Bread Pizza Cups [Video]

Pizza in a cup - cups made with bread, filled with your favorite pizza toppings and sauce, topped with cheese and baked until the bread is crisp and cheese is oozy.

Tell me, do you love Pizza? Did you just say yes??? Then you will LOVE this recipe.

So, since you asked for more snacks, I've been sharing recipes for snacks here. Just early this week, I shared the recipe for Masala Bread Toast - a popular bakery item in Bangalore. And today, I bring to you Pizza in a cup. Cute, right?

These Pizza cups are straight out easy to make and they are highly customizable. All you need are fresh bread slices, your favorite pizza sauce, toppings - again just use what you love or you have leftover in the fridge, and cheese. Yes, lots of cheese. I say the cheese is never enough. 

Okay, so there is a reason I mentioned fresh bread slices up there. The fresher the bread, the softer and easier to work with. The bread won't crumble when you try to shape them. I had a few slices that just crumbled on touch, so bad for the pizza cups. Use wholewheat bread to make it healthier.

Next, the Pizza Sauce. I made my own sauce following an older recipe of Eggplant Pizza, and I think this Basil Almond Pesto will also go famously. You can get creative and use this Manchurian Sauce instead or you can just buy the Pizza Sauce. If you don't want to go through all the fuss, just use Ketchup and add some Italian seasoning or Oregano to it.

The best part of any Pizza is the toppings. I kept mine super simple - chopped tomatoes, capsicum and sweet corn. It tasted delicious. But this is where you want to get creative and add what you love or as I suggested before, just use up leftovers. Also, a brilliant way to sneak in those healthy veggies your family won't eat.

I topped my Pizza Cups with Mozzarella cause I love the way the cheese melts and gets all stringy. Use any cheese you love, but remember, for cheese, less is never more!! Add more cheese, always!

So where all can you show these Pizza Cups off, let see:

• High Tea - These Pizza cups will perfectly complement those cute little pastries you have for high tea
• Kid's birthday parties - What's more fun is you can make the kid's add their own toppings. 
• Cocktail Parties - let's just agree, these are perfect for any party, really!
• Snack boxes?? I wouldn't highly recommend this, cause the bread may get soggy, but if you have non-fussy family, I say go ahead. I actually kept aside a few for 2-3 hours and ate them later and they still held and were just as tasty.

If you made this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment here or on Facebook, tag your tweet with @oneteaspoonlife on Twitter and don't forget to tag your photo #oneteaspoonoflife on Instagram. You can also email me at onetspoflife@gmail.com. I'd love to see what you are upto. 

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Video Recipe

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Bread Pizza Cups

Cups made with bread, filled with your favorite pizza toppings and sauce, topped with cheese and baked until the bread is crisp and cheese is oozy.


Recipe Type:  Snack
Cuisine:            International
Prep Time:     15 minutes
Cook time:     15 minutes
Total time:     30 minutes
Yield:                Makes 6 Pizza cups

Ingredients:

6 slices Bread
6 tsp Pizza Sauce
2 Tbsp diced Tomato
2 Tbsp diced Capsicum
2 Tbsp Sweet Corn, boiled
6 Tbsp shredded Mozzarella Cheese
2 tsp Olive Oil
1-2 tsp Italian seasoning / Oregano (Optional)
1-2 fresh Basil leaves(Optional)
Water as required

Method:

1. Lightly sprinkle the bread slices with water and tap to wet the bread slightly.
2. Flatten the bread using a rolling pin.
3. Cut the bread into a circle using a bowl or a box cover.
4. Grease the muffin tray generously with olive oil.
5. Carefully place the bread into the muffin tray in the shape of a cup. See video above for reference.
6. Spoon in the pizza sauce.
7. Add the chopped tomatoes, capsicum and boiled sweet corn.
8. Sprinkle Italian seasoning or oregano if using.
9. Top each cup with 1 Tbsp of shredded cheese.
10. Top with a little bit of sauce and chopped basil leaves.
11. Bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes at 200 degree Celsius.
12. Serve hot/warm.

If you liked this, you may also like:

Masala Bread Toast

Dahi Bread Chaat

Coriander Chutney Sandwich

Read more ...

