Here is an alternative bread base if you want to follow a thin crust pizza recipe, Moroccan style.

We absolutely love this thin crust pizza recipe, and it’s very easy to do. We always used to make pizza dough with flour, yeast, salt and water, but not anymore. Because I wasn’t really keen on this bread-based pizza base I started looking at alternatives. I came across many recipes, but only one stood out, after a little experimentation.

Living on a small boat, as we do, we have truly little workspace and limited equipment with which to create delicious food. We manage though and I think if you try this recipe, you’ll probably never go back to a yeast bread base again. Incidentally, the same recipe makes a slightly different, but excellent variety of flatbread.

I keep 2 very inexpensive metal pizza trays. The larger one is 33cms diameter and the smaller one is 32cms diameter. I only use the 32cms tray to draw around because I don’t have a big enough compass. The larger tray is the one that I cook with. This will make more sense when you read the instructions later in the article.

Ingredients for a single 30cm / 12inch thin crust pizza recipe.

• 110 grammes self-raising flour plus extra for dusting.
• 110 grammes natural thick Greek yoghurt.
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil / Rapeseed oil
• A squeeze of lemon juice
• Good pinch of salt, to taste.
• We’ve started adding a teaspoon of garlic powder to the mix (optional)

Ingredients for the tomato sauce.

This tomato sauce is a modified version of the best tomato pizza sauce I’ve ever eaten, and I have to thank for their original recipe. The only changes I’ve made to their recipe is the addition of a small amount of Cayenne pepper and a little Harissa powder, a Moroccan spice mix I love.

• 175g tomato puree
• 425g tomato passata
• 5 tsp dried Oregano
• 2 TBL Italian seasoning
• 2 tsp dried garlic powder
• ½ tsp dried Cayenne chilli
• 1 tsp Harissa powder
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp onion powder
• Optional 1 tsp sugar

Each pizza will require 100 grammes of tomato sauce on the base, so this mix should be good for 6 pizzas. If you bag the sauce in 100g portions and freeze them, you’ll be good to go for a while!

Toppings

You can use your imagination here, but don’t overload your pizza or you’ll spoil it.

Here is a selection of some of my favourite toppings, but you can probably add something that you love yourself.

Sliced onion.

Sliced sweet bell peppers.

Sliced mushroom

Thinly sliced chilli pepper to your own taste

Pepperoni, Chorizo and chicken

Grated Mozzarella cheese

Buffalo Mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Lay out a sheet of greaseproof paper and lay the smaller of the two pizza trays upside down on the paper. Hold the tray flat down and use a felt tipped pen to draw a circle all the way around the tray, using the tray as your guide. Take the tray away and cut off the paper from the roll leaving and inch or so all the way round the circle you’ve drawn. Put the paper to one side.

Combine the 5 pizza base ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly, kneading until smooth. You may have to add a little extra flour as the olive oil can make the dough sticky. Cover the bowl and put to one side. Use a food standard anti-bacterial spray and clean your workspace. Thoroughly dry the surface.

Take the greaseproof paper and place it ink side down on your workspace. You should be able to see the ink ring through the paper. Sprinkle the surface of the paper with flour, to prevent sticking and place your dough in the centre of the ink circle. Use a floured rolling pin to evenly roll the dough out towards the perimeter.

Before continuing further, you should carefully lift one side of the dough and sprinkle again with flour underneath and then repeat on the opposite side. Sprinkle more flour lightly on the top of your work so far. We’re working to a thin crust pizza recipe so lets make thin. It will thicken in the oven. Now for the good bit.

Preheat the oven to 210C (190C fan)

The thin crust pizza recipe calls for using the flat of your hand, to press down, evenly, over the whole surface. Then tease out the dough using your fingers, towards and up to the inked ring. Try to be as even as possible. When your dough covers the whole circle, you’re ready.

Place the larger pizza tray at the side of the greaseproof and slide the pizza base, paper and all, fully onto the pizza tray. If the paper has a large overhang, trim it with scissors but leave enough paper there for you to hold if necessary.

Place the pizza tray into your preheated oven for 5 or 6 minutes. Your pizza top should be showing a light ‘tan’ from the heat. If not put it back into the oven for another minute or so. We don’t want to completely cook the base through.

Leave the oven turned on at 190C fan.

The thin crust pizza recipe base

Remove the pizza tray from the oven and place on your worktop. Slide the pizza base and greaseproof paper off the tray, and replace the pizza tray, upside down, on top of the pizza base. Using a spatula, underneath the pizza base and flip the whole thing over. Now you have the tray at the bottom, the cooked side of the bread sat on the tray with the greaseproof paper on top. Carefully peel off the greaseproof and replace the tray into the oven for about 3 minutes to partially cook the top of the base. Remove the tray from the oven. Now, Let’s build a pizza!

Place 100g of tomato sauce in the centre of the pizza bread and use the back of a tablespoon in a circular motion to spread the tomato sauce evenly over the surface. I usually put the mushroom, sweet pepper and onion on first. I then add the Pepperoni, Chorizo and chicken (if I decide to use it) next. I then add the thinly sliced Chilli (optional). Next comes the grated Mozzarella, and lastly, the Buffalo Mozzarella broken into pieces.

Place the pizza back in the oven at 190C (fan) and set the timer for 12 minutes. Every oven is different so keep a close eye on proceedings. The cheese should be lightly caramelised but use your own discretion. I think that you’ll love this thin crust pizza recipe.

Enjoy!! Stu

If you’d like to see another, similar recipe, why not take a look at this The Best Doner Kebab Recipe

Out of interest I’ve included this link to a site that is very much into the The benefits of home made pizza