I’m so excited to share this super easy and simple recipe for mini pizzas! It takes only 15 minutes to have these mini pizzas ready to eat. What’s the trick? Well, you don’t need to make the dough! We’re using naan bread as the crust for our mini pizzas.
If you are one of the lucky ones that managed to scoop up active yeast and flour prior to it being completely sold out, then awesome for you! No, I’m serious. I am very happy for you because having the power to bake savory foods and also pastries from scratch at home without having to leave your house is a luxury right now, in my opinion. Am I a little bit jealous? I sure am.
But alas! Shortly after my husband and I decided to quarantine ourselves as a precaution, I realized that active yeast for sale was non existent, and that I’d have to figure something else out in order to bake a satisfactory pizza.
So what did I do to curb my pizza craving without active yeast? I resorted to good old baking powder. And you know what? My pizza crust actually came out exceptionally good! This Easy Pizza Dough Recipe (No Yeast) is now my go to recipe if I’m feeling like making a pizza from scratch. With this recipe, from start to finish, your fresh homemade pizza is done and ready to devour within 30 minutes!
But what if you can’t get your hands on baking powder? What if flour is even sold out of stock? A few months ago, that question would’ve been unheard of, but today this is the world we live in. The good news is, experts say there is no shortage of wheat, and therefore flour. The issue is that when these essential items fly off the shelves all at once, it becomes a challenge to restock efficiently.
Nevertheless, if you’re unable to find flour, baking powder, and active dry yeast, I have a solution for your pizza craving: naan bread! What is naan bread? Naan is a type of oven-baked flat bread. It is leavened so it has a lovely light fluffy texture. The main ingredients used to make naan bread are milk, yogurt, bakers yeast, and several types of flour such as wheat, maida, and atta flour.
Naan bread is a common food in western and South Asian cuisines as well as in the Caribbean and Myanmar.
How do you cook naan bread? Naan bread is typically cooked inside a very hot tandoori oven. The tandoor is a cylindrical oven made of clay or metal.
First there is a fire built at the bottom of the tandoor, and the flame heats the walls of the oven. Prior to cooking, the fire is put out and the hot coals are used to cook food. The tandoor’s temperatures can approach 900 degrees Fahrenheit!
Naan bread is cooked by sticking the dough to the hot walls of the tandoor. The naan dough adheres to the heated sides of the oven, cooks very quickly, and is then peeled off and removed from the tandoor.
What’s the difference between naan bread and pita bread? On the surface the two are so similar: round and leavened flatbreads. But if you take a closer look, you’ll find that there are some major differences.
Naan bread is made with yogurt, milk, and sometimes eggs and butter. This results in a super soft texture. When cooking in the tandoor oven, the naan bread bubbles up and becomes puffy and airy.
Pita bread is not quite as soft in texture as naan bread. Pita has fewer ingredients than naan bread: typically only yeast, flour, water, and salt. Pita can be prepared in a modern oven, however the texture of pita bread is firmer and tougher than that of naan bread. Pita also has a pocket which opens up after cooking, used to stuff the bread with various ingredients and sauces.
So the bottom line is this: naan bread is a delicious fluffy, soft, and round leavened bread that is perfect to use for pizza dough. And since naan bread can be purchased all ready to eat, it makes for a very quick and easy meal!
What You Need:
2 naan bread
4 tbsp pizza sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 tbsp crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup sliced white mushrooms
1/2 cup sliced black olives
1/2 cup grilled chicken cubes (or rotisserie chicken)
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Remove your naan bread from packaging and place on a baking sheet or pizza pan. Since we do not need to bake the dough first, we can add the toppings we love immediately.
Spoon the pizza sauce over your naan breads. Add the chicken cubes. Slice white mushrooms and black olives, and sprinkle over pizzas. Finally, crumble feta over top and finish off with shredded mozzarella cheese!
Bake two mini naan pizzas in your preheated oven for 8-10 minutes until mushrooms are cooked and cheese is melted.
Variations:
When I cook these mini naan pizzas for my family, I like to cook a few at a time and make different kinds! Try making one with Alfredo sauce, one with pizza sauce, and another with bbq sauce! You can top these pizzas with different veggies and meats too, whichever are your favorites and your family’s favorites.
Of course I consider myself very fortunate to be able to get my hands on naan bread at a time like this, and consider it an absolute luxury food. I hope that you try these mini naan pizzas, when you find yourself out of other ingredients that are crucial to baking such as yeast, flour, and baking powder. And I hope they bring you happiness and comfort as they do for me.