WHOLE WHEAT PIZZA

My son loves pizza, which I make at home. When I run out of cheese, I add cubed paneer to the toppings.

             I learned to make pizza and everything from scratch from Vahrevah. He is awesome. Hats off to him. Over the years, I have changed the method of making these, adapting it to my convenience and available kitchen utensils. Now, this is kind of a homestyle pizza and doesn't look anything like the traditional pizza.

Action Plan

• I make the pizza base, sauce, and toppings way ahead. So, what remains is just assembling and baking the pizzas. 
• My pizza base is "chappathis" made out of pizza dough.

DOUGH RECIPE

1. 1 and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, I use the atta that I use to make chappathi.
2. 1/2 tsp salt
3. 3 tsp sugar
4. 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
5. 3/4 cup lukewarm water
6. 3 Tbsp oil

• The ratio of water to flour is the amount used to make chappathis.

PIZZA SAUCE

1. 4 medium-sized tomatoes(about 460 gms)
2. 4 cups water
3. 2 garlic cloves chopped finely
4. 2 Tbsp capsicum chopped finely
5. salt to taste; add salt after the sauce is reduced, go easy on the salt
6. 1/2 tsp sugar (don't skip the sugar, thinking of going sugar-free,? the sugar adds the right amount of sweetness, which is essential to the sauce ) 
7. 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
8. 1/4 fennel seed(perumjeerakam) powder
9. oil - 2 tsp.    

 CHOICE OF TOPPINGS( these are my favorite)

1. handful of mushrooms sliced thin 
2. 1/2 an onion sliced thin
3. 1/2 of a capsicum sliced thin
4. pineapple slices
5. paneer cubes
6. basil leaves chopped
7. 1 tsp oil
8. dash of Italian seasoning
9. 1 tsp chili flakes.

METHOD

• In a bowl, take the flour, add salt to it, and mix well.
  

  

• Make a well in the center. Pour 3/4 cup lukewarm water into it. Add 1/4 tsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Do not mix. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
  
  
  
  

• After 5 minutes, the yeast will be frothy.
  

• Now mix and knead it into a dough. Cover and keep for 6 hours or overnight, until the dough rises. Divide the dough into small balls.
  

          

• Line a baking tray with a plastic sheet to keep the rolled discs.
  
  
• Roll out the balls into a chappathi shape.
• Heat a griddle on the stove. Set a hot pack to store the chappathis. Cook the pizza chappathis. It is the same process as making chappathis , the only difference being that the dough is fermented. 
• Put one chappathi on the griddle. Wait for 20 secs. Small bubble will come up.
  

• Now flip it over to the other side and cook for 30 seconds. Again, slightly bigger bubbles will come up.
  

• Now flip over again.Wait for 5 seconds (small bubbles will come up). Apply slight pressure to these bubbles (as if not allowing them to grow). As the pressure is applied, the chappathi will puff up.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Transfer it to a hot pack. Keep aside.

PIZZA SAUCE

• Bring a saucepan with 4 cups of water to a boil.
  

• In the meantime, wash the 4 tomatoes and use a knife to make an "X" mark at the top.
  

• Put all the tomatoes into the boiling water, turn off the stove, and let them sit for 10 to 15 seconds.
  

• After 10 to 15 seconds, the skin of the tomatoes will loosen up.
  

• Take the tomatoes out of the water. Peel out the skin using your fingers.
• Halve the tomatoes and remove the seeds of all the tomatoes. This is very important. Do not skip this step.
  

• So we have 4 tomatoes with the skin peeled out, halved, and seeds removed. Chop 2 tomatoes and puree the other 2 in the mixer.

