget pizza you had last time in restaurants.

Spinach alfredo with Onion and Capsicum pizza – This one was a combination of the above two. Tastes of two pizza combined in one. Taking the base, spreading alfredo sauce, followed by pizza sauce, then decorating with spinach, onion and capsicum, and finally cheese. This one was equally awesome and delectable.

Lets divide the process into three parts – the crust, the sauces and finally the masterpiece pizza.

The CRUST

What you need ..?

3 cups all purpose flour (maida)

1 packet yeast (7g or 2 and 1/4 tsp)

2 cups or 500 ml water approximately 

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp oil

Steps to follow – 

1. Heat the water until it is lukewarm. I microwave the water in a bowl for 1 minute.
2. Add yeast and sugar to water and mix well. Leave the mixture for 10-15 minutes. After that time, the mixture would look creamy. This step is done to activate the yeast.
3. Mix salt and oil to the yeast mixture
4. Now add flour to yeast mixture slowly, whisking it continuously. Make sure there are no lumps remaining. The dough should be soft and sticky by now.
5. Leave the dough for an hour to rise. The quantity would be doubled.
6. After an hour, divide the dough into three parts. Start rolling the portion using dry flour using either your hand or rolling pin.
7. Next place the rolled dough into the pizza pan and evenly distribute the dough according to pan size.

Well it would be messy when you are rolling the dough, but I guarantee results would be awesome.

The SAUCES

Now the time has come to pick up sauces/toppings. We can use the store bought sauces for all of them or make some at home. The traditional pasta/pizza sauce containing tomato puree is the one I buy from grocery store. Alfredo sauce is the one I usually prepare at home. The choice of sauces totally depends on you. 

What you need ..?

2 tbsp all purpose flour(maida)

2 cups milk

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp shredded mozerella cheese

1 tsp italian seasoning

1 tsp dry parsley leaves

1/2 clove garlic minced

Salt to taste

Steps to follow – 

1. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat.
2. Saute garlic in butter till it turns golden. Keep the heat medium, else garlic would burn.
3. Now add flour and whisk until mixed properly.
4. Then add milk slowly, whisking the mixture continuously to avoid lumps.
5. Keep on stirring for 10 minutes on medium flame till the mixture becomes creamy and paste like
6. Season with salt, italian seasoning and parsley leaves. You can use oregano if you have none of these.

 

PIZZA

Lets decorate these pizza bases and put them in oven!

What you need ..?

2 cups pizza blend cheese/mozzarella/parmesan (The cheese could be shredded or cut into pieces)

1 cup roughly chopped onions

1 cup roughly chopped capsicum

1 cup roughly chopped spinach leaves

Any other veggies like red capsicum, yellow capsicum, mushroom, jalapeno, etc

Steps to follow –

1. Spread sauce over the base.
2. Decorate with the veggies as you like
3. Spread cheese over the veggies in ample amount
4. Pre-heat the oven up to 450 F/250 C, place all the pizza pans in the oven for 10 minutes or till the crust starts turning golden brown.
5. Let the pizza cool for 5 minutes before taking out from tray to cut into pieces