Pizza with gorgonzola, caramelized onions, pear, beets, and rocket

Making homemade pizza dough requires a bit of advance prep and effort, but it's absolutely worth the effort.  The dough here was kneaded using a bread maker, but it is just as easy to use a food processor or knead by hand.  Adapted from Cooks Illustrated.

Ingredients

For the dough

1 3/4 c water, divided into 1/2 cup warm, 1 1/4 c tap temperature
1 t dry active yeast
2 T olive oil

4 c strong white bread flour

1.5 t salt 

For the pizza

a jar of your favorite tomato sauce

a hunk of gorgonzola, crumbled

250g fresh mozzarella, cut into small chunks

200 g baby beets (sweetfire is best), cut into small chunks

1 pear, sliced thinly

2 red onions, caramelized (see here for a recipe)

1/2 c parmesian, grated

6 cups fresh rocket

Instructions

For the dough

1) Combine 1/4 c warm water with yeast in a medium bowl, and let stand 5 minutes, until yeast dissolves and swells to produce bubbles.  

2) Add remaining 1/4 c water, 1 1/4 c tap water, and 2 T olive oil.

3) Combine flour with salt.

4a) If using a bread maker, combine all ingredients together and let the machine do the work.

4b) If using a food processor, place flour/salt into the food processor, pulse to combine well, then add the liquid ingredients, pulsing all the while until a ball of dough forms.

5) Process dough in food processor with short pulses for 30 seconds to a minute, until the dough is smooth and satiny.

6) Lightly flour a work surface, turn dough out, and knead by hand for about a minute to form a small ball.  

7) Place dough into a lightly oiled large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a cool place for about 4 hours, until the dough has doubled in size.

For the pizza

I like to improvise with quantities for ingredients.  Here, you should have enough toppings for about 3 pizzas - feel free to decrease/increase the quantities of any of the toppings to suit your taste.  You will have some leftover dough, which can be wrapped tightly in cling film and frozen.

1) Preheat the oven to 250C.  Cover a large work surface with flour, take a piece of dough the size of a fist, and roll dough out from the middle outwards, with a rolling pin, until it is to the thickness of your liking.  (See here for tips)

2) Place the dough onto a baking stone or tray, and layer with ingredients: spray with a bit of olive oil, slather base with 2-3 T tomato sauce, and sprinkle with gorgonzola, mozzarella, red onions, pear, and beets.  

3) Sprinkle the top with parmesian, and bake for 8-12 minutes, until the crust is gold brown and the toppings are browning slightly.

4) Serve sprinkled with fresh rocket.