Chocolate Chip Ginger Muffins

The combination of chocolate and ginger is supposed to be heavenly and this what I did when I tried the delicious chocolate chip and candied ginger muffin from BakingBites.The delicious blog has several excellent recipes and this recipe is a sureshot winner.I halved the recipe and made it eggless and can guarantee that the chocolate ginger combo is indeed heavenly.

Ingredients:
Dry Mix:
All Purpose Flour: 1 and 1/4 cup
Powdered Ginger: 1/2 tsp
Sugar: 9 tbsp
Baking Powder: 1 tsp
Baking Soda :1/4 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp

Wet Mix:
Butter: 3 tbsp Unsalted and melted and cooled
ButterMilk: 1/2 cup
Milk: 1/4 cup
Vanilla Extract: 1/2 tsp

Chocolate Chips: few handfls : 3/4 cup +
Candied/Crystalline Ginger: 3 tbsp + chopped into fine pieces

Preparation:
In a big bowl,whisk together all the dry ingredients of flour,sugar,salt,ginger powder,baking powder and soda.

In a small bowl,mix in the wet items.

Make a well in the centre of the dry mix and pour in the wet mix.Mix together just until combined to obtain a thick batter.Fold in choc chips and chopped ginger into this batter.Alternately you can add in the choc chips and ginger to the dry mix prior to making the batter.Do refer the original recipe if eggs are ok with you.Since there was only 1 egg,and I had halved the recipe,I replaced the 1/2 egg with 2 tbsp of yoghurt

Pour spoonfuls of batter into lined/greased muffin cups -I actually filled the cups to the brim rather than 2/3rds to obtain big size muffins.Sprinkle chocchip on top of each muffin -I put these in the centre alone.


Bake in a preheated oven at 375F/190C for 20 + minutes until done.The original recipe went for 18-21 minutes.But mine took more than 25 minutes.So keep an eye on the muffins after 20 minutes and bake them until the top is browned and the tester inserted in the centre comes clean.

The aroma during baking is heavenly and obviously so is the taste.The combo is very deadly and I hope to repeat it.The muffins came out soft and slightly crumbly and big.They looked like normal choc chip muffins,but when tasted the ginger gave a nice tasty and surprising bite .

Ginger being the surprise package the muffins are gingerly joining the round up at Weekend Wokking:Ginger hosted this time by MomGateway and started by Wandering Chopsticks

Pomegranate Soup

Pomegranate soup or Aash-e-Anar is an Iranian soup made using rice,lentils ,optional beet,traditionally meat balls and obviously pomegranate juice.I had bookmarked this soup from Asha's Blog where she had made the soup from a book named same by Marsha Mehran and had obtained the recipe from the same book.I was actually about to post it for T&T:Foodieshope but when the same book was chosen for BookClub I decided to read the boook and then post the same.But as Luck would have it,I couldn't gethold of the book,but still Thanks to Simran, I am posting it.Apart from Asha's recipe which I followed ,I also referenced here and made addition of Paprika substituting Aleppo Pepper,but avoided the koftas or meat balls as I felt it would be too much,but traditionally the dish is served as a one-pot meal.

Ingredients:
Olive oil: 1+ tbsp
Onion: 1 small chopped finely
Garlic: 1-2 cloves minced or chopped finely

Moong Dal (Yellow split Peas): 2-3 tbsp
Basmati Rice: 4 tbsp
Beetroot: 1 medium slice (2-3 tbsp)Peeled and finely chopped/grated
Water:2+ cup

Salt
Pepper
Paprika/Aleppo Pepper
Turmeric Powder

Fresh Herbs: Parsley+mint+Cilantro 3 tbsp each (I avoided parsley and increased mint)
Spring Onions: 1-2 tbsp (I did not add)
Fresh Pom Juice:1 cup+
Sugar: 1 tsp
Angelica Powder: 2 tbsp (I did not add any)

Optional spices: as per taste
CuminPowder
Chilli flakes

Preparation:

Heat olive oil in a deep pan,saute the onions and garlic till they turn brown.Add the washed and picked lentils and rice and saute till oil coats each grain and then add chopped beet,salt,turmeric powder,pepper and paprika and water required to cook the grains.Mix well and bring it to a boil.Cover,reduce heat and let it simmer till half done for 20 minutes.

Once half done add finely chopped herbs,pom juice,pinch of sugar and angelica powder / cumin powder+chiliflakes. You can add uncooked kofta balls to it while adding the pom juiceCook till the grains are cooked well and the soup thickens to a required consistency.It thickens itself after sometime.

