How to make pizza base at home

The below pizza base recipe would be adequate to make 4 medium size thin crust pizza or 4 regular size thick pan pizzas.

Ingredients required:

1. 4 cups refined flour 
2. 2 tsp dry yeast
3. 1 cup warm water or 1/2 cup warm water and 1/2 cup milk
4. 1/4 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
5. 1 tsp baking powder
6. 1 and 1/2 tsp sugar
7. 1 tsp salt

Method:

take 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup milk. Mix together and then warm it up either on stove or in oven, it should be luke warm (when you put your finger into it, it should be tolerable). I heat mine in the microwave oven at 350 W for 1 minute. Add the yeast to this water and milk mixture and stir to dissolve the yeast completely. Add salt and sugar to this mixture and dissolve them as well. Set aside for 10 mins (this would help the yeast start fermenting). Now take the flour in a container where you can kneed it. Make a well in the center and then add the olive oil to it. mix well by rubbing the flour and the oil mixture between your palm. Now start kneeding it by gradually adding the yeast mix to it, if required, add more water and kneed to a soft dough. Trasfer this dough to a clean container, dusted with refined flour, cover with a wet cloth and set aside. Let it sit like that for 40 min - 1 hour in a warm place. This would ferment the yeast and the flour would rise to double the original size.

After an hour, make 4 equal size balls of the dough. Roll out each ball in a round shape pizza base. You can do it either with the help of a rolling pin or you can simply beat the ball with your hand, slowly expanding it in all directions. I prefer the rolling pin method because it gives a smooth and even base. When rolling out the pizza base, dust the ball once with plain flour or flour and then you can go ahead and roll it. Roll the base out to the thickness that you desire.

Now comes the baking part to cook the pizza base. For baking, preheat the over to 220 degree celcius. Now , we would bake the pizza bases one by one. Put the first pizza base into a round baking tray or on the microwave grill and then put it inside the microwave, let it bake for 5-7 minutes on 220 degree celcius if you require a softer base, if you want crunchy base, further bake for 2-3 more minutes till you see the base has become crispy. You would also see the base rising like a roti while it bakes. 

Once done, you take the pizza base out, spread pizza sauce, your selection of toppings and cheese on top of it and then put it back in the over for just 1-2 mins on regular microwave (350 W). Take it out and its ready to be eaten.

Alternatives:

For the base material: If you prefer a more healthy pizza base, you can use a 1:1 mixture of refined flour and normal wheat flour.Further more, you can altogether use wheat flour. Or, you can use a mixture of wheat flour with other healthy flours like soya flour, and crushed oat. 

For baking the pizza: You can bake the pizza base on a pan as well, if you don't have a microwave oven. Put it in a pan with cover / lid, cover and cook on low flame for 5-6 minutes (or as per the crunchiness required).