Prepare Shahi Paneer as mentioned here, or you can use any of your paneer gravies.
If you want an APF base, please follow the steps in this recipe. The amount of water added depends upon the quality of the flour used. So adjust accordingly.
Preparing Wheat Pizza Dough
Dissolve the sugar in ⅓ cup of Luke warm water and add the yeast. Stir it once and let it sit for 5 minutes until the yeast activates.
Meanwhile sift the wheat flour and add in the salt.
The yeast mix should like frothy like below when it’s activated. Add this to the flour and mix.
Little by little add water and knead the dough for at least 5 minutes. Make sure the dough is not too dry and not too watery/loose.
Grease a bowl with oil and spread some oil on the dough also. Cover it with a cling wrap and let it rise. It took me about 2.5 hours for the dough to grow.
Preparing the Base
Once the dough has risen, punch it down and knead again for couple of minutes. Make it into a ball.
I transferred the dough to the back of a round plate which I dusted it with flour before.
First, press it down into a small disk.
Slowly stretch/push the dough with your fingers working from center towards the edges, make the disk larger. The round plate helps to maintain the shape but you can press the dough on any dusted surface. Add oil when required. It helps in spreading the dough.
Hand stretched dough doesn’t need to rest but there is no harm in letting it rest for up to 15 minutes.
Preheating the Oven
If you are using a pizza stone, preheat the oven to 500 deg F with the pizza stone inside.
If you are using a regular baking tray, pre-heat the oven to 450 deg F. Make sure the aluminum foil or the parchment paper that you are using to on the tray can hold the high temperature.
Preparing the Toppings
Meanwhile chop the paneer, bell peppers, onion and tomatoes.
Add the chaat masala and salt and toss them nicely. Ensure the masala is coated evenly.
If the Shahi paneer is cold, bring it to room temperature.
Arranging and Baking
If using a pizza stone, Once the oven is preheated, carefully remove the pizza stone from the oven. Sprinkle some corn meal or rava. Now transfer the pizza base carefully to the stone.
If you are using baking tray, transfer the base to the tray.
Spread the Shahi paneer on top evenly followed by the paneer-bell pepper mix.
Do not spread until the edge as the toppings might overflow.
Bake this for about 12 minutes until the crust and paneer are browned up.
Let it cool a bit and slice them and serve it hot.
Notes
Notes:
Adjust the spices, toppings as per your preference. Panner tikka masala, kadai paneer can be used too. If not like naan pizza you can use tomato sauce and top it with flavored paneer.
If using instant yeast, directly add it to the flour.
The dough rise is completely dependent on the temperature, and recently I learned the more you bake with yeast, your kitchen is prone to have more wild enzymes which result in dough rise in short span of time.
If the weather is cold, placing the dough in the oven (of course not turning it on) or top of fridge might help in a fast rise.
Baking Time:
The baking time depends upon the oven setting and also the position of wire racks. I removed my top and bottom tray and always baked in the middle.
The other primary factor is if you are using a pizza stone, the hot pizza stone speeds up the cooking time, so it is always 3 to 4 minutes less than the non-pizza stone baking.
Last but not the least, the thickness of the crust and the toppings play a significant role in the baking time. If the crust is thick, then bake it for a more extended period. For toppings like Shahi Paneer, you need more time.
As a rule of thumb, if my crust is thin, I bake for 8 minutes and check if it’s done. If my crust is thick, I cook for 10 or 11 minutes and start to check. Depending upon the doneness I adjust the baking time.