Pizza L'Amour

I hadn't planned to blog about this pizza, when I started making it last night. (That should explain the lack of quality in the pictures.) It was just going to be like any other pizza. Also, I was kinda in a hurry because it was already close to dinner time and my husband and I were both hungry. The dough for my pizza base has done a good 'second rising' and was wating to be rolled out.

And that's where is the 'twist in the story'. As I started rolling it out, my hands just started moving as though they a mind of their own. Before I realised what was happening, I had a heart-shaped pizza base. How did my hands do it? Or was it my innermost love that guided my hands? (I can almost hear my husband laughing out loud when he reads this.) Whatever it was, I had a heart shaped pizza base in front of me. And I loved it. I think, this is perhaps the best advantage of making your own pizza base. You can 'shape' it. Why not have a shaped pizza for a birthday party instead of a cake? Or maybe for a theme party? If shaping is too difficult, cutting it in the desired shape should be possible. Hmmm...I need to work more on this idea. In the meanwhile, you can have a look at my lovely pizza base.

Pizza base with a heart!

Now that I am anyway blogging about it, I will just go ahead and also give the recipe.

Recipe for Pizza Base (Large)

Ingredients:

2 cups plain flour (Actually, I mixed 1 cup plain flour and 1 cup chapati atta, hence the colour, but I won't recommend it.)

2 tsp fresh yeast, crumbled

1 tsp each of sugar, salt and olive oil

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients apart from the olive oil and knead into a soft dough using lukewarm water.

2. Add olive oil and knead again.

3. Cover the dough with a wet cotton cloth and wait until it doubles in size. This depends only on the warmth in the air. In summer, it can be super fast whereas in winter, it can take ages.

4. Press the dough to remove all the air. You will actually hear the air going out with a 'phuss' here. Knead the dough again.

5. Allow it to prove again, but maybe not necessarily until doubled in size.

6. Roll out the dough into any shape of your choice. Alternatively, roll it out into a big round and then cut it into shapes of your choice.

Please make sure that you roll out the base either on a baking sheet/silicone sheet or on baking paper. Otherwise, lifting the rolled out base from any surface is very difficult.

For the Sauce and Topping

Method:

I used a readymade pizza sauce this time, but I do make my pizza sauce too. Will post about it in future. I am again in a hurry right now. Sorry!

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F?).

2. Spread the pizza sauce evenly over the base. Top it with any vegetables of your choice. I used vertically sliced baby corn (outlining the topping in the picture), halved black olives, sliced green peppers and baby onions.

3. Sprinkle any grated cheese of your choice generously. I used Gouda. You could use the same or Cheddar, Edam or in fact, any hard cheese.

4. Bake the pizza in the preheated oven on the middle rack for 15 to 17 minutes. The cheese should melt and the base should look well hardened and slightly brown.

Enjoy your homemade pizza with a few shots of Tabasco over it. In the meantime, I 'll send it to Sweetnicks for ARF/5-a-day Tuesday #17. And I was thinking that I won't have an entry for it this time.

Pizza L'Amour !