Dessert Pizza

Mrs. McBugbear made a lovely sourdough dessert pizza on the weekend.

Dessert Pizza

Pizza Dough

2 cups Active Sourdough Culture
3 cups Flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 tbsp olive oil

Mix the water and salt and set aside.  Mix the flour, culture and olive oil.  Add the salt water and mix.  Divide the dough into two balls (1/3 and 2/3's).  Use the larger ball  for a conventional pizza and the smaller for a dessert pizza.  Knead the dough and roll out into a round shape about 9-10" in diameter. Pre-heat the oven to 375F.

Dessert Masala

1/4 cup of raw pistachios
2 tbsp ground almonds
1/tbsp crushed cashews
1/4 tsp saffron threads
6 green cardamon pods


Saffron is a photosensitive spice.  When purchasing saffron pay the extra money for the saffron in the foil package rather than the cheaper stuff in a clear plastic bag or container.  Dry roast the saffron by heating in a frying pan until it becomes fragrant.  Combine all the ingredients in a coffee grinder and grind to a coarse powder.  Store in the fridge in an opaque sealed container.

Topping

1/4 cup Dessert Masala
1/2 applesauce
1-2 pears cut into thin strips or thin wedges

Place the dough on a pre-heated pizza stone.  Cover the dough with apple sauce and sprinkle the dessert masala evenly over the applesauce.  Make a lattice with the pear and pop into the pre-heated oven for 10-20 minutes.  Serve with a dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

The dessert masala was adapted from a recipe by Neelam Bitra in 1000 Indian Recipes which is an excellent cookbook!