Homemade pizza is actually simpler and not as time consuming as most people think it is. Tired with my usual busy kitchen days, I tend to buy the pizza base and do the sauce and toppings at home. But nothing beats this from-scratch pizza in taste and wholesomeness. Learn with me the pizza base, easy quick tomato sauce and a very quick vegan pizza cheese version.
Ingredients
(Serves 3-4 people)
Yeild : 8 small pizza bases.
For the pizza base:
- Organic whole wheat flour- 410 grams
- Instant dry yeast – 2 1/4 teaspoon
- Organic rock salt – one teaspoon
- Organic cane sugar or date paste – 5 grams
- Warm water at 110F – as required
- Olive oil or Vegetable oil – 20 grams.
For the tomato sauce:
- Tomatoes – 900 grams.
- Onions – 200 grams.
- Garlic – 4-5 cloves.
- Olive oil or Vegetable oil – 30 grams.
- Salt – 15 grams or to taste
- Sugar – 5 grams or to taste
- Pepper – 5 grams or to taste
- Fresh basil leaves – 10 grams
For the vegan pizza cheese:
- Cashews – 75 grams
- Water / coconut milk – 250 grams
- tapioca starch – 15 grams
- Apple cider vinegar – 5 grams
- Lemon juice – 5 grams
- Black salt – 5 grams
- Garlic – 3-4 cloves
- Salt – 5 grams or to taste
- Nutritional yeast- 10 grams
For the pizza toppings:
- Mushroom – 200 grams
- Any other Vegetables as per preference
METHOD
For the Pizza base:
1. The first thing to do in this recipe is to start on the pizza dough. Warm water to 110F. Stir in sugar and yeast in about 30 ml warm water. Let the yeast bubble and froth. This confirms that your yeast is active and can be used to make bread.
2. In a seperate bowl mix in the salt and the flour. Stir this well. Now add this to the frothy yeast mix and knead this into a soft dough with the addition of more water as needed. Shape the dough in a firm ball and place it into a well greased bowl.
3. Cover this with a wet cloth and leave the dough to rise and double in a warm place.
4. Punch this dough. Flour your work surface with some whole wheat flour and tip your dough onto your work surface. Divide your dough into 8 equal balls and roll each ball into a disc 7-7.5 inches in diameter. You can also divide and roll the dough as per the pizza size that you prefer or as fits the oven you have. The thickness of each pizza base can be as per your personal preference.
5. Set your oven for pre heating at 215C. Heat the oven for a good 30 minutes to make sure that the oven is very hot.
6. Place your rolled dough discs on well greased trays and let them rise on top of the oven, as the oven preheats. We are going to slightly pre-bake and keep our pizza bases ready for assembly later. This allows the meal preparation to be completed before hand and reduces cooking time at the time of serving food.
7. Once your oven is sufficiently hot, bake your pizza bases for about 10 minutes and no more. Each base should only brown very slightly around the edges. Keep these pizza bases wrapped and covered in a cloth till later.
8. Alternatively, you can punch down and refrigerate the dough after the first rise. Just make sure that the dough is covered with a wet cloth or placed inside a covered container. When you are ready to assemble – preferably within 10-12 hours of the dough refrigeration; punch the dough, roll it out into the shape and thickness of your preference. Now apply a layer of oil on this rolled dough. Spread the sauce , toppings and cheese and bake.
For the tomato sauce
1. Chop onions and the garlic. Heat oil in a pan and cook the onions and garlic till they turn transparent.
2. While the onion and garlic are cooking, wash and roughly chop tomatoes and steam them in the pressure cooker for one whistle. Remember to add not more than 50ml water to the pressure cooker as you set the tomatoes to cook.
3. Take the pressure cooker off the heat after the first whistle and let it cool till it opens. Tip the tomatoes in a food processor (not a mixer ) and puree them . Strain this still hot puree and add it to the cooking onion and garlic.
4. Add in the seasoning and some fresh chopped basil. We used the basil from our garden.
5. Cook the sauce till it thickens slightly. Check seasoning ,and adjust it as per taste. Take the sauce off the heat.
For the liquid pizza cheese:
1. Heat the cashews in a pan of water for about 30 minutes. Add the Cashews and all other ingredients in a grinder and combine into a smooth thin paste.
2. Transfer this paste into a pan and cook it on medium heat while stirring constantly till the cheese begins to thicken slightly. Take the cheese off the heat.
To assemble:
1. Preheat oven to 210C.
2. Coat pizza base lightly with oil on top . Dollop and spread the tomato sauce on the pizza base. Layer it with roasted and seasoned vegetables. Now dollop on the liquid pizza cheese and fresh basil leaves.
3. Bake in the oven till the pizza base is crisp and well browned on the edges.
4. Serve hot.
Important notes :
1. In this recipe we have pre cooked the pizza bases to allow advance meal preparation. Should you want to bake these fresh, premake the tomato sauce, roasted vegetables for topping and the cheese. In this case just brush the base slightly with oil again to make sure that the base doesn’t get soggy with the toppings while being baked.
2. The vegetables for the pizza need to be pre roasted and seasoned.
3. When you make the liquid cheese, check to make sure that you get a salty and sharp taste. This is important to ensure that the taste of grated cheese on the pizza is well replicated.
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