White pizza

German-inspired white pizza. Photograph: Aidan Crawley
German-inspired white pizza. Photograph: Aidan Crawley
Serves: 0
Course: Main Course
Cooking Time: 0 hr 30 mins

Ingredients

  • FOR THE BASES:
  • 500g strong white flour
  • 1 x 7g sachet dried yeast, mixed with 150 ml warm water
  • 1 tbsp clear honey
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • Good pinch salt
  • Up to an additional 100 ml water and extra olive oil
  • FOR THE TOPPING:
  • 200g (approx) crème fraiche
  • 1 small German salami, sliced or diced (about 50-100g)
  • Few sprigs rosemary or oregano or thyme
  • 100g Gruyère cheese, grated
  • Salt and pepper
  • Olive oil

I stuck all of the ingredients for the bases (except the additional 100ml water) in a mixer and mixed with a dough paddle. I needed to add the 100mls extra water to make the dough come together, but I do appreciate that this could vary slightly when you make it. Also, be sure you get all the yeast in to the mixture. The dried stuff tends to pool at the bottom of the bowl when you mix it with warm water. Once the dough comes together, you can knead it for a minute and then place in a well-oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to rise for about three hours until doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to its highest setting. Ideally you would use a pizza stone (I don’t own one, but my oven is lethally hot). Divide the dough into two pieces and roll out as much as you can. It’s quite elastic and they will keep trying to shrink again. You can leave them on baking paper to prove and let them rise again for about 30 minutes.

At this stage, I rolled them out a little more and then topped with generous spoonfuls of the crème fraiche, a sprinkling of salami, herbs, a scatter of cheese, plenty of black pepper, a small bit of salt and a good slug of olive oil.

Slide on to a baking tray and bake until bubbling, golden brown and crisp. Cool slightly, slice and serve straight away.

This makes two bases, which would each feed two as light supper or one if you were feeling very greedy and kept nibbling on it all evening, so this recipe serves two to four.

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp

Domini Kemp, a contributor to The Irish Times, is a chef and food writer