Mini Pizza

Thinking about easy recipes, and things that children may be able to be involved in making I thought about some mini pizzas. I looked around and found quite a few variations but decided I wanted to keep mine simple. These are really cookie sized pizzas, so can be eaten in a couple of bites.  

For my topping I used a standard tomate and mozzarella topping with some herbs and oil.  But it is entirely possible to use different toppings, depending on preferences and what you may have in your cupboard, fridge etc.  

Although I used a soft flour, specifically for pasta and pizza dough the recipe will work very well with plain flour too.

Although the recipe will make at least 24 7cm sized mini pizzas that may be more than you need at one time, but the dough can be refrigerated or frozen for later use too.  Equally the size of the pizzas can be varied to suit your needs.

I used salt, pepper, extra virgin olive oil and oregano to mix into my tomato sauce but, again, the amounts are subject to taste.  Equally you can swap out the oregano for any herb or mixture of herbs that you like. Basil or thyme would both work well, as would mixed herbs.

I loved how mine turned out, the pizza dough was cooked perfectly and had just the right amount of topping for my taste.  I found them very easy to eat, in fact rather too easy as i ate more than I should have.

They were very tasty indeed.  Although they are best eaten hot or warm I am sure they would be good once cooled too.

Ingredients:
For the dough:

• 500g(4 cups) 00 pizza flour, or plain flour
• 4g (1 tsp) instant yeast
• 60g(5 tbsp) olive oil
• 12.5g(1 tbsp) caster sugar, or granulated
• 2 tsp salt
• 250ml(1 cup+2 tsp) water at room temperature

For the topping:

• 350g(1 1/2 cups) passata, or tomato sauce of choice
• 250g(1 1/2 balls) mozzarella
• 1 – 2 tbsp olive oil to taste
• oregano (or herbs of choice) to taste
• pinch of salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Place the flour, sugar and yeast into a large bowl and stir to combine.
2. Add the water and stir around until the mixture starts to come together.
3. All the mixture to sit for 10 minutes.
4. Sprinkle over the salt and pour in the olive oil, then mix until it all combines into a dough.
5. Place the dough mixture onto a work surface and knead well for at least 5 minutes, until the dough achieves a smooth texture.
6. Form the dough into a ball and place into an oiled bowl, coating the entire surface, and cover with plastic wrap.
7. Allow to rest at room temperature for 3 hours, until the dough has just about tripled in size.
8. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C/400F.
9. Remove the dough from the bowl, onto a lightly floured surface and roll out into a rectangle, about 0.5 cm, just under a 1/4 inch in thickness.
10. Using a cookie cutter of about 7cm/2 3/4 inches, in diameter cut our disc.  The excess dough can be reformed and left for about 10 minutes and rolled again.
11. Place the discs of dough onto baking trays that have been lightly oiled.
12. Mix oregano, salt, pepper and oil to your taste into the passata and stir around.
13. Chop the mozzarella into tiny cubes.
14. Flatten the dough discs, leaving a rim around the edge, to allow the mixture to be spooned in.
15. Spoon a small amount of the tomato mixture into the indentations.
16. Place some cubes of mozzarella onto the mixture and sprinkle with a little more oregano, or other herbs, and a little extra oil.
17. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
18. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.