Cheese pizza
Cheese pizza
Pizza is everyone’s favorite product, distinguished by its beautiful smell and satiety. It is comfortable and pleasant to eat with friends, at home, or simply order it to work as a hearty lunch. But often housewives do not trust those pizzerias where they prepare these beautiful dishes of Italian cuisine, so they look for recipes with which they can prepare homemade pizza, which will be no worse than store-bought ones. But even here, you often get bored with ordinary pizzas, and you want to cook something unusual that will amaze guests and household members and help vary your daily diet. In this case, when you want to cook deliciously and quickly, cheese pizza is suitable, which can simply be prepared at home. Cheese pizza is a dish that can be ordered at any pizzeria, but you want to pamper your family without the help of others, so it is better to use a recipe according to which cheese pizza is prepared in the oven.
The most common ingredients will be useful to you, so you won’t have to spend a long time finding products. Well, it takes no more than 1 hour to prepare the dish. So, what ingredients are useful to prepare a cheese pizza recipe at home?
Ingredients for the dish
Untainted boiled water – ¾ cup
Wheat flour - 2 cups.
Yeast – 10 gr. new pressed or dry – 1 tsp. no slide.
Granulated sugar – 1 tbsp.
Table salt – a pinch.
Olive oil – 2 tbsp.
Butter – 30 gr.
Garlic – 2 cloves.
Mozzarella cheese – 250 gr.
Pramesan cheese – 100 gr.
Fresh basil - to taste.
Making a dish step by step
To begin with, it is worth saying that the ingredients in the recipe are presented in approximate quantities. For example, flour can have different properties and absorb water differently, so it can be useful either less than 2 cups or more.
The dough can be kneaded either by hand or using a food processor (it will work even better in a machine). So, first add the flour and fresh yeast, turn on the food processor (or use your hands) and grind the yeast and flour into uniform crumbs. The yeast must be distributed throughout the entire flour mass sparingly, so that there are no unground pieces left.
The next step is to add salt and sugar, and again thoroughly stir everything until smooth.
Now, at low speeds, start kneading the dough, adding water in small portions. It is necessary to pour in all the water, and when the dough comes together in the so-called “bun”, start pouring in the oil. All the oil must be added to the dough and kneaded into a homogeneous lump.
Place the bun on a work surface that needs to be sprinkled with a small amount of flour in advance and knead with your hands until the butter and other ingredients are smooth and evenly distributed over the dough.
Leave the dough in a warm place for about 15-20 minutes so that it “ripens”. In the meantime, get busy making the inside.
Take butter that has been softened at room temperature, but not melted. Chop the garlic and basil into small pieces and add to the oil. You can also choose garlic and basil according to your taste preferences. Stir well until smooth. The sauce that will be used to coat our cheese pizza according to this recipe is ready.
Parmesan cheese and Mozzarella must be grated. It is better to grate Parmesan on small divisions, and mozzarella on large ones, or completely cut into thin slices.
Turn on the oven so that it warms up to the highest temperature (about 220 degrees). Preheat the oven along with the baking sheet, because it should also be very hot.
While the oven is heating up, take our dough; it should have already increased in size. Divide it into two equal parts. Place baking paper on the work surface, roll out one part so that it is a narrow layer directly on the paper. Now brush the circle with our sauce. To ensure that the pizza is even, before spreading the sauce on it, you can cut a careful circle out of it using a plate or tray.
Now we lay out the cheese filling (only half, because we still have one part of the dough). First mozzarella, and later parmesan. Spread in an even layer, slightly departing from the edges, about a centimeter.
Carefully transfer the pizza paper onto the baking sheet and bake until done. You will know the pizza is ready when it browns. Usually this does not take more than 10-12 minutes.
Remove the pizza from the oven, sprinkle it with fresh basil (or other herbs if desired). Cut the still hot pizza into portions and serve. Bon appetit!