        

• Heat a small wok /saute pan, add 2 tsp oil, and add the chopped garlic. Sauté until the raw smell goes off. Add the chopped capsicum. Sauté slightly. Now add the chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil, add the pureed tomatoes, add 1/4 tsp fennel seed powder, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn off the stove, add 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, salt, and sugar to taste, stir, and keep aside.
• Reduce as much as you can. You can always dilute the sauce when assembling the pizza. Reduced sauce is always better than watery sauce.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

PIZZA TOPPINGS

• Mix the onions, mushrooms, and capsicum with a dash of Italian seasoning, salt to taste, 1 tsp oil, and 1 tsp chili flakes. If you are using pineapple, keep it separate.(No need to sauté if you are baking the pizzas)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

ASSEMBLING THE PIZZA

• Set up an assembly line. Place the cheese, pizza sauce, pizza crust, and a baking tray .
  

• Now, it's time to assemble everything . Let the kids do this part.
• First apply the sauce on the pizza base,with a spoon.
  

• Add the toppings as required.  My kids like only cheese pizza, so veggie toppings are only for dad and mom.
  

           

• Put this in the oven, turning it on at 350 degrees F. There is no need to preheat. Bake it for 15 minutes.
• Putting it in the right away without pre-heating makes the crust crispy.
• If using a pre-heated oven, bake for 7 minutes.

          

         

STOVETOP PIZZA

• If baking is not an option, the pizzas can be made on a griddle on the stovetop.
• Unlike baking, the toppings must be sautéed before putting it on the pizza. Because when you bake, the topping will be cooked, but not on the stovetop. Saute it for just 2 to 3 minutes.(if you want the vegetable crispy)
  

• Put a chappathi tava(griddle) on the stove. Put the pizza base on the griddle. Put the sauce, toppings and cheese. Cover the griddle and turn on the stove at medium heat.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Check after 2 to 3 minutes. If the cheese is not melted, keep it for another 2 minutes. See that the pizza base does not burn underneath. Control the temperature accordingly,

NOTES

• Feeling Lazy !! Use pasta sauce instead of making pizza sauce.
  
• First, prepare the toppings, transfer them to a bowl, set them aside, and use the same pan to make the sauce. (This saves you from washing an extra pan.) In the method, I have shown the sauce first and the toppings second. Do it vice versa.
• My son always reminds me to dot the pizza with vegetables and not to crowd it(which I often do!). So don't crowd the pizza with veggies , just dot it.
  
• You can roll out thin or thick pizza crust, depending on your choice. If you roll out thin pizza bases, you will get 6 pizza bases.
• The dough can be made with all-purpose flour 
• If you don't like cheese  ( I don't ), use paneer cubes.
• If you don't have grated cheese, chop cheese slices finely.

        

• You don't have to invest in a pizza cutter. Slice the pizza using a scissors.
• Ran out of pizza base or pizza sauce!!!!!!. Make bread pizza , use tomato sauce  sprinkled  with Italian seasoning as the pizza sauce.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

SUGAR-FREE PIZZA

•  The sugar in the crust can be completely omitted.
• Adding the right amount of salt will bring out the natural sweetness of the tomato . Taste as you add the salt. Be careful not to add too much salt .
•  Use 2 cups of All-purpose flour instead of 1-1/2 cups whole wheat.

OUT OF CHEESE

• Made the bas , tomato sauce , topping and ready to assemble everything? Just realized that you are out of cheese. Well it happened to me too? There was no time to rush to the store . I had to come up with something. So I made while sauce , added a squeeze of lemon juice and voila liquid cheese was ready. Just drizzled the pizza with cheese nstead of the grated cheese. 
• Recipe for white sauce:

1. 1 -1/2 Tbsp butter
2. 1-1/2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
3. 1 cup milk
4. salt to taste
5. 3/4 tsp lemon juice

METHOD

• Melt the butter in a sauce pan, add the flour , stir till the raw smell goes away . Pour in 2 Tbsp milk , stir till combined , then pour the rest of the milk and stir well. Cook on low temperature till the sauce thickens. Then add salt and then the lemon juice.

PAN PIZZA

• Make the pizza dough and roll out into one big pizza round. First bake the pizza base in a 350℉ preheated oven for 15 minutes and then top with the sauce and the toppings and then bake for another 10 minutes.