Pizza of Summer Berries and Mascarpone Cheese

Makes 2 pizzas

Ingredients:

All purpose flour, for dusting
Two 8-ounce/230-g balls purchased pizza dough
4 teaspoons/10 g plus 2 tablespoons/15 g sugar
5 ounces/130 g fresh strawberries, quartered
3 ounces/85 g fresh blackberries
3 ounces/85 g fresh raspberries
¼ cup/50 g crème fraîche
¼ cup/50 g mascarpone cheese
3 tablespoons/45 ml heavy whipping cream
One 1-ounce/20-g piece semisweet chocolate or milk chocolate

Method:

To preheat the baking stone:

Place a large baking stone on the bottom shelf in the oven, then preheat the oven to 450°F/230°C. Heating the baking stone well in advance (about 45 minutes) will allow enough time for it to become very hot before baking the pizzas on it. Baking on the very hot stone will create pizzas with crisp crusts.

To prepare the pizzas:

Lightly dust the work surface with flour and press 1 ball of dough on the work surface into a circle.  Continue to press the dough into a thin round disk that is about the same diameter of a dinner plate (about 8 inches/20 cm), being careful not to over-work the gluten in the flour by over-kneading it.

Once the pizza dough is formed, lightly dust the pizza paddle with flour and place the dough on the pizza paddle.  Pierce the dough all over with a fork. Sprinkle with 2 teaspoons/5 g sugar.  Immediately transfer the pizza from the paddle to the hot baking stone in the oven.

Bake for about 5 minutes or until the pizza dough is semi-cooked and the sugar begins to melt.  Remove the pizza from the oven.  Sprinkle with half of the berries.

Carefully return the pizza to the baking stone, being sure not to shake any berries off of the pizza.  Bake for 8 minutes or until the pizza dough is pale golden and the berries are heated through and begin to release their juices.

Using the pizza paddle, remove the pizza from the stone and transfer to a cutting board. Let stand for 10 minutes to cool slightly.  Meanwhile, repeat with the remaining ball of pizza dough, 2 teaspoons/10 of sugar and berries.

Whisk the crème fraîche, mascarpone cheese, whipping cream and remaining 2 tablespoons/15 g of sugar in a small bowl to blend.  Drizzle the mascarpone mixture over the pizzas.

Cut each pizza into 4 to 6 slices. Transfer the pizzas to plates.  Grate the chocolate over the pizzas and serve.  Turn the oven off, leaving the baking stone in the oven to cool slowly.