It was Mother's day and i really wanted to do something special for myself. I have been waiting to try making pizza at home; kept postponing the thought for various reasons. Could take time, will it come out well in a microwave? What if all of it gets wasted? Well this Mother's day i said to myself, i will try it no matter what the result is.
I had already tried making a pizza dough without Yeast the first time, it came out well but the base had to be thin crust one. I used baking powder to get the fluff. It is a good option too if you do not want to use Yeast. This is for another day. Today i will show you how i made the Pizza base using Yeast.
I did my research on Yeast after buying 2 boxes of Dry Active yeast. Just so you do not end up in a situation like mine, I will help you with some information; To begin with there are 2 types of yeast. One is the active dry yeast and the other is the Instant Yeast. While the Instant Yeast can be mixed directly, the active dry yeast needs a small process to be activated. I have explained the Process in detail below.
What do we need to make a pizza?
- All purpose flour
- Yeast (I used Active Dry Yeast)
- Sugar
- Salt
- Water
- Pizza Sauce (i used store bought)
- Chopped Capsicum
- Chopped Onion
- Chopped Tomatoes
- Olives (i love black, this is totally optional.)
There are 3 parts to make a Vegetarian Pizza in a microwave.
- Activating the Yeast in a right way.
- Kneading the Dough (very important) and leaving it to raise.
- The garlic butter
- The toppings
How to activate Yeast?
Yeast comes in a grain form. I used about 7-8 grams of Active Dry Yeast and added it to about 200 ml of sugar water. The reason we add Sugar is that Yeast feeds on Sugar and this process will help the Yeast activate faster. The most important thing about this process is the temperature of your water, it needs to be Lukewarm.
Ex: exactly like how the temperature of your milk is before adding that spoon of curd while making curds. This is very important else the YEast will not get activated.
Let us make the Pizza!
Step 1 is to activate the Yeast. To activate the Yeast we will add it to the lukewarm (not hot) sugar water. The measures will be given behind the sachet / box. I used about 8 grams of Yeast and 200ml of water. Leave this aside to raise for about 10- 15 minutes. We will know the Yeast is ready when you see bubbles in this bowl or you can see that the Yeast is totally dissolved.
Step 2 is to mix the dough. This is the most important and time consuming part of making the pizza base and unfortunately i could not find a workaround for this. We have to knead the dough really well. The better you knead your dough the better the Pizza base will be. It is DIRECTLY proportional; knead it at least for 8-10 min. Put the dough in a container and close it with a cling wrap or a plastic sheet.
Leave this in a warm place for about 1 hour, after one hour the dough will double in size.
Note: Take about 2 cups of All Purpose flour (Maida) add salt to taste, mix this thoroughly. Make a well in this dough and add the Active Yeast to it.
Step 3 Is the special "Homemade Garlic butter" i make, i love to make it at home as the fresh smell is too good and it makes a lot of difference to the dish. I beleive we first with our nose and then with the mouth. :) When the house smells awesome the taste will be good too. IF you do not want to spend time on this, you can easily skip it and use the Garlic herb butter instead.
This is super simple to make, take generous amounts of butter, melt it in a pan now add the Garlic and Saute it; add fresh herbs and Basil to this and vola! the awesome smelling garlic herb butter is ready.
Step 4 Is to saute the vegetables, i did this because it was the first time i was trying to make a pizza in a microwave and the last thing i wanted was the vegetables being too raw. Plus toppings is totally a choice, we can do whatever we want with them. Use cooked, barbecued, roasted... just go creative!
Step 5 Is to punch the dough and let the air out, Knead this again for 5-8 min. Dust the place (with all purpose flour) you want to roll your Pizza base, using a rolling pin, roll it into a nice round shape. Move it to a microwavable plate and spread it with your hands. Put this Plain thing in the microwave for 3-4 minutes. TNote: The time can vary based on the Microwave you are using. You can see that the base will raise (it will start to bubble!) Exciting!
Step 6 Take the base out and first spread the Pizza sauce evenly on the base. Now get that yummy garlic butter we made spread that as well, grate some Mozzarella cheese on this and add the vegetables of your choice; Grate some more on top of the vegetables. (i did not add Olives at this point only because i love to add them in the end). Put this back in the Microwave for about 4-5 minutes. Please keep checking the Pizza to make sure it does not burn, as the time can vary from machine to machine.
We add a layer of the grated Mozzarella cheese and a layer of vegetables then again a layer of Mozzarella , sprinkle pepper, Oregano and chilli flakes as per your taste and put this back in the microwave for 4 -5 minutes. You can see that the Cheese has melted and it looks mouthwatering. Hold on to that temptation and touch it with caution; As it will be steaming hot!
That is it! Your Yummy pizza is ready! please make it and do share your comments with me,it will be great to see your feedback. I really hope you all will like this.
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