The taste was much better than expected.I was clueless about the taste and thats the reason why I wanted to try this recipe.The little similar the taste comes to is beet rasam provided you add the cumin and chilliflakes. May be addition of angelica may change the taste.I liked the soup as it was very refreshing.The combo of pom and herbs will always be so.The additional ingredients enhance it and provide a filling meal.

Now lets see what others are making for celebrating the delicious recipe filled book.

Simran made Lavash

Jaya brought a delicious Lentil soup

Aqua served Dugh - a lovely yoghurt drink

Update on 31st August 2009: The little soup that remained became more flavourful and tasty the next day.The soup containing lentils is on way to MLLA:14 hosted by the creator The Well Seasoned Susan herself.A warm bowl of soup also joins the Soup N'Juice Event by Sireesha who is celebrating 150 post landmark in her hearty blog.

Apple Brown Betty for PotLuck Party

A brown betty is a simple American dessert made by layering fruits and buttery sugared and spiced bread crumbs (breadcubes) and baked till cooked.Usually apples or berries are used for this.This dish is similar to cobbler and crisp but very fussfree compared to these.What distinguishes the brown betty from the others is the use of bread crumbs.There are several regional versions available as well with many or few differences either in the use of spices,nuts or layering ,some using bread cubes etc like an Appalachian version starts layering with the breadcrumbs and adds specific spices to the apples, etc.Thus the dish is very flexible and you can follow your vision of making this dish.It was perfect when I microwavized the basic version I found here .

Ingredients:
Apples: 2 cups peeled,cored and cubed (3 medium apples)
Lemon juice: 1/2 small lemon (optional)
Orange/Lemon zest optional

Breadcrumbs: 1/2 cup
BrownSugar: 1/2 cup
Walnuts (or any nuts): chopped handful
Butter: 2 tbsp + more as needed

Cinnamon powder/Clove Powder/ Ginger Powder: as required (OPTIONAL)
(can use cardamom powdered as well)
Salt: optional

Preparation:

In a big bowl,mix together brownsugar,breadcrumbs,nuts and spices.To this add melted and little cooled butter (2 tbsp) and mix well.I melted butter by microwaving it for 15-20 seconds in a mw safe bowl.Also you can optionally add salt to this as it brings out the flavour.Since I used salted butter,I avoided this.

Peel core and cube the apples.Optionally to prevent darkening,mix it with lemonjuice and if you like add orange/lemon zest to it.

Grease microwave safe serving bowls with little oil/butter/spray and layer few cubes of apples in it.It looks like....

Top the apple layer with the little bread crumbs mixture -needed as much to cover the apples.

Top this with second layer of apples.

Top this apple layer again with bread crumbs mixture.Repeat the process for another layer or two making sure the breadcrumbs layer is the topmost.I went for two layers only.Sprinkle/dot the top layer with crumbled/chopped butter.

Microwave on high power for 4 minutes or until the buttermelts,the apples release juice and get cooked and everything blends in.

Instead of sprinkling butter or in addition to it,you can also add around 3-4 tbsp of applejuice/water to it.This makes it more appley and moist and a puddingy texture.I didnot do this, so I think mine has got a dry top.A single serving bowl takes around 3-4 minutes,and a big bowl takes around 4-5 minutes.You can use two bowls (or three) at a time and the time depends on the power of your microwave and may vary 1 or 2 minutes.

This dish is on way to Microwave Easy Cooking:Potluck party hosted this time by the creator herself,Srivalli.

Cucur Kodok

Cucur in Malay language means 'fried'.Kodok means 'toad' or 'toad-shaped'.This dish is a part of Malaysian kuih or snacks usually fingerfoods.There are several snack cakes and pastries in Malaysia,but usually fried .Now this dish is also known as Cekodok ,Kuih Kodok,Cucur Pisang etc and is made of mashed bananas (or pisang in Malay) and wheat/Allpurpose Flour.Now There are several versions some containing egg,milk etc.while searching I found several versions some vegan as well and adapted this one which is eggless and has coconut to add a little crunch to it.

Ingredients:
Bananas: 2 big bananas preferably overripe.
Sugar: 2 tbsp +/-
Coconut flakes: 2 tbsp
Wheat Flour: 8 tbsp +/-
Salt: a pinch

Water: optionally 4 tbsp +/-

Preparation:
Peel and mash the bananas in a big bowl.You can mash it chunkily allowing bite size pieces.Mix in sugar,coconut,salt to it.

