Mini pizzas as canapés work so well. Pizza bianco (using a white sauce instead of tomato) infused with truffle elevates these little pillowy soft pizzas. Tunworth cheese and Serano Ham is a delicious combo. Make sure to make plenty, as they are so delicious.
8 hrs
3 min
4-6 pers
Canapés
Ingredients
Dough
250g strong bread flour
112g water
3.5g dried yeast
150ml warm water 6g salt
Black truffle béchamel
25g butter
25g flour
250ml whole milk
Pinch of cracked black pepper
1 tsp truffle oil
25g Parmesan
Toppings
50g sliced Serrano ham
100g sliced Tunworth, Baron Bigod cheese - or other Brie-like cheese
25ml extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp thyme leaves
1x 50g truffle to go wild with
Directions
Step 1 - Make the dough.
Firstly, add the warm water to a jug and add the olive oil and dried yeast, give it a stir together and then leave to stand for 15 minutes, longer if the room is colder. Add the flour to a large mixing bowl, and then add the yeasted water to the bowl, and bring together with your hands. Work for five minutes until it becomes a smooth, homogenous dough. Then cover loosely with cling film and place in the fridge overnight to proof slowly.
Step 2 - Make the bechamel sauce.
Truffle béchamel.You will want to make the white sauce the day before.
To start, warm the milk in saucepan until it comes to body temperature. In a separate pan, warm the butter until it starts to bubble, then stir in the flour and cook out over a low heat for 3 minutes. Then begin to ladle in the warm milk, stirring as you pour in the milk, to avoid a lumpy white sauce. Keep adding until you have a lump-free white sauce. Keep the white sauce on a low heat and keep on cooking for around 15 minutes: you want cook-off the raw flour flavour. Once the sauce is cooked out, add the grated Parmesan, cracked black pepper and truffle oil (and, if needed, a pinch of salt). Stir and combine the ingredients and then spoon onto a small container and leave to cool, before popping on a lid. Keep in the fridge until the next day.
Step 3 - Prepare the Charlie Oven.
Arrange the racks in the Charlie Oven so that they are in the top half. Place a pizza stone on the racks that you intend to use.
Light the Charlie Oven with a bit more charcoal than usual, to get it to a really high temperature.
Let the temperature rise, and set it between 350°C and 400°C.
Step 4 - Divide the dough and shape into small pizza bases.
Remove the dough from the fridge and remove the clingfilm and discard. Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and then knock back. Divide the dough into 12 equal balls around 30g each. Sprinkle the surface with a little semolina and flour, then roll each ball out into a 10cm disc: repeat for all balls.
Step 5 - Add the toppings.
Next, add a tablespoon of the white sauce to each disc of dough and spread out over the disc while making sure you leave a little gap between the edge of the dough and the sauce, like you would if you were making a tomato-based pizza. For the toppings, place on the Tunworth cheese and Serrano ham and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Step 6 - Bake the pizzas.
Place each pizza onto the pizza stone in the Charlie one and bake for 2-3 minutes until the dough is blistered and the cheese is bubbling away. Repeat the process for all the over-white-based pizzas.
Step 6 - Finishing touches.
When the pizzas come out of the oven, grate each one with a generous portion of the truffle, so that the warm pizza releases all of those wonderful truffle aromas. Finally, sprinkle over the thyme leaves and serve.