NO-YEAST PIZZA BASE

Who doesn't love a pizza? All you need is a base, the pizza sauce and some cheese. You can add whatever your heart desires as topping, pineapple too.(yes I love pineapple on my pizza).

The pizza is beautiful in any shape or size. It can be a perfect round, an unshapely oval or a haphazard rectangle. It could be thin or deep dish or thin in the middle and thick around the edges. You don't judge a pizza for its shape! Top it with calorie inducing bucket loads of gooey, stretchy cheese or a handful of rocket leaves. Crusty, cheesy , saucy , bland or fiery, we all love Pizza! 

I love Pizza so much that some of my friends call me Pijja.  I like my pizza best with a thin crust, lots of cheese and an overload of toppings. (Ohhhh, Pepperoni, I miss you so much).

We were all craving for a pizza so I got busy searching for a recipe that didn't require yeast. I have to be honest, I haven't even made an attempt to look for yeast. I hear it's been flying off the shelves but I have an aversion to yeast ever since I failed at making pretty looking buns with it years ago. (keep an eye out on our blog, we'll be posting the recipe of a no-yeast bread soon) 

 

I knead when I want! 

I haven't kneaded dough since ages and found the whole process quite therapeutic. Skip too had fun punching, pounding and stretching the dough. I wasn't sure how large the base would be and that explains the extra toppings on the base. 

I had just enough pizza sauce for this pizza. The next time I bake pizza , I will make the sauce at home and post the recipe. 

As I took the baked Pizza out of the oven , I looked at it fondly. It smelled gorgeous. For the first time in my life, I didn't have the heart to slice and gobble up that pizza. I walked around the house carrying the tray lovingly in my arms, admiring what I had created. Skip tagged along with a big smile on his face. The pictures do no justice to what the pizza really looked like. 

More importantly, it tasted lovely. Do bookmark this recipe. It's a fool proof recipe that requires no yeast which means no proofing, no waiting patiently for the dough to rise. 

NO-YEAST PIZZA BASE (makes a 14*10 inch pizza) -serves 3

Ingredients: 

All-purpose flour (maida) - 2 cups 

Curd - ½ cup 

Baking powder - 1tsp

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1tsp

Salt - 1 tsp 

Oil - 1 tbsp 

Water - enough to make a dough 

Method 

1.Preheat oven at 200 degree Celsius.

2.Mix all ingredients other than water and oil. 

3. Add water, a few tablespoons at a time and knead into a dough.

4.Add oil and knead the dough( for about 10 mins) until it's firm and smooth. 

5. Set aside, covered in a moist cloth. 

6.Prepare the toppings. I have used paneer sauteed in a curd sauce, sauteed mushrooms, raw onion, capsicum and fenugreek and mustard leaves. 

7.After letting the dough rest for a while, knead it again for 5 mins. 

8.Roll the dough flat and transfer to the baking tray.  Poke holes with a fork. Spread the pizza sauce. Sprinkle the cheese. Add the toppings. 

9.Bake for 10-15 mins till the base browns. 

10.Done

Recipe notes: 

• Most recipes on the net used only baking powder and not soda. You can do the same, just proportionately increase the quantity of the baking powder. 

• I sprinkled semolina (rawa) on the baking dish and then rolled out the dough on it. It makes the base crunchy. 

• I rolled the dough directly on the baking dish. It was easier to flatten it with my hands than with the rolling pin. I also added a little oil on the tray as the dough was sticking to it when I was flattening it.  

• I would recommend a thin base. A thick base may taste chewy. 

• Goes without saying that Mozarella and Cheddar work best with pizzas. I didn't have either. I grated two cubes of Amul Cheese and shredded a Nandini cheese slice.

Have you all been craving for some dish that you currently don't have access to? Drop a comment and we will collectively drool and if we happen to have the ingredients for that dish, we will share the recipe with you. 

Skip currently enjoys watching Amul advertisements on TV and can often be heard singing "Anjali Banjali delicious Amul".