100% Whole Wheat Pizza Dough: Thin Crust: Indian Atta

Happy June everyone!

Friday night was pizza night. Ever since I have learnt the way to work with yeast, I must admit I am little addicted to baking breads at home. Homemade pizza dough is a new feather in the hat. And moreover this is made with 100% whole wheat flour, indian atta-yeah Aashirwad or Pillsbury both will work perfectly fine for this recipe.

I know, as soon as you say pizza you think of calories, refined flour (maida) and lots of cheese; but I used whole wheat flour, very less cheese and good vegetable toppings which means lots of goodness without compromising the taste. You can use this basic whole wheat pizza dough recipe and make thin crust or thick crust; small medium or large pizza; decide your own toppings and have it piping hot, fresh right out of oven.

How much time does dominos, pizza hut or pizza express takes to deliver so called ‘hot’ pizza? 30 minutes? 40 minutes? Well if you have the dough ready, then this pizza will take only 12 minutes. Exciting? You don’t have to count the calories, or worry for you kids’ health- it will be like indian bread (roti or paratha) with tons of veggies and the amount to cheese you feel is right. Smiling? Happy?-I am sure you are.

What more, I bring before you step by step pictures so that you understand well. Please please and please dont keep yourself away from having pizza- this is the Best Whole Wheat Pizza Dough.

Author: Shweta Agrawal

Cuisine: Italian

Makes: 2 meduim size thin crust. Or 1 large thin crust.

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used Indian Aashirwad brand)

1 teaspoon rapid instant yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon basil (optional)

Salt to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

5 tablespoons water

Method:

Heat water in microwave for 20 seconds. Water should be warm. To it add yeast and sugar. Set aside for 10 minutes or till you see yeast bubbled and frothy. (pic 1)
Next, sieve flour and salt in the yeast bowl. Knead the dough and keep adding 1 tablespoons of water at a time. (pic 2 and 3)
To the dough at 1 tablespoon oil and basil. Knead the dough for good 8 minutes. The dough should come together, must be soft and springy. (pic 4 and 5)

In a clean bowl add 1 tablespoon oil. Take the dough and coat it with olive oil. Cover the dough with cling film and keep aside in a warm place for 40 minutes. (pic 6)
After 40 minutes, the dough will be doubled in size. (pic 7)
Divide the dough in 2 equal parts. Take a pizza pan or a baking sheet. Grease the pan with some olive oil.
Preheat the oven 190C. 
Start rolling one part of pizza dough. I rolled into very thin crust. Place the rolled dough on the pan. Pinch the sides so that you have risen crust. Poke holes with fork on the rolled dough. (pic 8)

Spread any pizza sauce, cheese, toppings. Bake for 8 minutes at 190C.  (Pic 9 and 10)

Reduce the temperature to 180C and bake again for 4 minutes. The cheese must have melted. Cut and serve. (pic 11)

Notes:

You can freeze this dough. Put the dough in ziploc bag and freeze. When you want to use it, defrost and roll it out.

I made 2 thin crust (medium) sized pizza. You can use to make any size and type crust pizza.

Keep your dough in a warm place. I always keep it in the oven. A friend of mine who lives in hills covers the bowl with blanket and keep it in the dark place-for her this trick works.

You have to use a good quality olive oil for a nice texture. I recommend Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Use active rapid yeast or also called as instant yeast. I used Allinson Easy Bake Yeast.

Whole Wheat No Yeast Cheese Pizza

Say pizza to your parents and they began advising you on how bad it is to eat pizza. My mom loves to cook and try out new things in the kitchen. Few days back she attended a cookery class and there she learnt that things like pizza, burgers or noodles aren’t that bad and there tons of healthy twists for these recipes. My mom is a simple person who doesn’t understand things like yeast, brewing or caramelizing, she sticks to the basic Indian spices and simple style of cooking. She rang me and asked for a basic pizza dough recipe, when I mentioned maida/all purpose flour and yeast she showed no further interest.

Now, after one month, she sends me the pictures on her special home cooked pizza on what’s app. I was shocked to see how amazing the pizza looked and I was so proud that she did not give up and finally came with her own recipe. I quickly gave her a call to ask what’s in the recipe-It is a whole wheat no yeast pizza she said, no pizza sauce she further added. After the long conversation when the call ended I knew I had to try this in my kitchen.

Instead of yeast she used yogurt (dahi) and she replaced tomato ketchup with pizza sauce. Mr. Husband loves crispy thin crust pizzas and thus the whole wheat flour was the perfect choice as it doesn’t rise much and you get great hard crusty touch.  Since this was the first time I was trying the recipe, I made the simple cheese pizza without any toppings. You go ahead and use any toppings of your choice like the ones I did for New Yorker Pizza, you can also use bell pepper pizza sauce for this recipe. I so very much wanted to show you the pics of the base but there was no time and hungry husband was in not-so-good mood ;). As you can see the pizza pics are also average, sorry about that too, but here goes (very proudly) my mom’s Whole Wheat No Yeast Cheese Pizza recipe.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour/atta
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup yogurt/dahi
2 tablespoon Italian herbs
Salt to taste

Little water (if needed)

For pizza

2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

1 teaspoon Italian herbs

1/2 teaspoon red chilli flaked

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Method:

In a small bowl mix baking powder and yogurt. Leave aside for 1 minute.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients and knead soft dough. Keep kneading till the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to the bowl. Leave aside for 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven at 200c.

Take the pizza pan/tray and grease it with little oil.

Take the dough and roll out in the desired shape and size. I made one large size thin crust. Poke some holes with fork.