Add wheat flour 4 tbsp at a time and mix well so that the banana mash is fully coated in this and a batter starts to form.Add in water little by little to obtain a thick yet pourable batter.Actually if you like you can make it runny as well as I have seen here.Or if your bananas are too overripe then no need to add water at all.I went for a thick batter and added around 2-4 tbsp of water to obtain the batter.

Heat oil in a big frying pan.Drop sccopfuls of batter into hot oil and deep fry till golden brown.Drain on paper towels and serve as a snack.

Now after reading the recipe and seeing the picture,if you are finding it familiar then ofcourse it is familiar.It is none other than sweet banana fritters in a different way.It is similar to fried modaks that we make during Ganesh Chathurthi or the Kerala road side popular snack of 'pazham pori' this is the Malaysian way of doing the fritters.It is also similar to Pisang Goreng an Indonesian snack of cut,battered and fried bananas.So its small (and similar) world after all.

The chunks in the fritters along with the little coconut add a bite to the dish.The fritters are supposed to be like toad or small frogs hence the name kodok(toad in Malay).The fritters are on way to IAVW:Malaysian hosted by Vaishali of HolyCow.

Spiced Cookies

These are simple cookies made from cocoa and spiced with cinnamon,and clove.I adapted the recipe from a Chocolate book I got from library. The recipe was eggless itself and was ready in a jiffy.

Ingredients:
AllPurpose Flour: 1 cup
Unsweetened Cocoa: 3-6 tbsp (I used 3 tbsp)
Cinnamon Powdered: 1 tsp +
Clove Powdered: 1/2 tsp +
Ginger Powdered : (optional)

Unsalted Butter: 1/2 cup softened (I used not too softened)
Confectioner's Sugar: 3/4 cup

Preparation:

In a bowl,sift together,flour,spice powders,and the cocoa powder.In another big bowl,cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.Stir in the dry mix into the creamed mix and mix with hands/beater in low speed to obtain a dough or little crumbly mass.

Put this mass with two sheets of plastic or nonstick parchment paper and roll it out as thin as you like or 1/8 inch.Cut out circles of 2.5 inch and place on a greased/lined cookie sheet.Bake in a preheated oven at 325F/160C for 10-15 minutes or until it firm to touch /bottom starts browning.Cool in the sheet itself for 2 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

I used not exactly room temp butter-it was slightly chilled and I kept it out for 15 minutes only as I could not wait to bake and consume the cookies.Anyway,this partially cold butter can be seen in some cookies as a cream spot and it also created a flaked look .

Also for the first batch of cookies,rather than rolling the dough out,I simply pinched spoonful (tablespoonful) of dough,rounded it and then flattened it and then placed it in the cookiesheet. It looked like....

The second batch cookies were obtained by pressing the dough out within the plastic sheet and using a fluted cokie cutter/mould.

The cookies were done in around 12 minutes,when the the bottom started browning and they were crunchy and mix of chewy and crispy on the day they were baked.The chewiness slightly increased the next day when I tasted the few remaining.The recipe gives around 2 dozen cookies or 1 dozen sandwiches.

Sandwich two cookies using sweetened whipped cream/jam/nutella or whatever you like.I used whipped cream

The cookies were heavenly delicious as they had my favourite spice cinnamon .I did not use powdered ginger,but used clove powder as it enhances the cinnamon flavour.You can avoid the said spices and add in even chilli powder or powder for a fiery as well as sweet cookie.

Grilled Pepper Salad with a Herb Dressing

This is a simple salad where I grilled red and yellow bell peppers along with paneer,onion,baby corn and pineapple adding salt,pepper and little zather powder and then tossed it ina simple herb dressing made ith coriander,mint,green chilly,cashew,ginger and garlic.Or in other words,chutney- like or pesto-like dressing.

Ingredients:
Red bell pepper: 1 big
Yellow bell pepper: 1 big
Baby corns: 2-3 medium size
Paneer cubes: 1/2 cup or more
Pineapple: cubed 1/2 cup +/-
Onion: 1 big

Dressing:
Cashew Nuts: handful: 2-3 tbsp
Coriander: 1 small bunch
Mint: atleast 15 medium leaves or as per taste
Ginger: 1 inch piece
Garlic: 1-2 cloves
Greenchilly: 1 medium size

Salt
Pepper
Za'atar/Zather (optional)
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice

Preparation:
Dressing:
Soak cashew nuts in water for atleast 15 minutes.Grind all the ingredients with little salt to obtain a fine paste adding little water as needed.It looks like....

