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.

Now, arrange grilled paneer, bell pepper, onion, tomatoes on the pizza.






Sprinkle cheese generously and evenly on top of the veggies.



Bake for about 15-20 minutes (or) until the cheese is melted and gets a nice brown color.





Take it out of the oven, cut into slices and enjoy!







Linking this to "Let's Cook - Protein Rich Food" event hosted by Radhika of Tickling Palates.