zucchini pizza with sour cream bread dough

my first ever overseas trip was to rome when i was 21 years old..back then the definitive travel reference book for australian travellers was 'europe on $10 a day'..that will give you some idea of my age..anyway, since then i have had a problem with pizzas and that problem arose because i fell in love with the pizza slices we bought from a bakery close to the pension where we stayed..i'll never forget the sight of the huge rectangular trays of pizzas lined up on the counters in the bakery each with a different but very simple topping..my favourites were the 'fungi' and artichoke pizzas..i don't remember all of the different toppings available but the others that i tried and liked were potato and zucchini..the other thing i liked about these pizza slices was that the base was about 1 cm thick which meant that the topping melded into the dough creating a luscious marriage of the two ingredients..i'm not entirely sure but i think we paid about 70 lira per piece..back then the exchange rate was 700 lira to the australian dollar..now sure..the other round type of pizza with tomato, mozzarella and so on were available but they were never as appealing to me and they were also a lot more expensive..

since then any pizza i've bought has never lived up to those pizza slices i had many decades ago and i've made a few attempts at replicating them myself but never with any success..today as i was making a sour cream yeast based dough i decided to use some of the dough to make a zucchini pizza..and even though i did add a couple of other ingredients and even though my base was thinner than the original my zucchini pizza did have that melding thing going on that i loved so much in those slices in rome..suffice it to say that i will be making this recipe again..soon..

zucchini pizza with sour cream bread dough 
this fourth zucchini recipe in a series of seven is a 'tea with hazel' recipe

ingredients (bread dough)

250 gms white bread flour

200 gms wholemeal flour

50 gms spelt flour

3 tsp salt

125 gms sour cream

1 tbs treacle

1 sachet (7 gms) dried yeast 

enough lukewarm water to make a pliable dough taking into account the extra absorbency of the wholemeal flour

ingredients (pizza topping)

2-3 medium zucchini (i used a 10 cm piece of a large zucchini) cut fine with a mandolin
4-5 bocconcini cut into 4 slices, dried
4-5 sun dried tomatoes bottled in oil (i used my own) cut into quarters

olive oil
salt
pepper

1 bread tin and a 30 cm cast iron frying pan lightly oiled (or pizza tray of choice)

method (bread dough and loaf)

~place all bread dough ingredients in the bowl of a mixer and mix on low for 2 minutes..rest for 10 minutes

~repeat this cycle twice more..remove bowl from mixer

~cover bowl with cling film and leave until doubled

~turn dough onto floured board, cut a tennis ball sized amount for the pizza and set aside
~knead the remaining dough and shape to fit tin
~cover with cling film and leave until doubled
~bake at 220 deg c on bread function for 10 minutes..reduce heat to 180 deg c and continue to bake for 30 minutes or until the top is well browned
~remove bread from tin and return the loaf to the oven for a further 5 minutes

method (pizza)


~salt the zucchini slices and leave to drain for 15 minutes
~knead the pizza dough briefly and shape or roll to fit the pan
~without rinsing dry the zucchini slices
~drizzle the slices with olive oil and mix gently to distribute the oil
~lightly oil the pizza base and place bocconcini and tomato on the dough
~add zucchini slices arranging them in an overlapping pattern
~drizzle with a little more oil
~add salt and pepper to taste
~bake at 200 deg c on the bread function for 30 minutes or until the base is well browned and the topping is cooked

i hope your weekend is a happy one.:) x