Salad:

Chop the salad ingredients into squares or medium size pieces.Chop the babycorn into medium size pieces diagonally.Cube the paneer and pineapple .Toss all the pieces with salt and pepper and optionally zather/za'atar.This is a middle eastern spice and I used it as I had it with me,but it is optional and I used very little quantity that it can be easily missed.

Thread the tossed veg,cheese and pineapple pieces into presoaked wooden skewers.

Grill/broil in a preheated oven at very high temperature for about 10 minutes by placing in a lined and greased baking sheet.I set the temperature at 230C/450F.Simply use the broil function in your oven if you have it.Else you can simply use your grill pan/tawa and grill it on stovetop.

Once you toss the ingredients with salt and pepper,make sure you grill them right away or after sometime you can see that some of them start sweating and release water which makes the paneer/tofu soggy and crumbles it.So to avoid this ,grill them right away or you can skewer the veggies first and then sprinkle with salt and pepper.Either way make sure the veggies are properly salted.

Toss the grilled items together with little dressing (2-3 spoonfuls),olive oil,lemon juice and additional salt and pepper.

Serve in individual bowls with extra dressing on the side as needed.

Hearty Salad can be served as a nutritious side.You can add whatever veggies you find compatible with this dressing to this like potato,apples etc and also toss in cooked pasta to make a more filling dish.You can optionally add green beans or green peppers,which I have avoided as they clash with the dressing and the entire salad may look overly green. The dressing if extra is there then can be refigerated for later use and can also be used as a marinade sauce for vegetables/meat.Also instead of paneer tofu can be used.

Serve the salad at room temperature or hot.

The hearty bell pepper salad is on way to Jacqueline's NoCroutons Required: Bell peppers

Whole Wheat Pineapple Brownies with a Nutty crust

These are the same mango brownies,which I made with few changes.First I made them fully wheatish -using whole wheat flour and white whole wheat flour.Also I replaced the water + mango puree with pineapple + yogurt combo.Also I added a nutty crust -a la German Chocolate cake which is layered and has a gooey coconut pecan crust.Now,German chocolate cake is NOT from Germany but it is made from Chocolate from Baker's Company (currently Kraft Foods)owned originally by Samuel German,an Englishman. Mine is neither English nor German but I used the same concept using coconut and walnut and brownsugar as I had seen from here.

Ingredients:
Dry Mix:
Whole Wheat Flour: 2/3 cup
White Whole Wheat Flour: 1/3 cup
Cocoa Powder: 2 tbsp
Fresh Coconut flakes: 2-4 tbsp
Sugar: 1 cup
Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp
Salt: 1/2 tsp

WetMix:
Pineapple Yogurt: 3/4 cup - 1 cup

Topping:
Fresh coconut: 1/4 cup
Walnuts :chopped : 1/4 cup
BrownSugar: 2-4 tbsp
Vegetable/Canola Oil: 1 tbsp

Preparation:

Topping: Mix all the ingredients of topping and keep aside.

Wet Mix: I pureed few pineapple pieces equivalent to 2-3 rings with 1/2 cup thick yogurt and 2-3 tbsp water and obtained 3/4 cup.You can increase the pineapple pieces and reduce the yogurt /water or viceversa as per your taste.You can also add storebought pineapple yoghurt which if sweetened you can adjust the sugar in the dry mix.I used full 1 cup sugar in the dry mix as the pineapple yoghurt unsweetened combo is slightly tart.I opted for the nutty crust to balance the tartness as well.Also yoghurt being a rising agent fits well here as whole wheat requires little more pushing and prodding to rise and simply increasing the baking powder may leave you with a bitter aftertaste.If more wet mix is needed you can simply add plain normal yoghurt.

Dry Mix: In a big bowl mix all the dry items.

Brownies: Add the wet mix to the dry mix and whisk together to form a smooth batter.Pour this into an appropriate baking dish,I used square baking pan.Sprinkle the topping mix on the batter.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350F for 25-30 minutes or more until the the tester comes out clean.Start checking from 22 minutes onwards though,the topping may start browning .Mine was ready in 25 minutes itself ,so make sure the cake does not burn.

Cool completely and serve by cutting into squares.I got medium size 16 squares.The brownies were tasty but slightly on the heavier side because fruit puree and wheat has been used.The topping was crisp and there was no tartness of the pineapple in the slice just a slight crunch of coconut.They were sticky brownies I felt,but as time went by they sort of set.So cool completely or chill in the fridge before slicing and serving.

