I have to come clean, I adore pizza in all it's forms and I do mean ALL. I love frozen ones, plastic ones (you know the pizza chains I am referring to) the gourmet ones with all sorts of fun toppings. I love them with and without sauce, I love them with everything from thinly sliced potato to thick slabs of sausage and therein lies the problem. With the exception of certain frozen pizzas that cater specifically to the diet crowd, most pizza you can buy is not so great on the nutrition scale. Don't get me wrong, I love nothing more than a pizza that has so much cheese on in that you can't see anything else, but it is not the best thing for your waist line.
We have all seen the diet plans that suggest that you order a vegetarian pizza with no cheese as your diet friendly slice........Vegetable with no cheese.......I mean seriously.....If you are like me and are in the mood for pizza, vegetable and no cheese is just not going to cut it. Similarly the well meaning people that suggest we buy pita bread or muffins and top with our favorite pizza toppings, again, not going to score well in my house, and lets face it, kids can spot a pita pizza from a mile away and generally are not impressed. So below is my compromise, home made base, so you can use whole wheat flour if you like, to increase the fiber, but mainly because by making it yourself you are able to control the oil levels. This version does have veg (most are so low in calories that I would suggest toping with as much as you think you can get away with), but it also has meat, again with thought given to the type and how much. So here is my alternative and if I can just wean myself off the creamy dipping sauces, I am off to the races.
(Yields 8 Slices (or as many as you want to cut it into really, but I need a benchmark to work out the nutritional information))
Ingredients
2 1/4 Cups all purpose flour 1 Cup lukewarm water 2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast 1 teaspoon honey 1 cup shredded skim mozzarella cheese 3 tablespoons tomato paste mixed with 1 1/2 tablespoons water 200g Turkey pepperoni Olive Oil spray
Method
Dissolve the honey in the water. Add the yeast and allow to sit in a warm place for five minutes (the yeast should bubble a little). Add the water to the flour and mix until it is combined into a workable ball. Kneed the dough for about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Spray the dough with a little olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest in a warm place for 45 minutes or until doubled in size. (This makes enough to fill my 40 cm perforated pizza tray, it may seem like drama, but making it you save 50 calories per slice and personally I find kneading dough quite therapeutic).
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees f. Spray the pizza pan with olive oil spray and spread the dough over the pan. Bake the dough (untopped) in the oven for 8 minutes, this will begin to crisp the dough and avoid that sogginess that you can sometimes get from home made pizza. Remove the dough from the oven, top with tomato paste pepperoni and cheese, spray the pizza with olive oil spray. Return to the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the crust begins to brown at the edges.
Per Slice
Calories
Fat
Sodium
Carbs
Fiber
Protein
240
7 g
500 mg
55 g
2.3 g
18 g
Serving Suggestions
I would love to say serve this with a salad, but good luck getting kids to eat salad if pizza is the alternative. If serving kids though, I sometimes find this pizza works well cut into squares rather than wedges, so it is easier to eat. Do bear in mind though I have had the "pizza doesn't look like that" comment when not strictly adhering to the traditional wedge method of presentation when serving anyone under the age of 25.
