Paneer Makhani Pizza

Combine the appetizing flavours of the famous Indian Paneer Makhani and the Italian pizza with this tasty Paneer Makhani pizza.

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Grab your cup of coffee for this long but detailed post on how to make a delicious Paneer Makhani Pizza!

Ingredients

Step by step Instructions

Pizza making tips

Ingredients

Making a Paneer Makhani pizza at home has three parts. You will need to prep ingredients for three parts of this recipe and all of it can be prepped one day in advance!

Pizza Base
Makhani Pizza Sauce
Pizza Toppings

You can optionally use few tools like the ones below:

Pizza Tray: You can use a pizza tray like this(9-inch) so that your pizza comes out round every time. But one concern is you can only bake one pizza at a time in one tray. If you are not concerned about the shape of the pizza, you may skip this one.
Pizza Cutter: I use this one. You can also use a knife for this.

For making the dough for pizza base:

All-Purpose Flour: Use bread flour for making pizza. Read Baking 101 for more on basics of baking.
If you are making pizza for the first time, do not try to make this “healthier” and substitute with whole wheat flour. You will get better results with APF so be kind to yourself.

Instant Yeast: I prefer using instant yeast as it is so convenient: just add to the flour and start kneading unlike regular active dry yeast which needs to be activated first before you add it to the dough.
Salt & Sugar: Sugar for feeding the yeast so it starts working and salt to flavour the dough.
Oil/Butter: Some fat is required while making the dough and you can choose which one to use between oil and butter. Avoid unhealthy options like margarine and lard.

Mixed Spices/Oregano: This is an optional ingredient but will add a lot of flavour to the pizza base; so this one is highly recommended.

For the Makhani Sauce:

Tomatoes: The hero ingredient of this sauce. Use ripe and juicy tomatoes to make a good flavourful sauce. Raw/greenish tomatoes are not that juicy so avoid them.
Onion: We need only one medium/two small onions in this recipe. Using an onion balances the tangy taste of tomatoes and also imparts a sweet flavour to the sauce. Do not skip onions.
Mixed Herbs/Oregano: The main spice to any pizza sauce; adding mixed herbs or just dried oregano will elevate your basic pizza dough one level up.

Tomato Ketchup: This one is optional but I like adding little tomato ketchup to the pizza sauce. You can experiment with this one. There are so many like the hot n spicy one, classic ketchup, oregano flavoured ketchup, etc. Use your favourite or skip this one.
Ginger Garlic Paste: An Indian kitchen staple! It gives a flavour punch to the sauce and there is no more explanation needed.
Kasoori Methi: This is dried fenugreek leaves and it is what gives the sauce the makhani flavour. Do not skip this.

Coriander Powder & Cumin Powder: Every makhani gravy has few basic trademark spices and these two are among them. Use homemade powders as they are easy and economical not to forget more flavourful than store bought ones. Just roast the spices separately and grind them to a powder.
Cloves & Green Cardamom: These spices will give a unique fragrance and taste to the sauce just like how it is added to any makhani gravy/pulav recipes.

For the toppings:

Paneer/Cottage Cheese: Use store-bought paneer for this as homemade will mostly crumble while marinating.
Capsicum(Green & Yellow): You can stick to the green variety but using different coloured capsicums will make your pizza look good.

Onions: Skip this if you do not like onions on your pizza.
Red Chilli/ Red Pepper: This is a medium spicy chilli which you can remember seeing on readymade pizzas like Dominoes. It looks like the picture below:
Turmeric Powder, Red Chilli Powder & Salt: These are required for marinating the paneer. Do not skip any.

Mozzarella & Cheddar Cheese: I use both types on a pizza for best results. If you use only mozzarella, that is fine too.

Step by step: Paneer Makhani Pizza

Step 1: Preparing the dough

Measure the flour and add in salt, sugar, dried herbs and instant yeast. Make a dough with water and knead it for until it becomes soft and pliable. Keep kneading until it passes the windowpane test. Keep reading to know about the windowpane test.

What is the windowpane test and why is it important when making a pizza?

For this test, take a small ball of dough. Flatten and stretch it from four corners to make a square. Here’s what you should see for a successful test:

The dough should not tear. It should stretch and let some light pass through as you can see in the below picture.

Yes, it will tear if you stretch it too much but it should be elastic enough to sustain the stretch.

This test is important to check if the pizza dough is ready for proofing. If the dough stretches without tearing, the gluten has developed enough to sustain the rise in the oven.

The more stretchable your dough, the higher it will rise in the oven making your bread(in this case pizza) soft and fluffy.

