250/366: Pintember Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Since we were on a downward spiral from yesterday's failure, I thought this would be a good entry.

My boys are coming to understand food and where it comes from.  They have a great dislike for meat products (McNuggets don't count, nor does pepperoni on pizza) because they come from living creatures.

Problem is, they don't really care for the high protein beans or quinoa, etc.  I have been giving them options.  More vegetables and grains in place of meat.  If they don't like that, I'll give them some turkey lunch meat (which they hate).  It has certainly been enlightening.  They are realizing that it isn't so much the meat or chicken they don't like, but the time it takes to eat dinner instead of playing.  Anything new is immediately refused, without even a sniff (at least for one boy you will see later in this post).

Last night, I tried to made this:



Source: eat-drink-smile.com via Carrie on Pinterest

Pretty, right?  Actually looks like you could pick it up and eat it.  Well, here is my story for Cauliflower Crust Pizza.

The ricing of the cauliflower was easy, mixing the dough was even easier.  I was pretty excited.

I patted out my crust on my pizza stone, since the stone will heat the crust faster, hoping to make it crispier.

 After 15 minutes in the oven, it looked pretty good, the edges were browning, the bottom was browning.  We were well on our way. 

 I topped it with sauce and cheese (mama's cupboards were bare with anything to add that a child would eat)

And it came out fairly good.  The crust wasn't nearly sturdy enough to eat like a slice of pizza.  It did, however, taste like a pizza lasagna.  It had all the makings of lasagna, with the shape of a pie.

I had extra cauliflower, so I riced that and made one bigger pizza on a sheet pan.  I added corn meal to the pan in hopes it would be easier to remove.

I let the crust cook longer in the beginning, thinking that it would crisp up better.  I added the toppings and here is the finished pizza.

This big one had a thicker crust.  It also had some non-stick spray and the crust was soggy.  Really soggy.  Perhaps my measuring was off a touch, but I really did use measuring cups for this one.

I ate it.  And enjoyed it.

One look at this:

And the Big Boy did this:

Not even a sniff.

He proceeded to tell me I was the worst cook ever and this was the worst thing I have ever ever ever ever (yes, four ever's) made.  Let me clarify, he didn't tell me, he yelled to me.

Time out.

Little Man ate it and said, yum.

Tom came home and ate it, liked it.  Thought it was lasagna.

I will try this again, maybe find a different recipe or add something to thicken up the crust. 

Or, perhaps, this will be my base for my new Pizzagna.

63/366: Micro March

39/366: Gluten Free Pizza

Being sick does a number on my appetite.

Some moments I'm ravenous.  Other moments, every thing that goes in my stomach causes nausea and stomach pains.

Yesterday, I was so hungry, but the food shelves were lacking in anything gluten free.

I had one Udi's Pizza Crust in the freezer.  It was that, or canned soup.  Not a tough choice.

In my fridge, I had leftover pork loin, BBQ sauce and some canned pineapple.  Onto the pizza it went with a light sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.

Udi's makes a find pizza crust.  The middle is a touch chewy, but that could be my baking issue.  I've tried it on a hot pizza stone, a cold pizza stone, on baking sheet, and directly on the rack.  So far, direct on the rack is best, but still a touch chewy in the middle.  The crust is great, the convenience is even better.

Chicken for dinner tonight (again).  I really need to make it to the grocery store for a meat product other than chicken and pork.

Maybe tomorrow...

Thing A Day: 13

The Pizza Thing.

Pizza crust is a tough thing to replicate gluten free when you live in Buffalo, NY.  Home of Chicken Wings and Pizza.

Pizza here is like the Laurel to Hardy's chicken wings. They just go together.  Usually you hear, "C'mon over, we are getting pizza and wings."

I have tried to replicate the crust.  Here, we like an airy, crispy, medium thickness crust. Not thick Sicilian crust and not NY City thin...in between.

After getting Shauna's new book with this pizza crust recipe, and seeing all the pizza photo's on Facebook from all her followers, I decided it was my turn to try.


Last night, I measured my flours by weight, mixed them up a bit.  I used cornstarch, brown rice flour, teff flour, potato starch flour and sorghum.  I didn't add any gum's and once again, Shauna is right, you don't need them.

After I added my water, oil, yeast mixture, I found that I measured incredibly wrong on my flour weight.  I had soup in my mixer.  So, I added some more teff flour, a bit more cornstarch and a bit of sorghum until it made that slapping noise against the side of the bowl (oh, how I love that sound).

