Vegetable Platter: Pizza

Homemade Cheese Pizza

I not into baking a lot of cakes & cookies but I love savory bakes. I have since long wanted learn to bake a good Pizza at home. My dad loves baking as well especially it it has anything to do with yeast :)

So we finally tried our hands on the basic Cheese Pizza. It is always nice to bake with someone who is as enthusiastic as you in the kitchen

After baking Pizza for 3 consecutive days and experimenting with 2 different kind of doughs , I can finally say that I am eligible to write this post.

Since this was my first time making Pizza from scratch, I wanted to perfect the basic Cheese Pizza. We all love Cheese Pizza don't we? I like mine with lot of Olives & red chilli flakes sprinkled on the top

WHAT KIND OF YEAST DID I USE?

Eversince the Lockdown has happened, there has been a sudden demand for yeast & I was not able to find yeast in any of the stores.

I was finally able to get some Fresh Yeast (The one that comes in cubes & has to be refrigerated) & honestly I was quite skeptical about it but the pizza turned out rather well

So you can use any kind of yeast

Fresh Yeast

Active Dry Yeast or

Instant Yeast

Make sure you get the conversions right & use only the right amount of whichever you were using

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MAKING THE PIZZA DOUGH

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Makes 4 Medium Crust Pizzas of 11 inches each

You Will Need:

600 grams All Purpose Flour
25 grams Fresh Yeast Or 8 Grams of Active Dry Yeast ( I used Fresh Yeast )
400 ml water
3 teaspoon Salt
Half teaspoon Sugar
6 teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

HOW TO:

In a sauce pan, heat Water until its lukewarm. To this, add Yeast, Salt, Sugar & Oil. Cover & set aside for the yeast to activate for 15 minute

When the mixture turns frothy, it means that the yeast is active. Now In a wide bowl, add the flour & mix in the yeast mixture & knead well slowly incorporating all the flour

The flour will turn slightly sticky so add some more flour as you knead but not too much

When the dough turns fairly smooth, continental kneading for 20-25 minutes by hand. You can put your food processor to use if you have one. If using a machine, knead for 8 minutes.

Make 4 medium balls of dough, Coat the dough with EVOO & place it in a bowl, cover with a damp kitchen towel & let it proof for 2 hours.

I used the Yogurt Mode in the Instant Pot for one hour to proof the dough

After the allotted time, the dough would have doubled in size.

Place each ball in individual containers or ziplock bags with enough room for it to rise again.

Refrigerate for a minumum for 3-4 hours or for a maximum of 3 days. Ideal would be to refrigerate for 24 hours

Pull out the dough at least an hour before you plan to bake the Pizza

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BAKING PIZZAS

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MEDIUM CRUST

When you are ready to make Pizzas, you will need to pull out the dough out of the refrigerator One hour in advance so that it reaches room temperature

You Will Need:

Pizza Dough
Pizza Sauce (I used Store Bought)
Mozzarella Cheese
Basil leaves
Salt
Garlic powder
Dried Oregano
Black Olives
Olive Oil
Dry Chilli Flakes (Optional)

HOW TO:

Preheat the Oven to 500F or 260 C for 30 minutes

Take the dough out of the container, lightly flour the working station, begin stretching the dough with your hands.

If you feel that the dough shrinks back when stretched, allow it to rest on the counter for another 15 minutes. Keep the dough covered with a damp cloth

Alternately, you can even roll the dough using a rolling pin.

Sprinkle a little flour on the kitchen counter & Roll or uniformly stretch into a circle of 11 inch diameter.

Transfer the stretched/rolled dough onto a parchment paper & brush it lightly with olive oil

Using a pizza cutter, lightly cut the pizza into triangular slices

Apply pizza Sauce, Garlic, powder, dried oregano Add Mozzarella Cheese generously, sprinkle some salt & top with sliced olives.

Put the parchment paper onto a cast Iron Pan. I used my trusted Lodge Cast Iron Pan.

Bake at 500 F for 8-9 minutes (Oven Temperatures will vary)

8 Minutes is ideal. The crust is cooked well. I baked a couple of pizzas for 9 minutes, the cheese was more brown at the top & the crust was a tad crunchier

After 8 minutes, Take out the pizza from the oven & transfer it onto a wide plate & gently cut the slices using a pizza cutter

Sprinkle with chilli flakes & garnish with fresh basil & serve hot

NOTES:

Oven temperatures will vary so keep eye on the Pizza while its baking

It is very important that the oven be hot. So, Preheating for 30 minutes is a must

Always slightly cut the pizza dough into slices before you add the sauce & toppings as its easier to slice them later on

Always always always refrigerate the pizza dough. The 1st day we baked the pizza about a couple of hours after the dough was proofed. And we made some more pizza with dough that was refrigerated for 24 hours. The 2nd batch turned out better in texture