HEARTY THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO WISHED ME ON MY B'DAY.I CERTAINLY TURNED OLDER,AND NOT WISER,BUT YOUR WISHES MADE MY DAY AND MADE ME FEEL SPECIAL.

Crumpets:A Recipe

These are savoury/sweet breakfast bread in United Kingdom.These are like stove top bread or cousins of pancakes but made with yeast.These are flattened round breads cooked on a stove top and are soft and spongy.Generally associated with the English culture, these should not be confused with the English Muffins.Both though look almost same are definitely different.I found a hearty crumpet recipe at Vegeyum,halved it and tried and tasted it heartily.

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour:1 cup sifted thoroughly

Baking Powder: 3/4 tsp

Salt: 1/2 tsp

Sugar: 1/2 tsp

Active Dry Yeast: 1/4 of the sachet -2.5g or almost 1/2 tsp

Warm water :14 tbsp +/-

Preparation:

Sift together flour,baking powder,salt and sugar into a big bowl.In a small bowl,mix together yeast and warm water.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mix and add in the yeast mix.With a whisk or beater,beat the ingredients well until they are combined and smooth.You can add more water if the batter is too thick.You should obtain a thick yet pourable batter.I had to add another 3-4 tbsp of water to obtain a pourable batter.

Keep the batter in a warm place until it doubles in volume say 5-10 minutes and small bubbles appear on its surface.

Heat a skillet/tawa/pancake pan ,greasing it lightly.Also grease egg rings/steel rings or any ring shape cutter which can work in heat.You can even cut out suitable rounds from the pineapple cans.I had some steel rings lying with me which were meant as vessel holders :D, but I used them for this purpose.

Fill the rings 2/3rds with the batter.Cook for around 8-10 minutes till the bottom starts browning and holes appear in the top.It looks like...

Once the bottom is browned remove the ring and continue to cook till the top is almost completely set.Flip over to the other side and cook for 1-2 minutes more. Serve warm with butter or if cold toast them in the pan and top with butter or clotted cream or any other spread like nutella.

These are soft and spongy and better when warm.Do checkout the original recipe here as I made changes to the amount of baking powder and yeast and mine does not look as good as VegeYum's.

Warm crumpets are off to T&T:A LifeTime of Cooking ,an event by Zlamushka and currently hosted by Yasmeen of HealthNut. Thanks to the event I came to know about the delicious blog.

Watermelon Bars

These are simple bars made using watermelon juice and agar agar flakes.Agar agar or chinagrass or simply agar is a vegan equivalent to gelatin .It is available in powdered and flakes form.Agar is the Malaysian word for jelly and it is obtained from seaweed.It is a gelatinous substance but is plant based only unlike gelatin. I had obtained unflavoured agar agar in flakes and made these melon bars or jelly just to see how they work compared to the normal gelatin we use.They worked much better than expected.

Ingredients:
Watermelon Juice: 1. 25 cups
Water: 1.25 cup (1/2 + 3/4 cup)
Sugar: 4 tbsp+/-
Agar Agar Flakes: roughly chopped 5 gms unflavoured (white)

Preparation:
I blended almost 1.25 cups of watermelon with little water to obtain around 1.25 cups of juice which I strained and kept aside.You can also use storebought juice as well.

Roughly chop agar agar flakes and soak them in 1/2 cup of water for atleast 15 minutes.

In a sauce pan,heat 3/4 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar and stir well till the sugar dissolves.Squeeze the agar agar flakes and add them to the sugar water mix and simmer till the agar agar dissolves completely stirring continually.This takes just 5-7 minutes.

Once clear liquid is obtained,remove from heat ,and add the watermelon juice and mix well.

Pour the mix into serving bowls or a big container or any dish of your preference.Let it attain room temperature.Then chill it in the fridge till serving time or for atleast 30 minutes.

Serve by cutting into bars or any shape if you have chilled in a single big container.Else simply handover the invidual bowls just as you would do for a jello dish.

I inverted the container onto a plate,cut into bars....

Since I did not want to serve it simply as such,I served it with sweetened whipped cream and garnished with chopped roasted almonds.

This made the dessert plate look great and the taste was exactly 'jello"-ish.

I had actually used 1.5 cups of juice while making this jelly.While taking pics,I found that after 15-20 minutes,it started becoming watery very slowly.On chilling again,it stopped liquifying.One reason is it was extremely hot that day and I took pics in afternoon.Another more plausible reason is that the amount of juice was more.So if using 1.5 cup of juice increase the quantity of agar flakes to 1 gms more. Also instead of agar flakes which requires soaking and can be slightly messy,you can use powdered agar agar around 1-2 tsp (updated on 13th Aug,09: and not 1 tbsp) equivalent to 5 gms of flakes.