Bring the temperature down to 180c and put the pizza pan in oven for 5-8 minutes. Turn and cook the other side for 5-8 minutes. You want the base to strong and half-cooked.

Prepare the sauce. Mix tomato ketchup with Italian herbs, chilli flakes and 2 tablespoons of cheese.

Turn the pizza base, and apply this sauce on it. Spread the cheese all over and cook again in oven till cheese is melted.

Slice and serve.

Notes:

You can use all purpose flour too for this recipe.

Make use of any oil, if you cannot find olive oil. I used this organic olive oil

My mom used carom seeds/ajwain in the dough recipe because she was out of Italian herbs.

You can also make use of grated paneer instead of mozzarella cheese, like here.

If you can’t find mozzarella cheese, any cheese like cheddar, amul or britannia will also do.

For toppings, use sweet corn, capsicum, onions, tomatoes, chilli peppers...anything.

Serving suggestions:

Serve with coke or any cold drink like orange lemonade or rose ice tea.

Adults must pair it up with wine or Indian vodka mojito or bloody mary.

New York Style Pizza, From Scratch With Vegetables Toppings

Who doesn’t know about Pizza? Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, round bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings. Pizza was originally invented in Naples, Italy, and the dish has since become popular in many parts of the world.

The word Pizza makes our mouth water and adds smiles to our faces. Therefore before I go ahead I will like to share some fun facts about Pizza.

• The average pizzeria uses roughly 55 pizza boxes per day.
• The highest-grossing single-unit independent pizzeria in the nation, Moose's Tooth Pub and Pizzeria, is in Anchorage , Alaska. Its annual sales are approximately $6 million.
• 36 percent of all pizza orders want their pizza topping pepperoni
• 94 percent of Americans eat pizza regularly.
• Cheese wasn't added to pizza until the late 1800s.
• Frozen pizzas were introduced to Americans by the Celentano Brothersin 1957. At that time, frozen pizzas were only available in grocery stores.
• The largest pizza in the world was made in 1990 at Norwood Hypermarket in South Africa. For the pizza, they used 500 kg of flour, 800 kg of cheese and 900 kg of tomato puree. The pizza was measured 37.4 meters, enough to secure an entrance in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest pizza ever.
• The most expensive pizza was created by Domenico Crolla who used edible gold, medallions of venison, sun blush-tomato sauce, Scottish smoked salmon, lobster marinated in fine cognac and champagne-soaked caviar. His pizza was sold at auction for charity with price of about #3000.00.

I hope you all enjoyed reading these facts. Moving to the recipe, this month’s task from  Baking Partners group was to make pizza. Making pizza from starch only sounds tough but making it is very simple and fun. I am happy that I got the chance to try my hands on New York Style Pizza. I was so happy and amazed by its taste and texture. I opted to make thin crust pizza (Mr. Husband likes it this way) with lots of vegetables as toppings. All I can say is there is no pizza better then homemade pizza :)

Recipe source - Serious eats

Recipe suggested by - Archana of Tangy minds

Ingredients:

For pizza dough (for  1 very large pizza or 2 medium ones )

Bread flour - 2 1/4 cup

Salt - 1 1/ 2 tsp

Lukewarm water - 1 cup

Sugar - 3/4 tsp

Instant yeast - 1 tsp

Olive oil - 2 tbs

For pizza sauce

Peeled plum tomatoes - 1 can

Extra virgin olive oil - 1 tablespoon

Red pepper flakes - pinch 

Salt

Basil leaves - 2 sprigs

Unsalted butter - 1 tablespoon

Garlic cloves - 2 medium (grated)

Onion - 1 medium (chopped)

Sugar - 1 teaspoon

Dried oregano - 1teaspoon

Salt - as required 

For topping

Mozzarella cheese– ½ cup grated

Parmesan cheese- ½ cup grates

Vegetables- ½ red, yellow and green capsicum (cubed), ½ onion (sliced), ½ cup cherry tomatoes (chopped rounds)

Method:

For the dough

1. In a bowl combine bread flour, salt, olive oil, yeast, sugar and add lukewarm water to it and knead well for about 10 -15 minutes just like chapatti dough. Keep the dough covered for 30 minutes and then knead again. This time you will reach at a point where the dough will be stretchy and must pass window pane test.
2. Divide the dough in 2 equal parts and keep in the Ziploc bag in the fridge for minimum 24 hours and maximum up to 5 days. Remember to take out the dough from fridge at least 1 hour before baking (to bring it to room temperature).(I kept my dough overnight and used it next day)

For the sauce

1. In a blender blend the canned tomatoes. Do not puree it, blend to form chunky mixture.
2. In a pan heat butter and olive oil and when butter melts throw in grated garlic, oregano, pepper flakes, pinch of salt and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add tomato puree, chopped onions, basil sprigs, and sugar and bring it to simmer. Let it cook for about 1 hour (stiring in between) till the sauce thickens and reduces t half.
4. Mix salt and let it cool.

For Baking:

1. 1 hour before baking; preheat oven to 400F/ 200C. Turn single dough ball out onto lightly flour surface. Gently press out dough into rough 8-inch circle and then roll the dough like a roti with rolling pin to form thin crust. Transfer to pizza pan.
2. Spread approximately 2/3 cup of sauce evenly over surface of crust. Add all the vegetables toppings evenly and spread 1/3 of cheese over sauce evenly.
3. Bake until cheese is melted with some browned spots and crust is golden brown and puffed, 10 to 15 minutes or varies depends on your oven
4. Transfer to cutting board, slice, and serve immediately.

 Do let me know your favourite pizza toppings in the comments below :)

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