Mini Pepperami Pizzas are perfect finger food for a festive soiree, or in this case, an office fuddle.

To save time, you can make the dough the night before and let it prove overnight in the fridge. The cool of the fridge will retard the dough, and it will prove slowly. This is a good thing, as it is a known fact that the slower prove you give your bread mixtures, the better the flavour.

Follow the basic pizza dough recipe below. Divide your dough into about 16 pieces. Press out your mini pizzas and then top with tomato sauce, cheese and any other desired topping. I wanted to create mini pizzas that looked like my favourite pepperoni, but I obviously couldn’t use the full size slices of pepperoni which are almost as big as the pizzas. Instead, I used little slices of Pepperami. You can obviously leave this off for a vegetarian version.

Once baked, cool on a cooling rack, then store in an airtight container in the fridge for no more than 2 or 3 days.

Basic Pizza Dough

Print recipe

Serves

2

Ingredients

• 350g Strong White Bread Flour
• 7g Instant Yeast
• 30ml Olive Oil
• 225ml Water (or you use milk for a softer base)
• 1 teaspoon Caster Sugar

Directions

1.	Warm your water/milk until about body temp, then place in a mixing bowl. Add the yeast and sugar, then leave for 10 mins to bloom.
2.	Next add in the olive oil, and after a quick stir, add the flour. Mix in until it forms together into a nice ball of dough.
3.	Place the ball of dough onto a lightly floured surface and kneed for about 8-10 minutes. By now, it should be nice and smooth and stretchy.
4.	Place it back in the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to prove and double in size. You can do this at room temperature, in which case it should only take an hour or so. Alternatively, you can do the mixing in advance, and leave it in the bowl covered in cling film in the fridge for about 12 hours, even 24 if necessary, but not much longer.
5.	Once the proving is over, divide the dough into 2 balls.
6.	Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 6 / 200°C / 400°F
7.	Dust a couple of baking trays with some cornmeal (if you have it - if not use flour)
8.	Using your thumbs press each ball into a rough 8-10" circle and lay on the baking tray
9.	Smooth over a tablespoon of tomato puree and then toppings of choice
10.	Bake for 12-15 minutes