Gobi Manchurian Pizza

You heard that right! Gobi Manchurian Pizza!!!

Your favorite starter "Gobi Manchurian" as a Pizza topping. Dinner does not get better than this!!!

I try to cook healthy an eat healthy most of the times. My regular lunch or dinner is chapati with some vegetables. But then, there are some days (or nights) that all I want to do is indulge. Friday night was just that - Indulgence Night. 

This Pizza was a product of circumstances. Seriously, I had no choice. Na ah. 

I had (still have) lots of cauliflower. I had Mozzarella left over from my UBER-ly delicious Stuffed Potato Skins. Remember those? And I had a small little Capsicum growing in my pot. TA-DA - Gobi Manchurian Pizza.

I love LOVE Gobi Manchurian. The chef that invented it was pure Genius. What a perfect starter to any meal! At any given time, in a restaurant, I believe at least 50% of the people order Gobi Manchurian as a starter. Except in those fancy fine-dines. I wonder what people order there.

I've been told this dish - the Gobi Manchurian Pizza is not my invention (Darn those eye-opener friends!!). To my credit, this Gobi Manchurian Pizza recipe is totally mine. I made Gobi Manchurian the way I always make it, the only difference being I did not simmer the cauliflower with the sauce, instead I just layered them on the Pizza base.

The Pizza was a super hit. This Gobi Manchurian Pizza brings together the best of 2 cuisines (or is it 3) - Indo-Chinese and Italian.

I'm sure everyone knows about Italian Cuisine and Pizzas. No intro needed there. 

Now, the Gobi Manchurian is a purely Indian take on Chinese cuisine. It consists of batter coated cauliflower florets that are deep fried until they are crispy golden brown (I suggest you make extra, they taste awesome just like that). If that wasn't enough of BANG, there is the sauce. The sauce is soy-based and is full of flavors of soy sauce, chilli, ginger and garlic. Getting an idea?

To make the Gobi Manchurian Pizza, I made a whole wheat and honey pizza base. That is 100% whole wheat, nothing else. I have not followed the traditional way of making a pizza base - 2 rises, then either rolling or stretching. I have done it more like - rise, roll, rise. This gave me a nice thick base. If you plan on making a thin crust, then you may need to adjust the dough quantities to match that and your pan size. My directions below are for a 10" thick base Pizza. You can also freeze part of the dough for a later day.

After making the base, I then layered with that delicious spicy sauce and dropped the cauliflower all around. Grated some cheese and VOILA! the Gobi Manchurian Pizza is already ready to be devoured.

I know this does not sound like a weekday kinda meal, when you come back from office battling all that traffic and the rains. The number of ingredients and the number of steps sound daunting. When you start making it you will see that the number of unique ingredients isn't really much. And I've written a very detailed recipe to make your cooking easier. I assure you, there is a time and a place to make this Pizza. I actually made it in like 2 hrs on a Friday night. And the 2 hrs was all rising of the base. The actual cooking took way less.

This Gobi Manchurian Pizza is perfect for you:

If you like quirky fusion food that is delicious.

If you love Asian or Indo-Chinese flavors

If you love Pizza

Gobi Manchurian Pizza

Fusion pizza topped with fried cauliflower and Manchurian sauce. 

Recipe Type:  Main
Cuisine:            Fusion
Prep Time:     2 Hours
Cook time:     50 minutes
Yield:                Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the Pizza Base:

2 cups Whole wheat flour or Atta
1 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1 Tbsp Honey
1 Tbsp + 2 tsp Olive Oil
2-3 cups warm Water
1 tsp Salt

For the Gobi / Cauliflower:

2.5 cups Cauliflower florets
4-5 Tbsp Cornflour
1.5 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1 tsp Chilli Sauce
1/2 tsp Tomato Ketchup
1/2-1 cup Water
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

For the Manchurian Sauce:

Leftover batter from the Gobi / Cauliflower
1 Onion
1/2 Capsicum
1 Tbsp finely chopped Garlic
1 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1 tsp Soy sauce
1 tsp Chilli sauce
2 tsp Oil
1 cup Water
Salt to taste

