Chocolate pizza

Ingredients

• 100g homemade or shop bought Gü Chocolate Ganache
• 2 tsp active dried yeast
• 250g plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp of salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil, plus a trickle more
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 6 tbsp double cream
• 50g dark, milk or white chocolate, or a mixture of all three, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• 1tbsp dark brown sugar

Method

Yes really! This is most definitely a pizza with a twist. It uses the recipe for Gü Classic Ganache, which is piped onto the dough edge and sealed in before baking. Once baked, it melts inside the crust, and squidges out when you bite into it. Heavenly! If your love of chocolate doesn’t take you quite this far, however, then the stuffed crust is optional. As with a regular pizza, add toppings to your own taste.

Makes 1x 29cm round pizza

Equipment required

Food processor
Piping bag fitted with a 1cm piping nozzle

How to make chocolate pizza

1. Make (or buy the Gü Chocolate Ganache), if using.

2. Pour 150ml of warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with the yeast and leave to stand for about 5 minutes or until the yeast dissolves and starts to bubble.

3. Tip the flour, cocoa powder and salt into a food processor. Trickle in the oil and, with the machine running, pour in the yeast mixture and blend just until a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface (don’t add too much flour here), and kneed for about only a minute or until smooth.

4. Drop the dough into a large bowl, add a trickle of oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover and set aside in a warm, draft-free area for about an hour until the dough doubles in size.,

5. Preheat the oven to 220C/Gas mark 7 and place a baking sheet in to heat up to help to give your pizza a crisper base. Punch down the dough to remove any excess air (the perfect time to get rid of any excess frustration), and make it into a neat ball.

6. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 33cm circle. Fill your piping bag (or plastic bag) with the ganache, if using, and pipe a thin sausage all around the dough base, leaving a 2cm gap at the outside edge.

7. Brush a little water onto the dough around the inside of the ganache to dampen it, and roll over the outside of the dough, but not too tightly, to enclose the ganache. Press the inside edge to seal tightly.

8. Remove the hot baking tray from the oven and slide the dough base onto it. Brush all over with the melted butter and prick the centre lightly with a fork. Then bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are starting to brown and the centre is crispy.

9. Drizzle the centre with the cream, scatter with the chopped chocolate and nuts and sprinkle with the sugar. Put back in oven for a minute, just to warm up and melt the topping.

Gü tip

Use the raw dough straight away or at the end of step 3 wrap it in cling film and keep it in the fridge until the next day. Just punch it down again and use as above.

Gü toppings

Go on, embrace variety: add a sprinkling of cocoa powder or a little citrus dust; a slather of chocolate praline spread or crumbled pieces of sesame nougatine. The choice is yours!

Recipe from Gü Cookbook, Harper Collins 2012