Also rather than making the water sugar mix,you can directly add sugar while blending the melon.In this case,simply boil 3/4 cup of water and then add chopped,squeezed agar flakes and continue the recipe.Also honey or agave nectar or any other sweetener can be used or even avoided depending on the sweetness of your melon.

Agar sets much faster than gelatin and requires very less chilling time compared to it.Agar has has health aspects as well.It reduces the body heat and is said to control bad cholestrol.It is supposedly rich in calcium,iron,minerals etc.You can also find some info here

The lovely and extremely delish watermelon bars are off to Monthly Mingle:Marvellous Melon an event by Meeta and currently hosted at ChewOnThatBlog

Pizza Margherita

Pizza Margherita is a simple Pizza made of mozarella cheese,basil and tomatoes-white,green and red colours to represent the Italian flag.This is a classic pizza that was first prepared in Naples in honour of the Queen Margherita who was visiting Naples at that time and had been named after her.It was also the first time that mozarella cheese was used in making pizza.

I had earlier bookmarked Mario Batali's recipe for this but had completely forgetten about it.While seeing Soma's pizza margherita recipe ,I was reminded of this and decided to plunge in pizza making.I halved Batali's recipe for the pizza dough and made a delicious pizza margherita.

Ingredients:
Pizza dough:
All Purpose Flour: 1.5 cups + more as needed

Active Dry Yeast: 3/4 tsp

Warm Water: 1/2 cup
Sugar/honey: 1 tsp
Salt: 3/4 tsp
Extra Virgin olive Oil: 1.5 tbsp

Marinara Sauce:
EVOO: 1 tbsp
Red Onion: 1 small chopped
Garlic: 2 cloves
Tomato Puree: 1 cup +
Fresh Basil: few leaves
Salt & Pepper: as per taste

Preparation:

Pizza Dough:

Stir the water, oil, sugar, and salt in a cup until the sugar dissolves. Whisk the flour and yeast in a large bowl, make a well in the center and add the liquid . With hands/wooden spoon stir the flour into the liquid to make a rough dough. Pull the dough together into a ball and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, using more flour if necessary to keep from sticking. Form into a ball and put on a lightly oiled bowl. Brush the tops of the dough with oil (rotate the dough ball within the bowl), cover with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise at room temperature until doubled, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Marinara Sauce:

Heat oil in a pan,add finely chopped onions and crushed garlic and saute till the raw smell goes.Add in tomato puree,salt,pepper,fresh basil and bring to a boil.Reduce the heat and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.Adjust salt & pepper.

Pizza:
Punch down the dough and let it rest for atleast 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400F by placing a pizza stone (baker' stone) in the lowest rack.Now I do not have a pizza stone,so I placed a baking sheet lined with foil in the lowest rack while the oven preheated.

Put the dough ball onto a worksurface and using the heel of your hands (not fingers) stretch it to a circle,rotating the dough in between presses.You can make it as thin as you want or as far as you could before your patience runs out.Normally 1/8th inch thick pizza is required.

Spread the sauce on the pizza in a thin, even layer, making sure to leave a 1/4-inch border around the edges of the pizza. Season with salt and pepper. Top with the mozzarella. Normally sliced mozzarella is preferred.I used both shredded and sliced.(The pics are not so perfect as I was sure the from-the scratch pizza would be a failure,but was surprised that turned out pretty well.So much for my confidence in myself)

Slide the pizza onto the baking sheet and bake for 10 to 14 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly and the bottom of the crust begins to brown.

Remove from the oven, tear the basil leaves and scatter over the pizza. Slice with a pizza cutter and serve immediately.

The pizza was heavenly delicious and perfect especially this was the first time I made te dough from scratch.I never expected basil to taste soooooooooooooo good.

Another alternate way to make this is to avoid the sauce and simply layer the tomato and mozzarella slices alternately thus avoiding the marinara.

UPDATE on Aug 06,2009: This was meant for Weekend Wokking:Cheese, an event by Wanderdering Chopsticks and hosted by healthy and lovely blogger Yasmeen of HealthNut.Though I missed the deadline,dear Yasmeen has been kind enough to accept this very late entry.So the simple yet delicious Pizza Margherita is off to join the delicious dishes in WW:Cheese roundup . Some things are better late than never.Thanks Yasmeen.