For assembling:

Pizza Base
Fried Gobi / Cauliflower
Manchurian Sauce
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tbsp chopped Coriander
Mozzarella or Pizza cheese

Method:

To make the Pizza Base:

Add the active dry yeast to 1 cup of warm water along with the honey. Allow it to rest for 5-10 minutes.
Once it is foamy, add it to the whole wheat flour along with 1 Tbsp olive oil and salt and knead into a smooth dough. Knead for around 5-10 minutes.
Now coat the dough with the remaining olive oil and place in a clean bowl. Cover the bowl loosely with a plate of a towel and keep in a warm place to rise. It should double up in size. Mine took around 1 hour.
Once it is doubled in size, punch it down, and roll it into a pizza base. Roll according to if you want a thick base or a thin base. I made a thick 10" base.
Oil the pan in which you will cook the base, and place the rolled out base, prick it with a fork. Cover and keep it in a warm place for its 2nd rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius and bake the base for 12-15 minutes.

To make the fried Gobi / Cauliflower:

This can be made when the base is kept for rising.
In a large bowl, mix together the cornflour, ginger garlic paste, soy sauce, chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, salt and add water by the spoonfuls. We need a medium consistency batter that can coat the cauliflower. I did not need the full cup of Water.
Heat oil in a frying pan. I shallow fried the florets, you can deep fry them.
Once the oil is hot, dip the cauliflower in the batter and drop them in the oil.
Fry until golden brown and crispy on the outside and the cauliflower is cooked on the inside.

To make the Manchurian Sauce:

Heat oil in a pan and add sliced onions and chopped garlic. Fry until the onions are translucent.
Add the sliced capsicum and fry for another 1-2 minutes.
Add the leftover batter from the cauliflower. If there is none leftover, mix together 1 Tbsp cornflour in 1/4 cup of water and add it. You may need to increase the quantity of the sauces accordingly.
Add the ginger garlic paste, soy sauce, tomato ketchup, chilli sauce, salt and 1/4 cup of water and mix well. Add more sauce if required.
Allow it to cook 3-4 minutes. You may need to add more water in as cornflour thickens on cooking.

To make the Pizza:

Spread the sauce on the base.
Place the fried cauliflower all on top of the sauce.
Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves.
Grate cheese to cover the pizza.
Drizzle over the Olive Oil.
Bake in a 200 degree Celsius preheated oven for 5-8 minutes until the cheese melts.
Serve hot.

Read more ...

Zucchini, Spinach and Onion Pizza

The GoodFood magazine put me in a zucchini pizza mood. The photo looked so delicious that I just had to eat it. Sadly, no pizza joint close to home serves you such a pizza. So it fell upon me to create one :) The magazine was courteous enough to provide a recipe for the base as well. I added the pesto and the remaining veggies to give it more volume. The recipe for the pizza base and the pesto used can be found on the blog as well.

Place the topping on the pizza base

Grate cheese and spoon olive oil

Pizza after baking

Pizza

Pizza with carrot fries and blueberry muffins

Zuccini, Spinach and Onion Pizza

Pizza with pesto sauce topped with spinach, onions and zucchini

Recipe Type:  Snacks
Cuisine:          International
Prep Time:     15 minutes
Cook time:     20 minutes
Yield:              Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 medium sized Pizza base
3/4 cup Pesto sauce
3 Cheese cubes
1 medium Zucchini
1 small Onion
A handful of Spinach leaves
1 tsp Oregano
3 Tbsp Olive oil
1 tsp Pepper
1/2 - 1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Rosemary (dried)

Method:

Spread the pesto on the base and grate one cheese cube and spread on it
Roughly chop the onion into large slices.
Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil and toss the onions in it until soft
Cut the zucchini into fine ribbons. I used a peeler to make the fine ribbons
Toss the zucchini with 1 tbsp. oil. Add a little salt and the pepper.
Add the oregano, rosemary and the onions
Place the spinach on the base.
Spread the zucchini and the onion mix
Grate the remaining cheese on the pizza
Spoon the remaining olive oil on the pizza
Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Read more ...