If you proceed without passing the windowpane test, your pizza base will come out dense after baking, if the dough is not kneaded enough and gluten is not developed. Many pizza recipes only ask for kneading the dough until it is smooth. But remember to make your dough pass this test.

Let’s proof!

Now your dough is ready to be kept aside for proofing. This should usually take minimum one and half to two hours at room temperature. To make the dough flavourful, considering leaving the dough in the refrigerator for the first proofing for six to eight hours.

This makes the proofing slow down and the allows the flavours to come together beautifully.

Your pizza will be more flavourful if the dough proofs nicely for eight hours. That means if you are planning to make pizza on a Sunday, make the dough on Saturday. But if that is not possible, proofing for two hours at room temperature should be sufficient.

You can make the makhani pizza sauce one day ahead to minimize your time in the kitchen. Believe me it is so easy and similar to the gravy that is made for the actual Paneer Makhani recipe.

Step 2: Preparing the Makhani Pizza Sauce

Start chopping the onions and tomatoes into large chunks like you would for any Indian curry.
Start with some oil in a pan and once the oil is considerably hot, sauté the onions first on a low-medium flame until golden brown and caramelized. Add the Ginger-garlic paste and sauté for a minute.
Add in the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes disintegrate and are cooked completely. They should be easily mashable with the back of the spoon.

Turn off the heat and let it cool. Make puree.
Again in the same pan, put some oil and once it is hot add the whole spices: Cloves and Green Cardamom. Now add the puree and mix everything.
Then, a teaspoonful or more of the turmeric & red chilli powder. Also, now come in the oregano and ketchup. Add them and crush some kasoori methi between both hands and add it to the pan. Put in the coriander-cumin powder now. Keep cooking for few minutes and adjust the consistency.

Your makhani pizza sauce is ready!

Step 3: Preparing the toppings

There is an important prep with Paneer which simply changes the game. This one step of marinating the paneer cubes makes a big deal of flavour difference than when you put plain paneer cubes on the pizza.

For marinating, you will need paneer cubes, salt and red chilli powder, a dash of turmeric and kasoori methi.

Mix everything and let the marinated paneer sit for atleast 30 minutes. You can also finish this prep step one day in advance.

Do you need to marinate the capsicum too?

No, you need not marinate the capsicums. Just chop and keep it ready.

Also, If your cheese is frozen, take out the approximate required quantity, chop it into small cubes and thaw it until it comes to room temperature. If you put frozen mozzarella cheese on pizza, it is not going to melt easily and you will not have that famous cheesy “stringy” “thread” texture when the pizza slices are pulled apart. Sad.

So, thaw your cheese till room temperature before using.

Pizza Dough after proofing.

Step 4: Assembling & Baking

Once the dough is done proofing once, divide it in to 5 sections. You can make 5 six-inch pizzas or up to 7 thin crust pizzas (of six inches). The number of pizzas you can make with this dough depends on how large you want your pizza to be.

After one or two attempts of making pizza, you will understand how thick/thin you like your pizza base. I like personalized pizzas so everyone can choose their toppings and eat peacefully which is the reason I have divided the dough for six inch pizzas.

Below is the picture of the pizza with my favourite toppings. Scroll up to where I have explained the makhani sauce and you will see my daughter’s pizza which had paneer and yellow capsicum slices(no green capsicum for her!) which she did not pick out and keep on the side. Perfect and fuss-free! You can make two large pizzas or three medium pizzas as well as per your preference.

Let’s make this yummy pizza!

First, cut few pieces of parchment paper which are more in size than the pizza size. We are going to bake the pizzas on individual parchment sheets.
Start with one dough ball. Take one parchment sheet, place the dough on it and flatten it by hand till it is six inches in diameter.
Spread the makhani pizza sauce generously. Sprinkle some dried oregano and mixed pizza herbs now.

Next, arrange the cubes of thawed mozzarella cheese and also cheddar cheese, if using. I have used readymade grated cheddar cheese which you can see in the pizza picture above. You will need to add at least that much cheese for that stringy texture afterwards.
Here’s the final step: Spread your toppings: Add the paneer cubes, capsicum, red chilli or any other toppings that you may wish to add like onions.
Preheat the oven with the baking tray inside. This will help to bake the pizza better. Ever heard of pizza stone? This is my DIY version of a regular pizza stone. You only need to slide the parchment with the pizza on it when the preheating is done.

Bake at 180°C for 20 minutes on the lower shelf.
Serve hot!

Here is the detailed recipe: