Pizza Hut Pizza_** is our favorite in Chennai. All you need to make is a phone call and dinner will be at your doorstep 😉 Its been nearly two months that we tried pizza,here in London (_i know it is strange) _So to put an end to the craving and to make use of my Gas Oven , thought of making pizza at home from scratch. Its going to be a lengthy post with step by step pictures. Pardon the quality of pics. Took them in night and lighting wasn’t good.
There are totally five sections in this pizza recipe.
1.Pizza Dough.
2.Pizza Sauce.
3.Toppings.
4.How to assemble them.
5.Bake.
How to make pizza dough?
In the picture you could see the spoons used for measuring yeast,sugar and the cup used for measuring flour. Kindly adjust the quantity accordingly.
Ingredients :
- Strong white flour (Allinson) 300gms (approx)
- Dry yeast spoonful 2
- Sugar spoon 1
- Olive oil 2 tbsps
- Salt a pinch
- Water 200ml (approx)
Preparation of Dough :
- First boil water for a minute. It should be lukewarm.
- Dissolve a spoon of sugar and add yeast.
- Give it a mix. Leave the water untouched for 15 minutes.
4. You could see the yeast being activated and you could see the water frothy.
5. Take a deep mixing bowl and add flour, little salt and oil.
6. Form a well and add the yeast mixture.
7. Start pushing the flour inside and mix until you get sticky dough
8. Now transfer the dough to your kitchen table. Dust the surface with some flour.
9. Knead the dough for at least 10 minutes.
10. After kneading you will get a smooth dough without much cracks. At this stage stop kneading
Keep this dough in a warm place and drizzle some oil on top. Cover the dough with a warm cloth/towel.Let it rest for 1.5-2 hours. Then you have to slightly punch the dough. It is called knocking back the dough. After punching the dough leave it for second rise. Let it rise again for 20 minutes.
My Notes :
While preparing the dough i felt the water quantity was a bit high and dough was sticking to my hand crazily. It took nearly 10 minutes and an extra cup of flour to handle the stickiness.Hence I would suggest you to use less water for activating yeast and then add plain water if required
Second Section : How to make pizza sauce?
While the dough is rising you can prepare the sauce and toppings.There are so many ways you could prepare this sauce. I have used very basic Italian flavors for my sauce.
- Olive Oil – 2 tbsp.
- Tomatoes – 4
- Chopped Garlic – 2 tsp.
- Black pepper – 1 tbsp.
- Salt – 1/2 tsp.
- Basil leaves – 2.
- Dried herbs (oregano/thyme) – 1/2 tsp.
Preparation :
1.Blanch tomatoes in hot water.
2.Peel the skin and make it a puree
3.Heat olive oil in a pan and add chopped garlic. Saute for a minute.
4.Add this puree,pepper and salt. Let the mixture boil for about 10 minutes.
5.Once the mixture starts thickening add chopped basil leaves and dried herbs.
Pizza sauce is ready.
Section Three : Pizza Topping.
Since I am a vegetarian I used vegetables, mushrooms for topping. However you can replace it with any meat or poultry.
- Capsicum (Red, Yellow) – 1 each.
- Mushrooms – 10.
- Tomato – 1.
- Salt – a pinch.
- Black pepper – 1/2 tsp.
- Olive oil – 1 tsp.
- Cheddar Cheese – 1 cup.
Method of Preparation :
- Heat oil in non-stick pan.
- Add all the vegetables.
- Saute for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add salt, pepper.
- Most of them use Parmesan Cheese or Mozzarella. Since I had cheddar cheese I used them in my pizza.
Prep Time | 180 minutes |
Cook Time | 30 minutes |
Servings |
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- Pizza Dough
- Tomato Suace
- Toppings
- Cheddar cheese
Ingredients
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- Section Four : Assembling Pizza.
- I used a normal baking tray. If you have a round pizza pan then kindly use the pizza pan.
- Slightly drizzle olive oil on the pan.
- Take pizza dough and stretch to an inch thick and spread it on the pan.
- Apply pizza sauce on top the dough.
- Spread the vegetables. Apply some more sauce if you want.
- Sprinkle some cheese and black olives.Sprinkle dried herbs and ground black pepper. If you have fresh basil leaves keep them on top of the pizza.
- Section Five : Baking.
- I preheated my Gas Oven in gas mark '6' for 15 minutes and then baked pizza for about 20 minutes. Delicious Homemade Pizza is ready to be served