Chocolate pizza

I had one dough left to do to finish my breads and doughs module at college; pizza dough. I told my tutor when I got in and, after a quick check of the fridge, she concluded that we didn’t have any savoury ingredients to go on top. But a bit of quick thinking on her part and there was a solution; chocolate pizza bases for sweet toppings.

It’s amazing that this took me all evening because the dough itself is incredibly simple... in fact, it felt a little like cheating. No yeast, because this was made with 880g self-raising flour ad 200g cocoa powder. The dry ingredients also included salt (have to say I was a bit heavy handed with that particular ingredient, so just be careful there), while the wet ingredients were a very technical measure of 150ml vegetable oil and an unspecified amount of water (enough to make it into a soft dough).

I rolled it out to about 4mm thick, then it was time for shaping. My tutor got her creative hat on again and came up with some squares with the edges cut and folded over so as to form a double-thickness crust (see picture). I did this with a fair amount of the dough before giving up and making a large circle, which got bordered with some plaited dough. I docked the bases and they all went into the oven at about 180°C.

Now, how to tell when a dough that’s already dark brown is done? Not quite as easy as with a paler dough but my tutor went through the things to look out for, which include a not-too-appetising-sounding feature where the dough goes greyish. We also turned them over to check the bases, which had more obvious darker patches still visible when not properly cooked. And the tapping technique was useful too.

Out of the oven and cooling, the next big question; what, out of all the pastry kitchen, was going to go on top of these pizzas? Actually, it was hampered slightly because my tutor had done these pizzas before and used marshmallows and toffee sauce... which we didn’t happen to have. I raided the mise-en-place fridge and pulled out some raspberry jam, strawberries and chocolate ganache, and then pilfered some white chocolate chips too. The smaller pizzas were topped with jam, a chocolate chip and a slice of strawberry, while I flooded the big pizza base with chocolate ganache (thinned slightly with cream) and finished it with a spiral of jam. My imagination cut out on me at that point, so that’s how they stayed.

The results of the evening may have been whacky but at least I got my breads and doughs module finished.

Simplified recipe

Ingredients

800g self-raising flour

200g cocoa powder

Pinch salt

150ml vegetable or olive oil

Water

Method

1.       Put the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and add the oil, then add enough water to bring the mix together into a soft dough. Do make sure that the dough is soft, otherwise you’ll struggle with the next step

2.       Divide the dough up and roll out; the number of pieces depends on the size of the pizzas you want to make. Once rolled, shape as desired. You can use the pieces of trim to make borders, such as plaits

3.       Dock the bases (i.e. prick with a fork) and bake in the oven at about 180°C (350°F or gas mark 4). Time will depend on the size of the pizza base; to check (best done after 10 minutes), turn the bases over and check that the underside has no dark patches left. Also, tap to check for a hollow sound

4.       Allow to cool then decorate as desired. Make them as sickly as you like; the bases themselves aren’t sweet