I let it rise, which it didn't.  Not really.  I think my yeast was old.  But you know what?  It didn't matter.  It was good.  Not great, but good.

A little heavy on the teff flour.  Should have went heavier on the sorghum.  Shauna has taught me through her blog, twitter, and her two books that experimenting is good.  I used to always experiment with gluten flours.  Why not with gluten free flours?  There are so many more options these days. I just ordered some chia seeds and chia flour yesterday.  This is becoming fun again.

Thanks Shauna for making my good health delicious with this tomato and goat cheese pizza!

Here is the link to Shauna's book...it's a lovely romance novel disguised as a cook book.

Turtles

Turtles.

We've been calling these turtles for some time now.  Sam came up with the name.

These are simple and delicious.

Corn tortillas on a cookie sheet.
Dress with your favorite pizza toppings.  We used a nice oil mix and topped with cheese and tomatoes.  I like to sprinkle oregano and onion powder just before the healthy dose of parmesan cheese.

Bake at 425 until cheese is browned and tortillas are crisp.

Yum!

Dessert of the Gods

You may have seen my post on Facebook or Twitter about this dessert, I apologize, I just can't stop.

It is one so simple.

It is fresh and chocolaty without being overbearing.

It is delightful and rich.

And yes, a bit orgasmic.

You can find the recipe here, but basically, it's a brownie in a pizza pan, spread with cream cheese frosting and layered with berries. A little melted apple jelly for sheen and you have yourself this pie.

This is a pie that I would gain back the 3 pounds I lost in my last week of running for.

And I did.

And I will again, on Saturday, when I take it to another party.

I'm predicting this to be my 'summer dish'.

Flat Breads (Kind of)

Gluten free baking is hard. There are many things that can go wrong. Slight variations can compromise the entire batch.

Last night was pizza night. I've talked about this before and I told you I found my crust, which I did, Chebe. However, as I was making my dough last night, I was missing the oregano-pizza smell. I realized I opened and successfully mixed a bag of bread dough instead of pizza dough. Not a big deal, but disappointing. Why are both bags green? Help me, Chebe, how about blue?

So after I made my crust, which came out just as well as the pizza mix, I decided to try the Savory Chips. I made mistakes. I didn't add onion to the mix, I used a full egg as wash, not just the whites, and I only had poppy seeds. Thought I had onion flakes at least. Then I put my poppy and onion powder on before the egg wash. Eee gads. But, for the love of Chebe, they came out.

They are delicious (unfortunately I thought plastic wrap would be sufficient and today they are on the stale side).

Now...how do I use these in my daily or party repertoire. I bet they would be delicious with cinnamon sugar instead of the savory spices.

Thanks Chebe!

Gluten or Gluten Free?

Tuesday night is Pizza Night. When I was a kid, it was Thursday, which was payday for my Dad. Tuesday is just a day that deserves pizza.

Our pizza night used to be Wednesday night. We would get a gluten free pizza from Pizza Plant on Transit (gluten free Wednesday night only). That pizza started to get more and more expensive. The last time I went, with tax, a medium pizza with pepperoni was $15.82. Every bite the non-gluten freers took, I could hear the cash register dinging.

I made a couple crusts myself from mixes which were fine, but I had to get out the stand mixer, dust it off, find the right paddle, roll it out with saran wrap - all just too much for a Wednesday night.

We moved on to Amy's Rice Crust Cheese Pizza. This was comparable in taste and size to the Pizza Plant pizza, yet $4.99. That was a deal. I'd decorate it with what ever was left in the refrigerator. That price slowly climbed to $5.99, then $6.49, then $6.99. When I next paid attention to the price, last week, it was $8.99. For a cheese pizza on a rice crust. Rice.

I went back to a mix, this time Chebe Pizza mix. The first time I made it, the crust was a little too chewy for my taste. Then, I tried it thinner, and am in love. It is fairly easy to make with oil, egg and milk. Mixed with my pastry blender and hands, rolled out and baked. No extra flour to roll it with, no saran wrap, just good old rolling pin. It made two pies the same size as the Amy's for $2.39. Yes, I added egg, oil, milk, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni, but I was adding extra cheese and pepperoni to Amy's anyway.

If you are still reading...why? This is a really boring post.

Can you guess which is the pizzeria gluten vs. the gluten free?