Leon Restaurants are running a brilliant competition to encourage children of all ages to cook 5 dishes. They have a winner each month. I entered my super swirly pizza whirls and was really pleased that I got the most votes for February and won dish of the month. The prize was a cheque for £100 and a special Cook 5 badge. You can find out more about the competition on www.leonrestaurants.co.uk Have a go and enter your recipes.
I adapted a basic pizza dough recipe from Southern Italian Family Cooking by Carmela Sophia Serano and then turned this into super swirly pizza whirls.
Super Swirly Pizza Whirls
Ingredients
10g fast action yeast
450 g “00” flour
5g salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
80g grated mature cheddar
16 fresh basil leaves
2 teaspoon dried oregano
Approx 4 tablespoons of tomato puree
A half a teaspoon of garlic granules
60g chopped ham (optional)
Making the dough
1. Stir yeast into the water
2. Put flour, salt and olive oil in bowl
3. Gradually add the yeast and water mixture until it is all combined
4. Knead on a floured board or in a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for 10 minutes
5. Put in a bowl and cover with a tea towel, prove for 1 hour in a warm place
Filling the Dough
1. Cut the dough into halves. Leave one half of the dough in the bowl – you will use that later.
2. Roll out one piece of the dough on a floured board into a rectangle approximately 30 cm by 20 cm
3. Spread tomato puree onto the rectangle of dough
4. You now need to use HALF of your filling mix, so sprinkle on 40g cheese, 8 basil leaves, I teaspoon oregano, quarter of a teaspoon of garlic granules and 30 g ham – it will now look like a rectangular pizza
5. Roll the dough lengthways like a long “swiss roll” log
6. Cut the dough log into slices 2 cm wide. You will get about 12-14 slices per log.
7. Take the other half of the dough mix that is in your bowl and repeat steps 2-6 again, using the rest of your fillings.
Put the slices onto a baking liner onto a baking sheet
Leave to prove at room temperature for 1 hour, covered with a tea towel
Bake in the oven at Gas Mark 6 or 200C for approximately 20-25 minutes until the bread is cooked and is not sticky in the middle. Best served warm with salad, or would make a lovely lunchbox snack.
