WHOLE WHEAT PIZZA

My son loves pizza, made at home. When I am out of cheese  , I  add cubed paneer in the toppings.

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

 CHOICE OF TOPPPINGS( these are my favourite )

1. handful 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 the 3/4 cup lukewarm water . Into the water put 1/4 tsp yeast , 1 tsp sugar . Do not mix. Cover and keep for 5 minutes.
  
  
  
  

• After 5 minutes the yeast will be frothy.
  

• Now mix 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 plastic sheet, to keep the rolled discs.
  
• Roll out the balls into 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. Cook for 30 secs. Again slightly bigger bubbles will come up .
  

• Now flip over again .Wait for 5 second(small bubbles will come up). Give slight pressure on these bubbles (as if not allowing the bubbles to grow). As the pressure is given , 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 make a "X" mark at the top, with a knife.
  

• Put all the tomatoes into the boiling water. Turn off the stove. Keep the tomatoes in there 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 skin peeled out , halved and seeds removed. Chop 2 tomatoes and puree the other 2 in the mixie.

        

• Heat a small wok /saute pan , add 2 tsp oil ,add the chopped garlic . Sauté till 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 , capsicum with a dash of the Italian seasoning , salt to taste , 1 tsp oil and 1tsp 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 and the pizza crust , along with a baking tray .
  

• Now, 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 , turn on at 350 degree F. No need to pre-heat. 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.

          

         

STOVE -TOP PIZZA

• If baking is not an option , the pizzas can be made on a griddle on the stove top.
• Unlike baking , the toppings needs to be sautéed before putting it on the pizza. Because when you bake , the topping will be cooked , but not on stove top. 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 for another 2 minutes. See that the pizza base do not burn underneath. Control the temperature accordingly,

NOTES

• Feeling Lazy !! Use pasta sauce instead of make the pizza sauce.
  
• Get the toppings ready first , transfer it to a  bowl , keep aside and use the same pan to make the sauce.(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 as per your choice.If you are rolling out thin pizza bases , then you get 6 pizza base.
• 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.