With most of you either growing your own veggies or are in heaven with the local farmer’s markets, this is an awesome way to use up some of those sweet plump tomatoes and fresh basil!
I made this yesterday for the Fantabulous in-laws and they, along with Mr. Fantabulous went NUTS over this!
It’s pretty basic though it will require you to make your own dough from scratch. But don’t freak out if you’re not dough-savvy, you CAN use pizza dough from your local shop. I’m sure most local pizza shops will sell you one of their balls of pizza dough. You can use that.
Now if you use a pre-made dough ball, just stretch it out and bake it as normal. You don’t have to let it rise.
And no, this isn’t my dough recipe – sorry but that’s part of the TKW Signatures line. But this is a really great basic dough.
Tomato Caprese Focaccia Pizza
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Ingredients
Dough
- 2 teaspoon rapid-rising dry yeast
- 1 to 1 1/4 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoon sugar
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Cornmeal, for dusting
- 2–3 tablespoon olive oil
- 1–2 teaspoon Pizza seasoning or dried oregano and basil
Toppings
- 4–5 large roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/4” slices.
- 1 6-7” round piece of fresh buffalo mozzarella, cut into1/4” slices
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves, cut into slivers (chiffonade cut)
Herbed Oil
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon basil
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
- In a bowl whisk together all of the ingredients for the herbed oil.
- Cover and set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, proof the yeast by combining it with the warm water and sugar. Stir gently to dissolve.
- Let stand for 5-7 minutes or until foam appears and it bubbles.
- Add the flour to the dough and mix for 2-3 minutes.
- Add in the olive oil and mix for 2 minutes.
- Add in the salt and turn the mixer to medium. Mix for 7-8 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it’s sticky, add flour as necessary.
- Remove the dough from mixer and put in a greased bowl/bucket.
- If using a bucket, close the lid (make sure it’s a large bucket). If not, cover with plastic wrap and let double in size (about 45 minutes).
- Take a sheet pan (jelly roll pan) and drizzle with a little olive oil. Spread around.
- Sprinkle with corn meal.
- When the dough is doubled, turn it out onto the pan.
- Stretch it out so it’s evenly distributed on the pan and in the corners.
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let sit for 15-20 minutes.
- Uncover the dough and gently dimple with your fingertips.
- Drizzle with 2-3 tablespoon olive oil.
- Sprinkle the Pizza Seasoning.
- Bake in the middle rack for 18-20 minutes. You just want it partially baked.
- Put oven to 450F.
- Remove from the oven and add a piece of mozzarella, slice of tomato and few strips of basil.
- Repeat until the entire pizza is covered.
- Drizzle the herbed oil over top of the vegetables.
- Add 1 teaspoon of sea salt (sprinkle over top).
- Bake for 5-8 minutes or until the cheese is just melted.
- Remove from oven and cut.
- *If you want the crust to be crispy, when you remove it from the oven, using a pizza peel place the cooked pizza directly on the rack for 1-2 minutes. Watch as you don’t want to burn it.
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