Archive for Pizza

ATX Austin Gluten-Free Pizza Fest

February 18, 2011 at 9:16 PM · Filed under Pizza, Recipes ·Tagged , , , , , , , ,

ATX Austin GF Pizza Fest

ATX Austin GF Pizza Fest

 
    Pizza celebrations have been going on for almost two weeks now. ATX Austin Gluten-Free Pizza Fest is sponsored by Jessica Meyer. She keeps us informed about all of the gluten-free options in this part of Texas. I missed the first part while out of town but Don and I finally had our home grown pizza fest.

    During the last year I have tried numerous recipes trying to come up with the optimum nutritious pizza recipe for gluten-free and otherwise allergic and digestive challenged family and friends.

    We had a crust that Don liked but it did not meet the allergy friendly criteria. In the interim he has gone back to making his own glutinous crust while I experiment with the gluten-free versions. For the sake of consistency Don then adds identical toppings to both pizza crusts.

    I think I finally have the amounts of flours and binders along with seasoning, oil, and leavening. It makes up into dough that handles well and is sturdy enough to support the toppings. But I am still tweaking the taste component of the flour blend. This time the texture was excellent but the coconut flour made it too sweet. So I am posting the amounts until such time as we together bake pizza and Don declares it a winner.

Hers (GF) and His (not GF) Pizzas

Hers (GF) and His (not GF) Pizzas

Gluten-Free Pizza Crust
2 cups gluten-free flour blend
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon guar gum
1 teaspoon ground chia seed
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
1/2 teaspoon oregano, marjoram, or basil (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/3 cups of water (will vary with the flour blend)

    Oil a 12” pizza pan and set it aside. Set the oven for 425*F.

    Measure the dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl. The seasonings are optional but some of the denser, high nutrition flours have stronger flavors that need a little help to bring the crust over to the Italian side.

    Add a cup of the water and then the oil to the flour mixture. Stir well for at least a minute to see how much of the flour does not blend into the dough. Add the remaining water a little at a time until all of the flour is incorporated and you have a lump of dough that is resilient and very hard to stir. Dump it out on your work space and knead it until all traces of flour blend in. Form it into a flattened ball and move it to your prepared pizza pan.

    Continue to flatten the dough while rotating the pan. The two cups of flour makes enough dough that it should generously cover the bottom of the pan and have plenty to build up a nice edge to hold your sauce and toppings. Slide the pan into the oven for a 6-7 minute pre-bake.

    At this point I turn the gluten-free pizza crust over to Don and he adds toppings to both pizzas, puts them in the oven to bake, and calls me when dinner is ready.

Gretchen

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His & Hers Pizzas

May 25, 2010 at 8:58 AM · Filed under Pizza, Recipes ·Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

    Don and I both love pizza.  He has always been the pizza chef in this household.  For many years I would just scrape off and eat the toppings and sauce while leaving the crust.  And sometimes I succumbed to temptation and ate the crust; even after peeling it off.  Much education later I finally realized how destructive gluten was to my system.  It wasn’t just a couple of days of discomfort; there was lasting damage from small exposures.

    We tried to find a gluten-free pizza crust that both of us could/would eat.  That was Pizza Crust I.  Somehow I could not justify a double pizza crust that required a half dozen eggs.  We moved on to equal but separate pizzas.  He makes a crust, I make a crust.  Then he adds toppings, bakes the pizzas, and dinner is served.

    My gluten-free pizza crust is now on version V.  Eggs were eliminated and replaced by chia seed.  Yeast was eliminated and replaced by baking powder.  In this version all vestiges of the grass family (of the genus Poaceae) were eliminated and that includes any form of cane sugar – sugar cane is after all, a grass plant.  The small amount of sugar was replaced by agave syrup.  It helps with browning as well as flavor; sugar is not solely to make the yeast happy.  I have included several columns of my ‘pizza crust spreadsheet’ to illustrate the gradual recipe changes.  The changes made in each version are bolded.

Pizza Crust V – Gluten-free, Casein Free, Egg-free, Poaceae-free
Ingredients:
Pizza Crust V - Gluten-free, Casein Free, Egg-free, Poaceae-free

Directions:
Measure out the dry ingredients and whisk together until thoroughly blended.  Make a well in the flour for adding the wet ingredients.  Stir the water, olive oil and agave syrup into the flour mixture and work it with a spoon until all of the flour is absorbed.  It should form a sticky ball of dough that begins to hold together.

Dump the dough on a bread board or clean counter top and knead it with your hands for about a minute.  Spray or oil a 12” pizza pan.  Flatten the dough and place it on the pan.  Press all around until the crust is as even as possible.  Form a raised rim around the edge of the crust to help contain the toppings.  This step is so much like working with clay in art class.  If there are cracks just pinch it back together and try again.  Gluten free dough will not toughen up from handling it.   Sometimes a it helps to oil a spoon and use the back to push the dough around and form an edge to contain the toppings.

Bake the crust for 6-7 minutes at 425* F.  Remove it from the oven.  Add sauce, grilled onions, mushrooms, olives and optional other ingredients.  Cheese may be added if dairy is not a problem.  Bake an additional 10-15 minutes until the edges are brown and the toppings are hot.  A crust made with buckwheat flour is significantly darker than other versions.  It may looked burnt in the picture but it is really just perfect with a firm base and a crispy edge.

