Steps to prepare soft mini pizzas

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• First of all, prepare the dough. Here you can decide whether to do a quick rise or a longer rise. For a long rise such as for high hydration dough, or Neapolitan pizza dough use 1-2 g of yeast and bread flour, for a quicker rise you can use 5 g of yeast for 500 g of flour, 7 at most for 1 kg of flour, the flour for quick rises is all-purpose or at most can be mixed with bread flour. Decide based on the time you have, longer rises are always preferable if you have time, but even with a quicker rise you get a great result as you can see, in fact, I preferred a quick rise this time because I decided at the last moment. Let’s go to the recipe.

• Quick pizza dough

  

• In a large bowl, put the fresh brewer’s yeast, 5 g with 300 g of lukewarm water, be careful it should not be too hot, or we risk killing the yeast. Stir with a fork or spoon to dissolve the yeast, then gradually add the flour, I used half bread flour and half all-purpose flour, for a total of 500 g. Continue to work with the fork until the dough is soft, so we can work it better and give more elasticity to our dough. While incorporating the flour, take breaks, even short ones, which help make the dough more elastic. During this phase also add the salt, at least 12 g, and the olive oil, and then at the end add all the flour and complete the dough by hand, to obtain a non-sticky ball, helping with a bit of flour if necessary. Let it rise in the bowl in a warm place, for a quick rise, I put it in the microwave with 2 cups of boiling water when it’s cold. In 3 hours it will be well-risen, maybe check it from time to time and if the rise is not proceeding well, heat the water in the cups again, this is obviously not necessary when it’s already warm.

• While the dough is rising, let the mozzarella drain in a strainer, open it up and crumble it, so it loses all its liquids.

• In a small bowl, also put the peeled tomatoes, which we chop with a spoon or knife, or if you prefer, blend directly with a chopper. Season with oil, salt, and plenty of oregano.

• When the dough is well-risen, divide it into balls, making 8 or 10 depending on whether you want softer and taller mini pizzas or slightly thinner ones. Each ball will weigh between 120 to 90 g. Form nice round shapes working the balls between the palms of your hands. Place them on a well-floured surface and slightly spaced apart. Let them rise for an hour, covered with a cloth to prevent them from drying. If the environment is dry, use a damp cloth.

• After an hour, you can turn on the oven to 480°F (250°C) with fan. Start stretching the balls with lightly floured hands, widen the balls, and in a moment you will have disks to place on a tray, grease the base of the mini pizzas with a little flour so you can place them directly on the non-stick tray, or use a sheet of baking paper. I also used specific molds for mini pizzas, as they were gifted to me, but I also tried on a classic baking sheet, the result was identical. The important thing is to stretch, or rather widen well the balls, so as to obtain disks of at least 5.5 inches (14 cm) in diameter, otherwise they will be too small and puffy.

• Top the mini pizzas on the tray with the tomato prepared in advance, with a bit of mozzarella and gorgonzola if you like, or they can be topped to your own taste, even mixed tastes as I did last night, and yes, I’ve already made them again, they won us over, then during these festive days they are perfect to serve to enrich a rich buffet of appetizers and aperitifs for our evenings in the company of relatives and friends, finally we’ve rediscovered the pleasure of being together, after the sad years of covid.

• Bake in a hot ventilated oven at 480°F (250°C) for about 15 minutes, even 2 trays at a time, but always adjust according to your oven. Remove from the oven and enjoy, truly delicious and nice and soft, even the next day our soft mini pizzas for buffet.