Hayley says: “This is the ultimate sharing dish, with everyone dipping a dough ball into the cheesy, tomatoey sauce. If you don’t have time to make the dough balls yourself, this pizza fondue is great with either shop-bought breadsticks or garlic bread.”

Serves 3-4
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Preparation time: 15 minutes, plus 1 hour proving

Ingredients

For the dough balls:

150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon easy-bake yeast (4g)
½ tablespoon caster sugar
½ teaspoon salt
90–100ml lukewarm water

For the fondue:

100g ‘light’ cream cheese
125g mozzarella or Cheddar cheese, grated
200g pasta sauce with basil
20g pepperoni (optional)
½ teaspoon dried oregano

Method

First, make the dough balls. Put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl, then add 90ml of the warm water.

Stir with a wooden spoon to combine. The dough should feel slightly wet, but not sticky. If the dough feels dry, add the extra 10ml of warm water.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead briefly – just turn the dough over and into itself a few times to make sure all the ingredients are well combined and the dough starts to become stretchy. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to prove for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 9 equal-sized pieces and then roll each one into a small ball. Spritz a sheet of parchment paper (which will fit in your air fryer) with oil and arrange the dough balls on it. Loosely cover the balls with a sheet of oiled cling film or a roomy tin. Leave the dough balls to rise for a further 30 minutes.

Preheat the air fryer to 180°C. Carefully transfer the sheet of parchment paper with the dough balls into the air fryer, spritz with oil and cook at 180°C for 8 minutes. Once the dough balls are golden, carefully lift them out of the air fryer and keep warm.

Meanwhile, make the pizza fondue. Put the cream cheese into the base of a 18–20cm ovenproof dish or silicone liner.

Top with half the grated cheese. Pour over the pasta sauce, then scatter in the remaining grated cheese. Dot with the pepperoni slices, if using, and sprinkle over the dried oregano. Place the dish in the air fryer and cook at 180°C for 12 minutes, or until bubbling and golden. Let the pizza fondue sit for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

When ready to serve, place the dish in the centre of the table with the dough balls alongside for everyone to dunk in the cheesy sauce.

Cook’s tip:

You can easily turn these dough balls into garlic dough balls by brushing them with garlic butter after they’ve been taken out of the air fryer.

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