SASI'S KITCHEN: Tandoori Paneer Tikka Pizza

I have a pizza lover at home - my daughter! Given a choice to eat outside, her first choice would be pizza - she simply loves pizza. However, she hates paneer. Few months ago, I made paneer pizza (regular pizza with paneer & other veggies and some masala sprinkled on top) thinking that my daughter wouldn't fuss about paneer since it is on a pizza. Obviously, I was wrong. She patiently took out each and every paneer from her pizza and made it a cheese pizza.

On the other hand, I love paneer and I am a big-time fan of desi pizza especially tandoori paneer pizza that we get here. So, this time I planned on making tandoori paneer tikka pizza (got this so-working recipe from a desi blog). The best thing about this pizza is that it is completely home-made - every single thing that I used in putting up this pizza - pizza base, pizza sauce, tandoori paneer & veggies, tandoori masala - is made from scratch.

Needless to say, pizza came out very good and we all loved it. The crust was super thin & not too crispy (just the way I like it!) with juicy & spicy paneer on top. This recipe is sure a keeper! Oh btw, did I tell you that my little one didn't care about the paneer slices in her pizza. Infact, she loved them!

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 2 cups
Rapid raise yeast - 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Pepper powder (freshly ground) - 1/2 tsp
Garlic powder - 1.5 tsp
Warm milk - 1 cup
Oil - 1/8 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 tbsp

Sauce
Home-made chunky tomato pizza sauce - about 1/4 cup (for a large pizza)

Toppings
Tandoori paneer tikka - about 1-2 cups (for a large pizza)
Fresh mozzarella cheese (grated) - as required

Method

In a big bowl add all the dry ingredients (except milk) and mix well. Heat milk to approximately 110 degrees F (Milk cannot be neither too hot (or) cold. Only warm milk helps yeast to grow). Sprinkle milk over the dry ingredients little by little and knead till it forms a smooth dough. Brush with oil and cover the bowl with a seal-tight wrapper. Leave it in a warm place (I usually leave it in the oven with the oven light on) until it doubles in size (about 1 - 1.5 hrs).

Take the dough out, punch it down to its original size and let it rise again. Repeat the same for about 2-3 times.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin (you can also use your hands to roll out the dough). Gently transfer this into a lightly floured pizza pan.

Brush little olive oil over the top of the dough. Spread required amount of home-made pizza sauce all over the pizza.