Pizza Bowl

Pizza dough is a very versatile dough and you can just play around with it and modify how it looks. So if you are bored of eating flat pizzas, here is a simple recipe of pizza bowls which can be served as an interesting evening snack and is sure to impress your guests. This was served as a snack along with few cookies and cake last evening when hubby’s cousin and family visited us. I didn’t get enough time to click pictures before serving them, though I managed to click few pictures of the process of making these. It gets a bit embarrassing to click final pictures of food when guests are around 🙂

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour 150 gm
• Whole wheat flour 150 gm
• Salt as required
• Chilli flakes to taste
• Garlic powder to taste
• Onion powder to taste
• Oregano to taste
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Yeast 3/4-1 tsp
• Milk 120 ml (1/2 cup)
• *Lukewarm water 120 ml (1/2 cup)
• Olive oil 1-2 tbsp
• Onion 1 small
• Tomato 1
• Paneer few pieces
• Capsicum 1 small
• Boiled Corn 2 tbsp
• Olives as few
• Grated cheese 2-3 tbsp
• Pizza sauce 1-2 tbsp

Method:

• Take a big bowl and add the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, some chili flakes, oregano, garlic powder and onion powder.
• Knead into a smooth, soft and elastic dough using the stretch and fold method using the milk and lukewarm water.
• Drizzle olive oil when the dough feels sticky and knead for around 10-12 minutes.
• Transfer the dough into a nicely oiled bowl and cover the bowl with a moist cloth.
• Allow the dough to double in size.
• Punch out the gases and knead for a minute.
• Divide the dough into equal sized balls and shape them into nice tight rolls. I got 10 ballseach weighing around 50 grams.
• Place the shaped buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
• Apply some milk or oil on top of these buns to prevent them from forming a skin on top.
• Cover the tray with a big lid and allow it to proof again for 20-25 minutes.
• Towards the last ten minutes of second proofing, preheat the oven at 180-200 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Bake the buns for 18-20 minutes or till it looks golden in colour.
• Remove and apply some butter on top and cover with a moist towel and allow it to cool well.

• To prepare the filling, chop all the vegetables finely. Now add the herbs and salt.

• Take a bun and with a sharp knife cut out a circular disc from the top of the bun. Remove a part of the crumb and make it look like a bun bowl. Do not throw away the crumbs, use it to make bread crumbs or bread upma.

• Repeat with the remaining buns.

• Apply some pizza sauce in the cavity of the bun and fill it with the prepared vegetable filling.

• Sprinkle some grated cheese on top and sprinkle chili flakes and oregano if desired.

• Place these buns on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated oven at 180-200 degree Celsius for around 8-10 minutes or till the cheese melts.
• Serve it hot with a sauce of your choice.

Notes:

• *The amount of water might vary by a tablespoon or two. Do not add the entire liquid in one go. Add slowly based on how much your flour absorbs. Each flour absorbs water differently and it depends on the weather conditions too. So use accordingly. Do not follow the bread recipes blindly as far as measurements of liquid ingredients are concerned.
• You might wonder why have I written the measurement of yeast as 3/4-1 teaspoon. If you use a strong and fast acting yeast, you might require less, but if you are not very sure of your yeast, add more. I always use Gloripan instant yeast which is now available online on Amazon. If you are using active yeast, use around 1.5 to 2 times of instant yeast.
• You can use any kind of filling of your choice.
• The buns can be made in advance and you can add the filling n bake for 8-10 minutes when desired.
• If you do not have garlic powder or onion powder, please feel free to skip it. I added it to make the buns more flavourful.
• The choice of vegetables used in the filling is purely based on your preferences. Feel free to add or omit items mentioned in the recipe.
• If you do not have pizza sauce, simply use some tomato sauce.
• For a variation use vegetables of your choice add 1-2 tablespoon of mayonnaise, desired herbs and stuff in the bowl. Sprinkle cheese and bake. You can use mushroom, bell peppers, broccoli, carrot, beans etc.