For this month's Baking Partner's challenge, Swathi had selected New York style Pizza With New York Style Pizza Sauce. Three members had suggested recipes and I chose the one suggested by Pam of Living Rancho Deluxe. As soon as I saw the recipe I made the sauce. Recently I bought a food processor and I used it to make the dough. The dough came out so nice. I place it in a bowl, covered it and refrigerated for 3 days as given in the recipe. By the time I was about to bake the pizza, we had serious power shot down in our area. We had only 6-7 hours of power and so I kept on postponing. By the day I baked the pizza, everything went wrong and I had a hard pizza base ( I over kneaded the dough in the processor) with unmelted crispy cheese on top which I had to throw away. I was completely down and promised myself that I will never attempt to make a pizza until power problem is solved. Then I told Swathi that I will not be posting for this month's challenge. I completely forgot about the pizza until I went to Mom's place. My aunt was there and mom asked me to make a pizza for her. What a coincidence? I couldn't say no to mom and aunt. So I made the dough, this time I used my hands to knead it. The dough was perfect to touch. Keeping my fingers crossed, I paced it in fridge for 24 hours. I prepared the sauce and then went for shopping to get all the topping and cheese. Next day, I made the vegetable pizza with generous cheese on top. You know what? It tuned out absolutely delicious. The base and the sauce are very different from the usual recipe I use. Even my daughter tasted it and was happy. My aunt also had a nice treat that day and she really liked it. So the challenge which I was about to miss turned out a success.
New York Style Pizza Sauce
The New York Style pizza sauce is slightly different from the pizza sauce I usually make. And it is very easy to make. Though this tastes good, I prefer the sauce I make to this one.
Ingredients:
Tomato-5-6
Onion-1
Extra Virgin Olive Oil-1/2 tbs
Butter-1/2 tbs
Garlic-2 cloves (grated)
Dried Oregano-1 tsp (crushed)
Red Chilly Powder-a pinch
Salt-to taste
Sugar-1/2 tsp
Procedure:
1. Slit the skin of tomatoes with a knife. This will make it easier to peel.
2. Heat water in a bowl. Add the tomatoes and let it boil for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from flame and let it stand for 10 more minutes.
4. Remove the tomatoes from water and allow them to cool.
5. Peel the skin from the tomatoes.
6. Either use a mixer to grind the tomatoes or use a hand mixer to crush them to coarse puree.
7. Heat oil and butter in a pan.
8. Add the onion and garlic and saute for a minute.
9. Add the tomato paste and oregano, salt, red chilly powder and sugar.
10. Let the sauce thicken.
11. Remove from flame and let it cool.
12. Use it on the pizza.
Boil tomatoes.
Peel skin.
Grind to a coarse puree.
Make the sauce.
The Pizza Dough
To get the perfect base, you need to prepare the dough 3 days ahead and refrigerate it until use. This helps in the slow rise of yeast, which in turn develops the flavour in the dough. If you are pressed for time, refrigerate the dough for at least 24 hours. While kneading the dough, knead it for 5-8 minutes until the dough passes the window pane test. When a piece of dough is stretched it should not break. You should be able to form a thin window in the centre through which light could pass. Then the dough is ready. If it breaks, you need to knead more..
Recipe Source: Feeling Foodish
Makes 2 - 9" Pizzas
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour-3 cups
Water-1 cup plus a little more
Salt-1 1/4 tsp
Instant Yeast-1/2 tsp
Olive Oil-1 1/2 tsp
Procedure:
1. In a large bowl take flour along with salt and yeast. Take care not to add salt and yeast together. Place them in opposite directions in the bowl.
2. Add water and knead until incorporated.
3. Add the oil and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough passes the window pane test.
4. Place it in an oiled bowl and cover with wrap.
5. Keep this in refrigerator for 3 days.
6. On the day of baking, remove the dough 2 hours prior to baking and bring the dough to room temperature.
Arranging and Baking The Pizza
After the dough comes back to room temperature, it is time to roll it out and assemble the pizza. Have the toppings, sauce and cheese ready before starting it out. I used paneer, capsicum, baby corn and sweet corn as toppings. You can add onions, sliced tomatoes, mushrooms or any other topping you wish. Add generous amounts of cheese for a delicious pizza. For baking, if you are using a baking stone, then you need to preheat your oven to its maximum temperature setting for 1 hour before baking the pizza. But as I don't have a baking stone, I preheated my oven for 250C for 15 minutes before baking it in a round tray.
Divide the dough into two after degassing it.
Dust the counter and roll one portion into a disc.
Take it in your hand and spread it into a thin large disc. Place it on the tray.
Apply required amount of sauce on the base leaving an inch border.
Arrange the vegetables and paneer on top.
Grate mozarella cheese on top of the vegetables.
Bake for 15- 20 minutes or until the base is golden. Remove from oven, slice and serve..
Labels: BAKING PARTNERS, CHEESE, NEW YORK, PIZZA, YEAST
