TGE Recipes: Naan Pizza with German Error Message

Welcome to TGE Recipes, a place where our favorite bands share the secrets straight from their kitchens. Think your favorite Food Network show except on a purple blog. Today we welcome Paul of German Error Message.

Naan Pizza

Pizza and Indian Food are both big comfort foods for me. This dough is super versatile. It’s great to eat by itself with a little butter, cilantro, and garlic, as a side with homemade Indian dishes, and it makes a wonderful pizza crust.

Tools:

Parchment Paper
Cutting Board
Pizza Stone or Pan
Big bowl or container for mixing dough
Rolling Pin
Extra flour for your tools and cutting board

For the Naan:

1 cup water (room temperature)
1 cup milk (room temperature)
1 tablespoon yeast
1 ½ tablespoon salt
¾ cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon butter
3 ¾ cups unbleached flour
2 tablespoons honey

For the Sauce

1 6oz can of tomato paste
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, diced
½ small onion, diced
Basil (1 bunch fresh)
½ tablespoon dried oregano
½ tablespoon dried parsley
½ cup Beer (optional)
1 cup water
Salt

Toppings:

Whatever you are into. Follow your heart!

Dough Directions:

Mix the water, milk, yogurt, butter, and honey together in a large mixing bowl or container.
Add your yeast and give it a gentle stir.
Add the salt and stir gently again.
Add flour and mix well with a big spoon - this is a high hydration dough, so it’ll look a little bit wet.
Cover your container with a dish towel and set it in a warm place. In the winter I’ll put my container near a heat vent and near a sunny window in the spring and summer.
Leave it there, checking occasionally for about an hour to two to make sure it’s rising.
Once it’s doubled in size, stick the container in the fridge. You can leave it here for a few hours to a few days to ferment.

Sauce:

Add your olive oil to a saucepan with the garlic, onion, basil, oregano, and parsley on medium heat.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the garlic starts to brown and onion turns translucent.
Remove from heat and add the water, tomato paste, and beer if desired. Mix vigorously.
Put it back on the burner and continue stirring until everything is well incorporated. Add salt to taste. You can add more water, a tablespoon at a time, to thin the sauce out some if desired.

Makin Pizza:

Place your pizza stone or pan in the oven and preheat your oven to 450-475 degrees.
Tear off a piece of parchment paper slightly larger than your pizza stone or pan and place it on your cutting board. Dust the paper with about a ¼ cup of flour. Keep the flour handy, you will need more when you handle the dough.
Remove your dough from the fridge and dust the top of it with flour. It will be sticky, so you’ll probably want to flour up your hands as well.
Tear off a piece of dough about the size of an apple and roll it gently in the flour so it’s easier to handle. Shape it into a ball while turning in your hands, incorporating the flour as your turn.
Once your dough ball no longer sticks to your hands, and has a smooth, somewhat elastic feeling, begin flattening and stretching it into a disk.
Re-flour your parchment paper if needed and press down the dough with your fingers, shaping it into your crust.
You can use the rolling pin to thin it out if it’s being difficult. You may want to dust some more flour on the surface of the dough if it sticks to the rolling pin.
Roll or press the dough out to your preferred thickness. I usually get it about ¼ inch thick with the edge crust section about a ½ inch.
Once your crust is rolled out, spoon your sauce onto the pizza and spread it out.
Add your cheese and toppings.
Use your cutting board to slide the parchment paper onto the stone or pan.
Bake for 7 minutes to 10 minutes, or until the toppings and cheese are starting to brown and crust has browned slightly.
Remove pizza from oven, and brush crust with a little bit of butter.
Pull the parchment pizza out from under your finished pizza and allow to cool on a cutting board.
Cut and serve!