His & Hers Pizzas

His & Hers Pizzas

When Don puts the pizzas together there is ground turkey and cheese in the toppings.  I am working on one with a pesto base and lots of sautéed veggies for toppings.  Summer produce is looking good for that kind of experimenting.

Mom

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Pizza Crust II

August 13, 2009 at 10:25 PM · Filed under Pizza, Recipes ·Tagged , ,

    Now that the family has been enjoying gluten free pizza for several months I began trying different crust recipes since our original favorite contained three eggs for a single pizza crust. This one is quite tasty with simple ingredients (if you don’t count making your own flour blend as you work), and easy to put together. Yeast provides the flavor you expect in a pizza crust, the xanthan provides structure, and the baking powder insures that even if your water was too hot and killed the yeast that your crust will rise a bit and have a nice texture. The salt is a yeast inhibitor and also for taste. If you need to leave out the salt you should be OK with the yeast since the crust goes immediately into the oven. I baked salt free bread some years ago and found that yeast can expand at an alarming rate and run the bread dough over and out of the pan while you watch in horror.

Pizza Crust Ingredients:
Sift all together until thoroughly blended.
1 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup sorghum flour
1/4 cup potato flour (not starch)
1 package quick-rising yeast
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup very warm water

Directions:
    Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl. Heat the water (you should still be able to put your fingers in it without pain) and add the oil. Stir the water/oil mixture into the flour mixture and work it with a spoon until all of the flour is absorbed and it all holds together as you work it.
    Dump the dough on a bread board or clean counter top and knead it with your hands for about a minute. Grease a 12” pizza pan. Flatten the dough and place it on the pan. Press all around until the crust is as even as possible. Form a raised rim around the edge of the crust to help contain the toppings. This step is so much like working with clay in art class. If there are cracks just pinch it back together and try again. Gluten free dough will not toughen up from handling it.
    Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes at 425* F. Remove it from the oven. Add sauce, grilled onions, mushrooms, olives and optional other ingredients. Cheese may be added if dairy is not a problem. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes until the edges are brown and the toppings are hot.

Mom

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Pizza Sauce

March 28, 2009 at 11:35 PM · Filed under Pizza, Recipes ·Tagged , ,

   You need a really good pizza sauce for your homemade pizza and this one is easy, it tastes better than the one we bought in a jar from the store – and it was much less expensive!

1@ 12 inch pizza
1 8-oz can Hunt’s tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/8 tsp. basil
1/8 tsp. marjoram
1/8 tsp. rosemary
Pinch of thyme
Pinch of garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper infused olive oil

2@ 12 inch pizzas
1 16-oz can Hunt’s tomato sauce
1 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. marjoram
1/4 tsp. rosemary
1/8 tsp. thyme
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper infused olive oil

   Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan and place on the stove over low heat. When the sauce begins to simmer just turn off the heat and leave it alone for a couple of hours for the flavors to meld.
   You can use it immediately or store in the refrigerator until needed. It keeps very well for several days.

Mom

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Pizza Crust I

February 4, 2009 at 10:32 PM · Filed under Pizza, Recipes ·Tagged , ,

    Pizza was one of the foods that Rita thought she might never experience again without serious concerns regarding a possible Candida flare up. Web research turned up many versions of pizza crust made with baking powder – most of them are labeled Crazy Crust Pizza. We have gluten-free baking powder in the pantry as well as the ever increasing assortment of gluten-free flours so the experiment began. Once again my dear husband was roped in as taste-tester. He is known within the family for his pizza creations so I knew that if he liked it then we had a real winner.
    How many variations can/should there be for a simple pizza? That seems to vary directly with the number of participants. Rita insisted on ground bison for its grass-fed antibiotic-free lean goodness and we were all in agreement with that. She also wanted grilled onions and we were good with that. I wanted mushrooms and no one else agreed. Rita needed dairy-free but two of us insist on cheese. Fortunately we all know geometry and so boundaries were established on the surface of the crust. The original recipe advises distributing your browned ground meat on the crust before the first trip into the oven. We have tried it both ways with equally good results. It is perhaps a little easier to eat with the meat firmly in the crust.
    In the meantime this is Pizza Crust I – Pizza Crust II experiments will begin soon to reduce or eliminate whole eggs for those of us who monitor cholesterol intake.

Pizza Crust Ingredients:
GF flour blend:
       1/3 cup each of sorghum, white rice, and tapioca flours
       1 teaspoon Xanthan gum
       ¼ teaspoon salt
       ¼ teaspoon GF baking powder
Sift all together until thoroughly blended.

3 eggs + 2/3 cup water (makes 1 1/3 cup total liquid)

Directions:
Mix flour, eggs and water in a bowl. Beat 2 to 3 minutes with a hand-held mixer.
The batter becomes very light and increases in volume! Grease baking sheet; pour crust mixture onto sheet. Bake the crust for 25 minutes at 425* F. Remove it from the oven.

Add sauce, grilled onions, mushrooms, olives and optional other ingredients.
Cheese may be added if dairy is not a problem. Bake an additional 10 minutes.

Mom

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