Tasty tomato pizza (Cost, around 50p or so)
Ingredients:
150g (1 mug) strong white flour 7.5p (551cals)
1/4 tsp salt
100g (1/3rd mug) lukewarm water
10g fresh yeast 4p (from Sainsbury's - free from Asda) (10cals)
1 dessertspoon veg oil 1p (90 cals)
Topping:Half a tin of tomatoes, reduced, with a tsp soya sauce and dried herbs - 15p (50cals)
Sliced field mushroom and tomato - 10p(?) (20cals)
A little roasted red pepper - 10p (10cals)
A good sprinkle of nutritional yeast (nooch) and oregano - pennies (20cals) [Or use your favourite vegan cheese - Applewood vegan cheddar is pretty good. (Not calorie or cost counted)]
(Total calorie count - 730. A pizza for one, using 100g of flour, would work out at 470cals!)
Method 1: This is the method in a nutshell.
Assemble dry ingredients, add wet ingredients, mix into a dough, roll out into a pizza shape and place on oven tray lined with baking paper. Place all ingredients on top and leave to rise - go to step 6.
[Even quicker method, useful if you have no yeast: Use self-raising flour instead of strong bread flour - and put straight into a hot oven. Put oven on before you start.]
Method 2: A deep dive into the whole procedure:
1. Place dried ingredients into a mixing bowl. Measure the water and add 1 teaspoon of yeast. Stir to dissolve, add to the flour and pour in the oil. If using dried yeast, use half a teaspoon and add it to the warmed water with half a tsp of sugar. Stir and leave it to fob up - about 5 minutes.
2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with your fingers. Stir round in big circles, pulling the flour off the sides of the bowls into the middle. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.
3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Kneading is only necessary to distribute the ingredients properly. Once the dough is smooth either leave it, covered with a dry tea towel, for an hour or so, or go straight to step 4.
4. Without knocking it back (that is, kneading a couple of times), form the dough into a round bap shape. Have plenty of flour to hand and scatter flour over the dough and worktop. With a rolling pin, roll it into a circle around 25-30cm (10-12”) across. Keep turning the dough around and refreshing the flour. The dough should slide on the flour. Place on baking paper.
5. Pour the tomato topping over the pizza and spread it out with the back of a spoon, leaving it 1 cm from the edge, the dredge with nutritional yeast. Placed the slices of vegetables on top, then sprinkle with oregano. Leave to rise - on your worktop is fine.
6. When the dough at the edge of the pizza has become puffy, place in a hot oven, 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for 15-20 minutes. When they're done the pizza will lift up all along one side when you check underneath, using a palette knife or similar. The bottom should be brown across the bottom.
Notes:
To get a crisp bottom to the pizzas, there are several things you can do:
• Make sure you keep the wet topping away from the edges – and don’t overload the pizza;
• Have a heavy metal tray at the bottom of the oven to use as a pizza stone. If you do this, have your pizzas on baking parchment on an up-turned tray – then you can just slide the pizzas into the oven.
• Finish off in a large, dry, frying pan
Variations to the base:
Obviously, you can individualise the toppings on any pizza to suit you and your family. However, you can also add other ingredients to the dough - my current favourite is to use a teaspoon of bouillon powder instead of the salt, add a teaspoon of mixed herbs, several chopped oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes and a glug of the oil from the jar. The oil makes a real difference to the crust which, to my mind, begins to resemble a shortcrust pastry.
Hummus on pizzas. Full of flavour, dries out a bit and resembles a soft cheese.
Here's a pizza I made only yesterday. Half of it was covered in the tomato sauce (with smoked paprika!) and the other half was covered in hummus. Just gorgeous!
Here's how I assembled it.
2. Have a little water to hand to add if necessary, remember, it is better for your dough to be wetter (slack) rather than drier (tight). Begin to mix by stirring the ingredients together with your fingers. Stir round in big circles, pulling the flour off the sides of the bowls into the middle. As it forms into a solid mass, keep turning it over and pressing it down to pick up the flour at the bottom of the bowl – but make sure it stays soft. Don’t be afraid to add more water to keep it soft! When all the flour has been mixed in, wipe the bowl around with the dough, turn it out onto the worktop and begin to knead.
3. Knead by flattening the dough out, folding it over, stretching it out and so on and so forth. Kneading is only necessary to distribute the ingredients properly. Once the dough is smooth either leave it, covered with a dry tea towel, for an hour or so, or go straight to step 4.
4. Without knocking it back (that is, kneading a couple of times), form the dough into a round bap shape. Have plenty of flour to hand and scatter flour over the dough and worktop. With a rolling pin, roll it into a circle around 25-30cm (10-12”) across. Keep turning the dough around and refreshing the flour. The dough should slide on the flour. Place on baking paper.
5. Pour the tomato topping over the pizza and spread it out with the back of a spoon, leaving it 1 cm from the edge, the dredge with nutritional yeast. Placed the slices of vegetables on top, then sprinkle with oregano. Leave to rise - on your worktop is fine.
6. When the dough at the edge of the pizza has become puffy, place in a hot oven, 220C, 425F or gas mark 7 for 15-20 minutes. When they're done the pizza will lift up all along one side when you check underneath, using a palette knife or similar. The bottom should be brown across the bottom.
Notes:
To get a crisp bottom to the pizzas, there are several things you can do:
• Make sure you keep the wet topping away from the edges – and don’t overload the pizza;
• Have a heavy metal tray at the bottom of the oven to use as a pizza stone. If you do this, have your pizzas on baking parchment on an up-turned tray – then you can just slide the pizzas into the oven.
• Finish off in a large, dry, frying pan
Variations to the base:
Obviously, you can individualise the toppings on any pizza to suit you and your family. However, you can also add other ingredients to the dough - my current favourite is to use a teaspoon of bouillon powder instead of the salt, add a teaspoon of mixed herbs, several chopped oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes and a glug of the oil from the jar. The oil makes a real difference to the crust which, to my mind, begins to resemble a shortcrust pastry.
Hummus on pizzas. Full of flavour, dries out a bit and resembles a soft cheese.
Here's a pizza I made only yesterday. Half of it was covered in the tomato sauce (with smoked paprika!) and the other half was covered in hummus. Just gorgeous!
Here's how I assembled it.
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