Cheese pizza comes out very appetizing, thin and rosy, this is confirmed by the photo. To literally know whether your cheese pizza is being prepared correctly, you can look at the recipe with a photo, but this is not at all necessary, because the processes are very simple and accessible even to inexperienced housewives. In order to treat yourself to such a treat as cheese pizza, you don’t have to go to the nearest pizzeria. To do this, just study the stages of conventional manufacturing, and a beautiful and fragrant dish will grace your table. True, not for long, because such pizza is eaten very quickly.
In addition, cheese is very useful and easy to digest; it contains a lot of calcium and enzymes, which make this product very valuable for the human body.
Recipe options:
- To make cheese pizza, you don’t necessarily need to use such expensive types of cheese, just choose one type of hard cheese, and use the second type of processed cheese.
- No matter what kind of greens are suitable for such a dish: parsley, dill, cilantro, and what we call basil. If you have such a desire, then you can use any seasonings that you like - the taste of the dish will not change.
- Often 4 types of cheese are used in cheese pizzas, then its taste becomes even more varied and exciting. By the way, “4 cheese” pizza is one of the most popular in the world, so you can proudly amuse your loved ones, friends and simply unexpected guests with such a fun-to-make, and at the same time, ordinary dish that will definitely not leave anyone indifferent .
Thanks to this good recipe, we learned how to make “Cheese Pizza”.
Papa John's Cheese Pizza Recipe
The most delicious thing about pizza is the inside. It is very important to be able to prepare it so that the dough does not overwhelm the delicate taste of other ingredients, especially when it comes to cheese. An impeccable option is the traditional version of “4 cheese” pizza, prepared on yeast-free dough and with garlic sauce.
Compound
To make yeast-free dough we will need:
- 2-2.5 tbsp flour;
- 2 testicles;
- 1 tsp salt;
- 1 tbsp. l. olive oil;
- 0.5 tbsp. milk.
Ingredients for the sauce:
- 250–300 g of tomatoes in their juice;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- a small bunch of fresh basil;
- 1 tsp sweet sand;
- salt to taste.
The interior consists of...
- 100 g Mozzarella;
- 100 g Gorgonzola;
- 100 g Maasdam cheese;
- 100 g Parmesan;
- oregano and arugula - to taste.
REFERENCE! Fresh basil in the sauce, you can quietly change 1 tsp. dry Provençal herbs, and instead of tomatoes canned in their juice, in the summer, purposefully use the freshest tomatoes.
Manufacturing
- Mix flour and salt and sift into a deep container.
- In a separate container, combine milk, eggs and olive oil.
- In the sifted flour, make a hole in the center and pour the milk-egg mixture into it.
- We begin to knead the dough with our hands. As a standard, it does not have to stick to your hands and be elastic. If required, add a little more flour.
- Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in a wet towel and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Prepare the filling: grate three Parmesan cheeses, cut other cheeses into small pieces.
ATTENTION! “Parmesan”, in its absence, can be replaced with “Russian cheese”, and “Mozzarella” with unsalted “Suluguni”.
- Place the tomatoes (after removing the skins and cores), basil, salt, sugar and garlic, passed through a garlic press, into a blender bowl.
- Divide the rested dough into 2 parts. Roll out the first of them using a rolling pin into a narrow layer.
- Transfer the dough piece to a baking dish, sprinkle with oil and place in the oven (+200C) for 5 minutes.
- We take the semi-finished pizza out of the oven, grease it with sauce and place the prepared cheeses on its surface. Place back in the oven for another 10-12 minutes.
- Sprinkle the finished pizza with oregano and arugula.
- From the 2nd part of the dough we prepare pizza using a similar technology.
Calorie content
Savory cheese pizza is quite high in calories: 100 g of baked goods contains about 220–250 kcal. A similar variation in numbers is justified by the selection of cheeses: everything will depend on what specific variety will be used to make pizza.
