Exotic pear pizza made entirely from scratch, & it’s healthy!
I made my own pizza base!! This is a momentous day. I’ve never been all that good at making dough – dough of any kind always seems to flop when I try to make it so I usually just avoid any recipe that requires homemade doughy goodness. That is, until today. Gold star for me, and two pats on the back.
I REALLY wanted to make a pear and blue cheese pizza today, but I didn’t have the first clue how I would make the dough for the base. And the last thing I felt like doing was spending hours making dough. SO, I browsed a few recipe books and pinterest (of course) for a quick and easy pizza dough recipe. I then combined the ones I liked the look of the best and gave it a go. (Crazy idea you say?).
Amazingly enough though, my dough turned out really well. It was easy to roll out nice and thin, it cooked fairly quickly and the edges got nice and crispy while the centre of the pizza was soft but cooked through and not the least bit stodgy. All in all I was pretty impressed.
The topping is what really makes it all come to life. This is by far my favourite pizza topping to make at home. Pear and creamy blue cheese on top of a layer of homemade tomato paste is sweet and savoury pizza heavenly-ness. If you think it sounds like a strange combo – please please please try it – just once, I’m certain you will love it forever and always.
If you like this recipe, you will probably also love my healthy homemade tomato basil and mozzarella pizza, you can make both toppings at once and make some pizzas with pear & blue cheese and some with tomato & mozzarella. Or do them all with one topping, totally up to you.
What I’ve learnt about pizza is that less is more. There are so many combinations of pizza topping to play with, but stick to two or three that really compliment each other and you’ll have a winner on your hands.
Happy dough making! I wish you the best of luck, and maybe you can impart a trick or two with this dough making novice….please do.
- FOR THE DOUGH
- 2 cups white bread wheat flour
- 1 cup cake wheat flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 10 g sachet dried yeast
- 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
- 175 ml lukewarm water
- FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 small bunch fresh basil
- olive oil
- 400 g plum tomatoes
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- FOR THE TOPPING
- 2 pears
- 100 g creamy blue cheese
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TO MAKE THE DOUGH:
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Pile the flour and salt on to a clean surface and make a 9cm well in the centre.
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Add yeast and sugar to the lukewarm water, mix up and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well.
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Using a fork and a circular movement, slowly bring in the flour from the inner edge of the well and mix into the water. Continue to mix, bringing in all the flour. When the dough comes together and becomes too hard to mix with your fork, flour your hands and begin to pat it into a ball.
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Knead the dough by rolling it backward and forward, using your right hand and then your left to stretch the dough away from you. Repeat this for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, springy, soft dough.
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Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a kitchen towel and let double in size for about 45 minutes.
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TO MAKE THE SAUCE:
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Peel and chop the garlic. Heat a saucepan on a medium heat and add a tbsp of olive oil and the chopped garlic. Cook gently until the garlic starts to golden, add most of the basil leaves, the tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook gently for about 20 minutes, or until smooth, mashing the tomatoes up with a wooden spoon as it cooks.
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To make the pizza:
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Divide the dough into 4 balls. Flour and cover each ball with plastic wrap, and let it rest for about 15 minutes. This will make it easier to roll it thinly.
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Take 1 ball of dough, dust your surface and the dough with a little flour, and roll it out into a rough circle about 0.5cm thick.
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Preheat your oven to 250°C/500°F/gas 9.
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Smear the tomato sauce over the base of your pizzas and spread it out to the edges. Add thin slices of pear, be generous. Crumble over the blue cheese. Drizzle with a tiny bit of extra virgin olive oil and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook on a piece of tin foil directly on the bars of a metal wrack on a baking tray towards the bottom of the oven.
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Cook for 15 minutes, until the pizzas are golden and crispy. Place fresh basil leaves on pizza and serve.
You can also use apple for this pizza, it’s just as delicious when pears are not in season. You can keep the raw pizza bases in the fridge until you’re ready to cook them by tearing off an appropriately sized piece of tin foil, rub it with olive oil, dust it well with flour and place the pizza base on top. Continue doing the same with the other pieces and then cover them with cling film and put them in the fridge.