Thin Crust Pizza

Hardly anyone would refuse a pizza! It’s just so refreshing to have a home cooked pizza just out of the oven. I love the comfort, the warmth that home cooked food exudes. Throwing your choice of veggies on the top or spreading the sauce on top of the base, The whole process is amazing. We begin by lovingly kneading the dough, letting it proof and then shaping our pizzas with a rolling pin. Welcome to my exquisite journey of pizza making!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups bread flour (or all purpose flour)
• 1 tsp sugar 
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4th tsp instant dried yeast
• Around 200 ml water
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

• To make bread flour, add 1 tsp of vital wheat gluten to every cup of all purpose flour. Alternatively, all purpose flour will do.
• Add 1tsp sugar to some lukewarm water. Thereafter, add 3/4th tsp dried yeast to this mixture. Mix properly and let sit for about 5 mins.
• Meanwhile, prepare the flour by adding 1 tsp salt and mixing it thoroughly. Some garlic powder and mixed herbs can also be added.
• The yeast should have become frothy in about 5 minutes. Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil to the flour and make a sticky dough. Add sufficient water as it will be absorbed in the kneading process.
• Knead it for about 10 minutes on the kitchen slab.
• After ten minutes the sticky bits of flour will transform in a soft, glistening piece of dough. At this stage, tuck the dough and let it rest in a well oiled container for about an hour. Cover with a damp cloth. It should almost double in size.
• Now, again, take the dough on the counter top and deflate it using your fist.
• Knead for 2-3 minutes and make small portions.
• You’re ready to roll your pizza. Roll them thin.
• In an oven preheated at 200 degrees Celsius, bake the rolled pizzas until cooked. This would take approximately 3-4 minutes. They would swell up and form small pink dots.
• Store the pizza base until you use them! Top them with sauce and veggies of choice and bake again for ten minutes.

Notes:

• It is difficult to roll a pizza dough, the dough is pretty elastic, takes funny shapes. But still tastes great!
• Make a really sticky dough. Kneading absorbs a great amount of water.
• If the weather is cold, put the dough in a warm oven for proofing. Warm but turned off!