Conclusion
4 cheese pizza can be easily prepared at home. Without going beyond the boundaries of your own kitchen, having tasted a piece of the pastries given to us, you will be imbued with the national flavor of Italian cuisine and at the same time feed the whole family.
How to cook “4 cheese” pizza at home according to a step-by-step recipe with photos
Pizza “4 cheeses” is one of the most popular and beloved options for making pizza. The situation with it is actually the same as with traditional sushi. Some people simply love them and cannot imagine their own life without repeated consumption of rolls, while others simply cannot stand them.
It’s the same with this pizza recipe, some people will simply go crazy from its taste and smell, while others may not like this recipe. A fairly logical conclusion follows from this: everyone should try the “four cheese” pizza according to this recipe at least once, after which they will forever cement their relationship with this dish.
Let's look at the traditional recipe for making this pizza and get acquainted with the step-by-step instructions that will help you prepare this wonderful dish at home!
Traditional recipe for making 4 cheese pizza at home
Ingredients
Premium flour | 230-255 g |
Dry yeast | 3-5 g |
Water | 110-130 ml |
Olive oil | 16-18 ml |
Salt | 1-2 pinches |
Garlic cloves | 3-4 pcs. |
Butter | 35-40 g |
Gouda | 90-110 g |
Mozzarella | 90-110 g |
Gorgonzola | 20-30 g |
Parmesan | 40-50 g |
Oregano | taste |
Manufacturing sequence
Preparing the dough
- First you need to prepare a tasty, elastic and easy-to-make dough for our pizza. Sift the wheat flour through a sieve into a bowl and pour a couple of pinches of salt into it. Mix the contents of the bowl with a whisk.
- Add a teaspoon of dry yeast (3-5 g) to the bowl and mix again. It should be noted that almost everything depends on the freshness of the yeast, so make sure that the yeast is of the appropriate quality and freshness.
- Heat approximately a glass of water (110-130 ml) on the stove or in the microwave. It is necessary to specifically heat it to 40-50 degrees, and not bring it to a boil. In warm water, yeast and salt will dissolve much faster. Pour warm water into a bowl of flour. Add one tablespoon of olive oil (16-18 ml). You can, of course, use ordinary vegetable oil, but you should make sure that it is of the highest quality and without a strong aroma.
- We begin to knead the dough little by little. First, we do this with an ordinary tablespoon, and when large enough lumps of dough begin to form, we begin to knead with clean hands. The dough will be quite sticky to your hands during the first steps, but this is completely normal, so you shouldn’t add even more flour.
- Do not stop kneading the dough, this will take about 10-15 minutes. We achieve a smooth structure and uniformity from it. Place the dough formed to the desired structure back into the bowl and cover with a regular towel or cling film. Place the bowl of dough in a warm space for about an hour and a half. During this period of time, the dough will significantly increase in size, become moist, elastic and more flexible for making the most delicious pizza based on it.
Preparing the filling
- We put a clean cutting board on the table and arm ourselves with a grater. First, grate a small amount of mozzarella cheese on a small grater, approximately 90-110 g. It is best to use hard mozzarella, and not the kind that is sold in brine. What is it for? The cheese itself has a rather bland taste, but at the same time it has a property that is very important for any pizza: this cheese stretches very well. This is precisely why mozzarella is simply needed in this recipe.
- Next, grate Gouda cheese (90-110) on a small grater. It will play the role of the main cheese filler, having a fairly ordinary taste and smell.
Baking pizza
- After time has passed, the dough has increased significantly in size and can be removed from the bowl. It needs to be kneaded well one more time, then put on the table, sprinkled with flour in advance.
- Using a kitchen rolling pin, roll out the dough into one wide, narrow layer that will fit on a baking sheet.
- We also lightly sprinkle the baking sheet with a small amount of flour, then moderately spread a layer of dough on it.
- The surface of the dough should be moderately greased with butter and garlic, then sprinkled with oregano or herbs de Provence. If there is neither one nor the other, you can sprinkle with regular dried basil.
