An apple, pancetta and smoked cheddar white pizza topped with a generous drizzle of honey and lots of fresh arugula, to serve. A great savoury apple pizza!
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Ingredients
Pizza Dough (or use store-bought pizza dough):
2 1/3cups(306g)00 pizza flour, SPOONED AND LEVELLED (or substitute more all-purpose flour)
2 1/3cups (306g)all-purpose flour, SPOONED AND LEVELLED
2teaspoonsfine salt
1 1/2teaspoonsactive dry or instant yeast
1 3/4cups (440g)lukewarm water
2teaspoonsolive oil
Pizza toppings for one 10-12 inch pizza (double/triple as needed):
1 - 1 1/2cupssmoked white cheddar, shredded
1/2-3/4red apple, quartered, cored and thinly sliced *see Note 2 below for apple suggestions
2Tablespoonshoney
2-3slicespancetta or bacon, *see Note 1 below
For garnish:
additional drizzling of honey
baby arugula
Instructions
Tip! If making the pizza dough, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale and the weight measurements for best results. As everyone measures flour differently, you can easily end up using too much flour. If you don't have a scale, be sure to stir the flour and then spoon it into the measuring cups. Level off with the back of a knife.
For the pizza dough:
Add both flours and the salt to a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the kneading hook. Stir together briefly.
Add the yeast to the lukewarm water and let stand 5-10 minutes. Add the yeast mixture to the bowl with the flours, together with the olive oil. Begin mixing at speed 2 on a Kitchenaid mixer until the dough comes together. Mix for 3-4 minutes, then stop the mixer and cover the top of the mixer with a tea towel. Let it stand for 15 minutes. Remove the tea towel and knead again at Speed 2 for another 3-4 minutes. The dough will be quite moist, but it should clean the sides bowl. (If your dough seems too sticky, add a bit more flour, a Tablespoon at a time, until it cleans the bowl. See the step-by-step photos to see what the dough should look like at this point.)
Remove the dough to a floured work surface. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Form each dough piece into a ball. *Add additional flour only if the dough is sticking to your hands or the work surface.
Tip! If you won't use all of the dough balls, place into a plastic bag and freeze them for later use.
Allow the dough ball or balls to rise covered with an inverted bowl (or greased plastic wrap) for 3-4 hours.
If using a pizza stone, about 30-45 minutes before the pizza will be baked, place it into the cold oven, then preheat the oven to 550F (or the hottest setting on your oven). Otherwise, simply preheat the oven to 550F when the dough is near finished rising and bake the pizza on a large baking sheet.
To prepare the pizza:
Sprinkle a sheet of parchment paper with flour or cornmeal. Take a dough ball and stretch it out with our fingertips to about a 10-inch circle. Drizzle the dough with olive oil. Scatter the shredded smoked cheddar evenly over the dough, then arrange the apple slices on top of the cheese. Drizzle generously with honey.
If using thicker pancetta or bacon, add it on top of the pizza now. If using the thin pancetta (prosciutto-thin) wait and add it to the pizza halfway through cooking, to avoid over-cooking it.
Slide the pizza on the parchment paper onto a pizza peel for transferring onto the hot pizza stone or place on the parchment on a baking sheet.
Bake the pizza in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until the crust is golden.
Remove from the oven. Drizzle with a bit more honey, then garnish with baby arugula to serve.
Notes
Note 1: Pancetta comes in many forms. You can find it very thinly sliced (like prosciutto) or diced into cubes. You can also find it as a slab that you slice yourself. Any of these will work just fine, as will bacon as a substitute. As noted above, if using the very thin variety, add it to the top of the pizza halfway through baking to avoid over-cooking it.Note 2: I recommend a red-skinned, somewhat tart apple. The tart is a nice contrast with the sweet honey on this pizza. McIntosh, Cosmic Crisp or Pink Lady would all be good choices.Be sure to read the notes above this recipe card for substitution suggestions and step-by-step photos that you might find helpful.