PIZZA ROLLS

I thought of rolling up squares of uncooked pizza with the filling
inside as a way of crisping the dough a bit more and making the
end result less messy to eat with your hands.
When I’ve got the dough in the oven trays I normally mark it
into the same number of pieces there’d be if I was going to cut the
pizza up at the end but you can make bigger rolls than this if you
feel like it, or even roll the pizza into pin-wheels and sprinkle the
surfaces with grated mozzarella or Parmesan cheese for a bit of
variation.
The quantities given below are enough to fill two large oven
trays, which should give you at least six pieces of pizza each, and
because the dough keeps so well in the fridge I sometimes make
the pizzas up one at a time, saving half the amount of dough for
another day.
For the pizza base
1 lb (550 g) plain flour
2 tsp (or 1 sachet) of dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1⁄2 pint (275 ml) warm water mixed with 2 tsp oil
Tomato purée
Garlic purée
Suggested toppings
Cheese and tomato
Sausage and tomato
Gammon and pineapple
Tuna and sweetcorn
Prawns and tinned crab meat
Bolognese or Chilli sauce
Meatballs, peppers and onion
Spinach and ricotta
Mushroom and caramelized red onion
Mixed olives and green pesto
Method
1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and make a
well in the centre.
2. Pour the warm water and oil into the well and quickly mix
everything together with your hand to make a soft dough. Turn the
dough onto a floured surface and knead well for 5–10 minutes,
sprinkling a little more flour whenever you feel you need to.
3. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a damp tea towel
and leave at the bottom of the oven on the lowest setting for
about half an hour until the dough has almost doubled in size.
(If you’ve got an airing cupboard you can prove the dough in
there instead.)
4. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead again for
another 5 minutes (known as ‘knocking back’) before covering
with the damp cloth and proving for about half an hour – same
as before – until the dough has doubled in size again.
5. Knock the dough back again and divide into two halves. (Keep
one half in a food bag in the fridge if you don’t want to use it
straight away.)
6. Roll the dough out to fit the lightly oiled oven tray(s) – but
not too thin unless you want the cooked dough to be really
crisp – and press down well, folding any rough edges over and
brushing the surface with a little more oil. Cover with cling film
and keep in the fridge until you’ve got the topping ready.
7. Mark out the dough into six pieces then spread each piece with
tomato purée, a little garlic purée and a couple of spoonfuls of
topping, leaving about 1⁄4 inch (5 mm) of edge all the way
round.
8. Roll each piece of pizza up carefully with the sealed edge
underneath.
9. Brush with a little olive oil and bake in the oven on Gas Mark
6 (200ºC) for approximately 10 minutes until the dough is firm
and just golden on the outside.