The beauty of pizzas lies in its versatility – oh, and cheese, of course. You can go basic with a white base, mozzarella and basil. Or you can dress it up with an array of vegetables, meats and multiple cheeses. While we love an authentic Italian margherita pizza, we’re also big fans of the more is, well, more school of thought, which extends to our pizza bases. So, the next time you’re making your own pizza from scratch, we invite you to roll up your sleeves and add in a few extras. Bonus: get the kids involved too – making pizza dough is fun for the whole family.
Start with your basic pizza dough and then try the following variations.
1. Make it cheesy
If you agree that there’s no such thing as too much cheese, add half a cup of finely grated cheddar cheese to your next dough.
2. Stuff the crust
Recreate your favourite Debonairs pizza at home by stuffing your pizza crust with cheese grillers. Fry the cheese grillers beforehand, roll out your prepared pizza dough, arrange the grillers on the edge of your pizza and gently fold the dough over them. Press down firmly but gently to ensure they are securely wrapped.
Add 2 teaspoons of castor sugar for a little added flavour. Sugar also helps the dough to rise faster and helps with browning. You can substitute castor sugar with honey or molasses – play around with it and see what your taste buds prefer.
4. Add infused oil
Herb oils or truffle oil are delicious drizzled on top of your pizza, but for a little surprise, incorporate it into the dough itself when mixing. Depending on the strength of the oil (truffle oil can be particularly flavourful), you want to add 1–3 teaspoons to your dough.
Possibly the only thing better than cheese when it comes to pizza is garlic. You can add grated raw garlic to your dough or, for a less intense flavour, roast and mash or purée your garlic before adding.