Pizza Star
This fantastic dish is based on a short video afriend sent me on how to bake a steak pizza star.
Equipment
- Baking tray Greaseproof paper
Ingredients
For the dough (makes 4 pizza stars)
- 500 grams 3 1/3 cups. unbleached flour
- 1 ½ tsp dried yeast
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 ½ cup water
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
For the filling (fills 1 star):
- ¼ cup Philadelphia type cream cheese
- 4 smoked ham halved lengthwise
- 8 slices fresh mozzarella
- 8 basil leaves
- 4 cherry tomatoes sliced (you could also use larger tomatoes. You will need 4 round tomato slices, cut in the middle)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Olive oil for brushing
- Some dried oregano
Instructions
- Make the dough: Mix flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the water and olive oil. Mix with a spoon until dough starts coming together, and then knead until you have a soft dough. You can also do this in a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Shape dough in a ball and put in an oiled bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for 1 ½ – 2 hours until at least double in size. Preheat oven to 200° C. Tip the risen dough on a work surface and divide in four pieces. Shape pieces into balls. Take a piece of greaseproof paper and dust it lightly with flour. Place one piece of dough on the paper and roll to a 30cm circle. If dough gives you a hard time to roll and pulls back, let it rest for 10 minutes and try again.
- Use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter, cut four lines in the shape of an asterisk in the centre of the rolled dough. Spread the cream cheese all around leaving a 2cm border. Top the cream cheese with the remaining ingredients. Sprinkle with plenty of black pepper. Starting with the outside circle, bring one piece of dough over the topping, until you reached half way. Take one of the triangles formed by the asterisk and fold over to enclose the topping. Repeat until all the toppings are enclosed.
- Brush the surface with olive oil and sprinkle with dried oregano. Transfer the pizza star, with the greaseproof paper, on a baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes. Let it rest for 10 minutes and serve.
Notes
You can brush the pizza star with egg wash. It will make it shinier. Some other ideas for the toppings are feta, olives, sausage, salami, roasted red peppers, cheddar cheese and whatever makes your appetite tick!