The Best Deep Pan PANNER PIZZA (Vegetarian) Recipe

It is like we have clocked our junk food cravings to the weekend unconsciously as a human race!

Every week like internal clockwork my pesky taste-buds starts craving cheesy bready delicious Pizza.

Now, don't give me a lecture on how it is unhealthy etc etc,

I know that in my HEAD but my bad eating habits gets the better of me at least once a month...

I think Pizza was in fact created so that we can have something to look forward to on those cheat days to basically knock our senses out of the park and thus create more cheat days! Unfortunately Raffaele Esposito is not available for comment so let's assume that's true & leave it at that!

Okay, so this is a food post, and I'm going to share my favorite Panner Pizza Recipe.

The full Video link: https://youtu.be/cZiqBYRwEPc

Any vegetarian would tell you how they loooove paneer and I am no different!

For those not in the know... 

Paneer, also known as cottage cheese, is fresh cheese prepared by curdling heated milk with weak acids like vinegar or lemon juice. The curdled milk is well strained then set to shape on resting for a couple of hours.

Now making Pizza may feel labourous and you might think it would be a better idea to just order in a pizza that will probably reach you in less than 30 mins! Then why go through all that trouble?

Well sure, you could do that. But do you really know what you order, what is in that Pizza, how has it been prepared?? I personally have been quiet turned off by order-ins, take-aways since this whole covid situation as it has got me thinking how poor personal hygiene has been for people in general. 

The service industry has unfortunately been the worst hit, and as someone who has been loosely associated with this industry my heart goes out to them.

But in a way I'm also glad that there has been this rude awakening in food and other industries, where we are forced to RE-LEARN the importance of personal hygiene and food safety. 

Nothing has been such a huge wakeup call in this regard, especially at this massive scale.

Now while the food industry gets its act together, there is no need to deny your food cravings..

Anyone with even a little culinary inclination will tell you there is no higher satisfaction than being able to create your own meals!

Simply knowing exactly what goes into a meal- ingredients, hard work, time, patients, does not just make you enjoy the meal better but forces you to appreciate every cooked meal and the people behind it at whole different level!

Now this is gonna pay off, I assure you, just make sure you have basic ingredients or substitutes ready at hand!

So what are we waiting for, lets get started,

To break down each part of the Pizza making process, you can basically get 6 steps but they all merge into each other and isn't that complicated! 

The steps of making a Pizza be like,

1. Activating the Yeast / Proofing the yeast

2. Mixing & Kneading the Dough

3. Rising the Dough / Leavening the dough

4. Prepping the  Pizza Sauce and Toppings

5. Rolling out the Dough & Assembling the Pizza

6. Baking the Pizza

INGREDIENTS

For the Dough

3 cups or 500 gms of Maida or All Purpose Flour

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

2 tsps or 7 gms of dry yeast (active dry / instant / fresh yeast depending on availability)

1 + 1/4th cup of lukewarm water (~300ml but could vary deepening on type of flour etc)

3 tsp of sugar (to feed the yeast)

4 tsp of olive oil (to soften the dough)

Optional (for a slightly flavored dough):

A pinch of chili flakes

A pinch of dry parsley flakes

A pinch of garlic powder

You could also add a pinch of oregano mix/ pasta/pizza seasoning/paprika powder/ cheese powder , depends on where you want to take the flavor

For the Sauce:

5-6 tablespoon olive oil

6-7 medium cloves of garlic

1 large onion finely chopped

2 medium tomatoes finely chopped

1 large green chili (heat as you can handle)

1 tsp salt

1/4 th cup of tomato ketchup/sweetened tomato sauce or puree (4-5 tablespoons)

2 Tablespoons cup of water

sauce seasoning:

1 tsp dry parsley

1/2 tsp pizza mix

1 tsp dry basil

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp chili flakes

1/2 tsp dry oregano

(or substitute ALL of the above with 3 tsp heaps of pizza/pasta mix powder. 

If u have only Oregano Mix and Chili flakes sachets left over from deliveries, use three packs each)

1/2 tsp black pepper powder

1/2 tsp red chili powder (for less heat go for paprika powder)

A pinch of dried rosemary (optional)

For the Pizza Toppings

200 gm Paneer (substitute with anything mushrooms, sausages, chicken etc.)

1 tsp of chili powder/ paprika powder

1 medium onion diced

1 medium tomato diced

1 medium green chili finely chopped

optional: add pineapple chunks, capsicum, olives, jalapenos, #anything goes)

1 tablespoon of olive oil for sautéing

Lets go more in detail...

Step 1: Activating/ Proofing the yeast

If you are new to baking and want a more clear picture on how to use yeast, I suggest you go through my blog post on yeast.

You don't need this step if you have good quality instant yeast, but as a rule, I proof my yeast before I put it in the dough mix to avoid any accidents which could fail your dough and ruin the base!

To do this get 1 cup of lukewarm water (hot enough to know it's warm/heated but NOT hot enough to feel the heat pinch your skin!)

Add 3 tsps. of Sugar (I use regular granulated sugar), this will feed your yeast and help it bloom!

Add 2 tsp of dry yeast or one 7gm sachet of dry yeast. Usually 7gms is more than sufficient to rise 500gms of all purpose flour! 

I add any fat, u can add melted butter or oil, I added 2 tsp of olive oil to the yeast water

You can cover this up and let it proof for 2-5minutes, esp. if you are using active dry yeast.

Now I am using instant yeast so I'm not too worried of the yeast proofing time. 

On proofing, you will find a bubbly/ foamy layer on top of your yeast liquid, this tells you that you are ready to go.