- Now it’s the turn of Gorgonzola cheese, we will need about 20-30 g. Because it is very soft and wet, grating it would be a complete torture. Therefore, we simply tear off small pieces of cheese and distribute it moderately over the entire surface of the dough.
- Cover the surface of the crust with grated cheeses.
- Turn on the oven and set the temperature to 200-220 degrees, select the mode without convection with heating from both above and below. Let it warm up. Place the baking sheet on the lowest level of the preheated oven for 5-7 minutes.
- We take our finished pizza out of the oven and enjoy the unsurpassed smell.
Place the pizza on a cutting board or cut it directly on a baking sheet. Bon appetit!
Video recipe for making 4 cheese pizza
If you still have some questions about making pizza according to this recipe, be sure to check out this video. It clearly demonstrates all the stages of production, which will leave you with absolutely no questions.
Conclusion
As you can see, preparing pizza according to this recipe is simply a piece of cake. The main thing is properly kneaded dough, as well as high-quality and tasty cheeses. I think it’s completely unnecessary to say that all traditional pizza recipes are quite personal.
You can stick to them and prepare a dish without leaving the step-by-step controls, and you can create everything the way you want. Believe me, pizza is exactly the dish in which you can give absolute free rein to your imagination; in making pizza, you can experiment with the interior and compatibility of ingredients like in no other dish.
Therefore, experiment, combine what at first glance seems completely incomparable, and in the end you will get a real masterpiece, special, unlike anything else. After all, virtually all the dishes that have gained worldwide fame were prepared through tests, trials, errors, and even the most ordinary accidents.
Well, if you want to get acquainted with other traditional pizza recipes, then this website will help you with that. Be sure to familiarize yourself with making pepperoni pizza, as well as the simplest method for making ordinary pizza with sausage and cheese. The closed calzone pizza will pleasantly surprise your guests and loved ones. Well, if you want to cook pizza without adding products of animal origin, then the recipe for vegetarian pizza will help you with this.
Four cheese pizza
For a long time I was going to post a recipe for Pizza Four Cheeses or Quattro Formaggio (Pizza Quattro Formaggio), but the absence of these four cheeses of good quality on the shelves of our stores stopped me. The joke that in Russia the 4 cheese pizza consists of Poshekhonsky, Russian, Kostroma and Adyghe cheeses still remains burning, but still I decided to let there be a recipe. Perhaps your local store sells remarkable cheeses of all types, produced, for example, in Belarus. Or you live in a region where cheeses never disappeared at all. Or for you, like me, friends from abroad brought these most sacred four cheeses. So, we’ve found some cheeses, let’s make a 4 cheese pizza !
Pizza 4 cheese belongs to the so-called type of snow-white pizza (“pizza Bianca”), i.e. It does not contain the usual tomato sauce and tomatoes for most pizzas. The most important thing here is the cheeses, or rather their combination. It is important here that you have four different types of cheeses: soft, hard, fragrant (spicy) and blue cheeses. The usual composition of pizza is four cheeses : Mozzarella (soft cheese), Parmesan (hard cheese), Emmental (fragrant spicy cheese) and Gorgonzola (blue cheese).
Ingredients
- pizza dough 270 – 300 g
- Mozzarella cheese for pizza 100 g
- Emmental cheese (or Maasdam) 100 g
- Gorgonzola cheese (or other blue cheese) 50 g
- Parmesan cheese 50 g
- olive oil 1 tbsp. spoon
- dried oregano 1 teaspoon
But first, we still need to understand the ingredients that will be useful to us. Firstly, the recipe for pizza dough here: pizza base.
Now let’s discuss cheeses, as I already wrote above, there is fundamentally a combination of different types of cheeses, there should be: soft, hard, fragrant (spicy) and blue cheeses:
● Mozzarella is a young soft Italian cheese in the form of snow-white balls, but here we will use a hard variety of this cheese, the so-called pizza mozzarella. This cheese is not salty, has a neutral taste, melts very well, bakes perfectly and has an unsurpassed stretch when biting into the pizza. Instead, you can take unsalted Suluguni, they are very similar to hard Mozzarella.
● Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano) is a hard, aged cheese that has a rich, special taste and brittle texture. It can be replaced with another hard aged cheese.
● Emmentaler or Emmentaler - an ordinary Swiss cheese with corresponding large holes, this fragrant cheese has a spicy, sweetish taste. Instead, you can use Maasdam cheese; it also has a spicy, sweetish taste and large holes. If you haven’t found either one, take Gouda, Edam or Cheddar, they will also turn out delicious.
● Gorgonzola is an Italian blue cheese, an analogue of the French Roquefort, they are also called “blue cheeses”. Gorgonzola has an appropriately spicy taste and a distinctive smell. Instead, you can use any other blue cheese, for example, the most common German Dorblue.
Manufacturing
First, let's prepare all the ingredients. If you didn’t read a lot of text first, then I repeat that the recipe for pizza dough can be found here: pizza dough. Instead of oregano, you can take other herbs of your choice, for example, dried basil or a mixture of Italian herbs.
Lightly sprinkle the table on which we will roll out the dough with flour. I roll out the dough on parchment and bake it on it later. Roll out the dough to a width of 2-3 mm. We bend the edges 2-3 cm inward and seal them well so that they do not come off during baking, this is how we make the sides for our pizza. As a result, the diameter of my pizza was 32 cm. But, in any case, the diameter of the pizza base is limited by the size of your baking sheet.
At this step, it is better to transfer the base to a baking sheet or form in which you will bake the pizza, and continue to assemble it there; otherwise, later it will be very difficult to create it with the inside. I bake pizza on parchment on a baking sheet turned upside down, then the sides of the baking sheet do not interfere, and it is very convenient to put and remove the pizza.
Lubricate the base with olive oil, sprinkle with oregano or other spices of your choice. In my pizza base recipe, I lightly bake the crust before adding the toppings to ensure the dough comes out crispy. There is no need to create this in a pizza with 4 cheeses, because there is no watery tomato sauce and tomatoes, which give a lot of juice and soak the base, so we will bake this pizza right away, along with the inside.
Cut Emmental and mozzarella into slices 5-10 mm wide. You can immediately cut them into cubes, but I prefer not to cut the cheese in advance, but to tear small pieces from the sliced cheese and place them on the pizza right away. This way the pieces turn out to be unequal, in some places larger, in others much smaller, and, it seems to me, this makes the tastes of different cheeses better felt. There is no need to grate the cheeses and cut them very finely, otherwise they will quickly melt, mix and this combination of different cheeses will no longer be possible. Also, grated and finely chopped cheese melts very quickly and can begin to burn while the dough is not yet fully baked.
But we grate Parmesan on a small grater, because it takes a long time to melt, and if we cut it coarsely, it may not have time to melt by the time the pizza is ready.
I also cut the Gorgonzola into large pieces, and later I will break off small pieces from them and immediately place them on the pizza. Gorgonzola crumbles very well and is very easy to distribute using this method. But, if you are using other blue cheeses, they are the densest ones, and it is probably better to cut them into small pieces in advance, rather than trying to crumble them right on top of the pizza.
Place chopped or torn mozzarella on the base, and also add chopped emmental on top.
Spread the gorgonzola.
Sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top. Preheat the oven to the highest temperature (220-250°C), the best mode is bottom + top. If your oven does not allow you to turn on these modes at once, then first turn on the fire from below, and at the end switch to the top, so that you can also bake the pizza on top. We bake the pizza on a medium level for about 10-15 minutes, but the time, of course, depends very much on your oven. All the cheese should melt and begin to bake slightly, the dough should become golden brown. But do not overbake so that the dough does not dry out.
The four-cheese pizza is ready, you can garnish it with the freshest basil and eat it while it’s hot.
Bon appetit!