Goats Cheese, Pecan, Cranberry &Thyme Festive Pizza

This pizza ticks all the boxes for me sweet versus tangy!! Awesome. Homemade pizza is a family all-rounder, as kids love to help making them and the toppings can be customised to suit even the fussiest of eaters. Take my house for example, my husband is afraid of veggies and for him, pizza is all about getting the most amount of meat possible on a pizza.

 I on the other hand prefer nuts and salad and rarely have meat on my pizza. Hence for my pizza, I've created a festive vegetarian friendly pizza. It has the sweetness and sharpness from the cranberries, the crunch from the pecan nuts, the salty tang from the goats cheese and I make it even sweeter then by drizzling the pizza with balsamic vinegar and honey just before serving.

Don't waste any pizza dough though when finished. As I only made two pizzas I put the remaining dough in a resealable box and popped it in the freezer. Now I know that more homemade pizzas can be at my finger tips and won't require the same dough making effort the second time round. Just defrost at room temperature until completely defrosted, Then work the dough and make your pizzas.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

Makes 4-5 pizzas

Ingredients

• 500g of strong white flour (for bread making)
• 1 7g sachet fast acting yeast
• 330ml of warm water
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tbsp of salt

Method

1. Sieve the salt and flour into a bowl.
2. Add the yeast and oil to the water and leave to stand for a few minutes
3. Make a well in the flour and add the liquid.
4. Work the dough into the liquid and kneed until you have a smooth springy dough.
5. Dust a clean large bowl with flour, and place the dough in the bowl.
6. Wet a tea towel and cover the bowl completely with the tea towel. Set the dough in a warm part of the kitchen for an hour to double in size.
7. After an hour, dust some flour on your work surface and turn out the dough.
8. Kneed for 10-15 minutes to knock out the air.
9. When you are happy with your dough, using a knife divide the dough into equal pieces for pizzas.
10. Using a roll pin, roll out the pizza try to maintain a neat circle if possible. (Though don't get too hung up on the perfect circle, these are homemade after all and the more rustic the better.)
11. Place the rolled pizza dough on a floured baking tray.
12. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.
13. At this point the pizzas are ready to be adorned with their toppings.

Goats Cheese, Pecan & Cranberry Festive Pizza

Ingredients

• 1 rolled pizza dough on a floured baking tray (recipe above)
• 2 tbsp of passata
• 1/4 ball of buffallo mozzeralla, shredded
• 3-4 sprigs of thyme leaves
• 50g of goats cheese,sliced
• 50g of pecan nuts
• 50g of fresh cranberries
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• Honey for drizzling
• Balsamic Vinegar for drizzling 
• Peppery rocket for garnishing

Method

1. Spread the passata over the dough and then scatter the pizza with the mozzeralla, goats cheese, pecans and cranberries.
2. Scatter the thyme leaves over the pizza and drizzle with the oil.
3. Bake in the oven for 7-10 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and the base has browned.
4. Before serving, scatter the rocket over the pizza and drizzle with some honey and balsamic vinegar.