Step 2: Mixing & Kneading the dough

First put all the dry ingredients into the dough i.e., mix all of the below

3 cups or 500 gms of Maida or All Purpose Flour

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

A pinch of chili flakes

A pinch of dry parsley flakes

A pinch of garlic powder, spice the dough as you require you can keep the dough plain without the spices too.

2 tsp of olive oil (to soften the dough)

Once you mixed all the ingredients, pour in the foamy yeast mix to bind the dough, I added an addition 1/4th cup of water along with the 1 cup of yeast water to get it right.

Kneading requires to bind the dough with repeated stretch and tuck motions, you could slap the dough around a lil bit until you see the form of the dough is stretchy but not sticky, soft yet supple.

Kneading could take 5-10 minutes, depending on the elbow-grease you are willing to dish out! :P

Step 3: Rising the Dough / Leavening the dough

Once you have a well formed dough, grease the dough ball lightly and let it rest in a bowl. Ideally wrap a food wrap to keep the bowl airlocked (this helps when u don't have a lot of time on your hands!)

Usually you set the dough aside and wait for your dough to rise and it could take anywhere from 1.5-2 hours depending on how hot your kitchen is and where you live!

Now here, we can do a simple jugaad/step to fasten the process. If you watched the video I preheated the oven to 220 deg Celsius for 10-15 minutes before kneading the dough.

The reason I heated up my oven is because I wanted to artificially create a hot chamber where I can leave my dough to leaven quicker!

Remember, don't leave the dough in while the OTG is heating/ON or it will cook up your dough and that is not what you want. You just want your oven to be hot enough to simulate the hottest place in the world!

Basically trick your dough to think room temperature is warmer than it is! In effect to make your dough think that it is in the middle of the Death valley or Lut desert! I kid myself, not!

This will help fasten the leavening process, if you did it right, your dough should rise and fill the boul in 30 to 45 minutes!

Step 4: Prepping the  Pizza Sauce and Toppings

While you let your dough rise, you can easily prepare the pizza sauce and the topping.

I start with the sauce as I like the sauce to cool down a bit before assembly.

Basics of the sauce is that you can add any vegetable of your choice cook it down in some garlic oil, 

add a lot of tomato ketchup/paste/puree along with half the amount of water (this forms your red sauce base), 

cook the sauce down, let it reduce till the oil separates from your sauce, 

spice the sauce with any ingredients you have (I have listed a bunch of choices, there is no hard and fast rule), 

toss it up well and your sauce is done. Let your sauce cool.

Meanwhile prep the topping, I personally prefer lightly sautéed or smoked toppings over raw topping, this is up to your taste buds.

When adding paneer, I like to toss it up in some chilly powder / paprika powder and sauté it lightly in some olive oil to get that tandoor smore flavor. 

I lightly sauté the rest of the vegs too and set it aside to cool down before the pizza assembly!

Step 5: Rolling out the Dough & Assembling the Pizza

Firstly, prepare your baking tray- grease it with some olive oil/butter and sprinkle generously some semolina (sooji/rava) or Corn Meal (Maize)

This will prevent your pizza dough from sticking to any surface before it's base bakes out!

By this time your dough should be ready. I GENTLY deflate the risen dough, you don't need to go all crazy punching that dough. Keep a lil air in the dough.

Plop it back on to a clean counter. Cut up your dough in such a way that you can use 3/4th for the Pizza and the remaining for some garlic bread, now I love to make these Cheesy Garlic bread florets. Stay tuned for the next post!

I keep aside the smaller portion of the dough to make my cheesy garlic florets. Now, you can also store away the extra dough in the freezer by concealing it in an airtight bag/ container to work on it for a later time.

The bigger portion of the dough, I ball it up again and flatten it out slightly, and spread it out with the help of my trusty rolling pin! I'm doing my pizza in a rectangle to suit my tray. The same goes for any shape. Once you roll it out, dab in with your fingers to demarcate separation for the body and crust of the pizza. 

I like my deep pan pizza extra bready so I am going to create a dough pipe at the circumference of the pizza, you can do this by merely pinching in the crust part of your dough inwards to create that extra bread flap at the end!

Once that is done, I take a fork and lightly scar the base of the pizza dough. This prevents the base from bubbling or rising more than needed!

Now before you put on the toppings you have to transfer it on to the baking tray.

Then there is nothing much to it, latter some of that chunky pizza sauce mix. I add a layer of cheese on top of the sauce before I put the toppings, this is optional. Layer the toppings, keep in mind that when you slice the pizza all the toppings need to distributed evenly.

So don't forget, placement of your toppings matter! Go over the toppings with some shredded Mozzarella or Pizza Cheese and you are ready to bake. At this stage I don't feel the need to preheat the oven, so I am just gonna let it bake.

Step 6: Baking the Pizza

One thing you must remember when using an OTG is that all OTGs are different especially when it comes to their heating and baking outcomes. So the temperature setting that may apply to me may not be the exact same for you or anybody else. This is nothing to worry about. Observing carefully your OTG during the first couple of uses will give you an idea of temp variation and accordingly how to manipulate the results.

I set my OTG (Link to review: ) @ 180-190 deg C (~370 deg F), I select the Convec, Convection or Bake function mode and place my tray in middle rack and bake for 20 minutes.

***

There are no words to describe the happiness of a good outcome, and when it is your hardwork & sweat the feeling is unparalleled. I guess that is why the first baking success for a novice-recipe-follow-artist almost guarantees a promising future baker!😜

If this is your first, I hope it's your first of many.

There you go, Ta Na Na Na Na Re, ye Pizza Aye FREE!!!

100% ghar ka, clean bready tasty delicious Pizzzza!

If you try this or any of my other recipes or use any of my recommendations, don't hesitate to give me a shout out on instagram or youtube @madinclinations or use the hashtag #MADINCLINATIONS and let me know and send me a kind email, it would make my day!

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