In my endeavour to make a gluten free, yeast free pizza base I feel that it is necessary to try every recipe I find...ahem..it's a must. lol. Well OK that and pizza is just a fabulous food. My friends S & S are both gluten free and one is also yeast free so I feel it is my duty to find them a good pizza base as it's also one of their favourite foods too. Back in April I made two gluten free pizza bases from a recipe I found on the internet. The base was good but very biscuit like so I was still on my mission.
On Saturday evening S & S came over for dinner and a movie and so I thought it was the perfect excuse to try out another recipe I had found. I've had this cookbook for a couple of years and have tried a few recipes from it. All have been enjoyable but I've never tried the pizza base recipe before because it asks for potato flour and it's taken until last month to actually find some where I live. The recipe for the base comes from Susan O'Brien's The Gluten-free Vegan
So Saturday evening after we had recovered from our busy day My Love and I got set up in the kitchen. My Love made the dough for the pizzas and said that it needed 'a little' extra water than the recipe stated but otherwise came together well. Just don't expect it to be pliable or stretchy like it's gluten filled cousin. I had chopped the various pizza toppings already so the dough was then passed over to me and I patiently ( I know! Me patient?? lol) pressed it out to fit on a parchment lined 12" round pizza tray. It takes a few minutes to push the dough out but it's not a big deal. I needed two pizzas so we repeated this process and it was easy. The dough didn't reach to the very edge, maybe a cm short but it covered the pan well.
For my tomato base I used my old faithful tomato base, consisting of 6 oz tomato paste, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp garlic powder and the drained tomatoes from a 14oz tin/carton of chopped tomatoes. I usually mix this in a bowl an hour before I want to make pizza's to let it's flavour blend. Then it's simply spread over the pizza dough until an even layer is formed.
Susan O'Brien's Gluten Free & Yeast Free Pizza Base
(Recipe from The Gluten Free Vegan/O'Brien) Makes 1 12" pizza base
1 cup All Purpose GF Baking Flour (I used Dove Farms Plain White Flour Blend ~R~)
1/4 cup potato cup
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1 1/2 tsp egg replacer whisked together with 2 tbsp warm water
1 tbsp agave nectar
1/2 cup soya milk
1/8 cup grape seed or canola oil (I used Sunflower oil ~R~)
Pre heat the oven to 400'F/200'C. Line a pizza tray or baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the GF baking and potato flours, baking powder, salt and xantham gum. Mix well.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg replacer with the warm water until it bubbles and the powder is completely dissolved. Add the agave nectar to this mixture, as well as the milk and oil. Whisk together and add to the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix well.
Knead the dough together with your hand and this is where a little extra water was needed. But keep going until the bowl is clean.
Place the dough ball on your lined tray and flatten it out and then press out, evenly, to cover the pan/sheet.
My Love's Mushroom and Mixed Pepper Pizza
 |
| My Love's creation...lol |
tomato base
red onions slices
red peppers slices
orange pepper slices
mushroom slices
tomato slices
soya 'mozzerella' super melting but not browning cheeze
black pepper
Red's Cougette and Black Olive Pizza
 |
| My creation...loving those courgettes and olives... |
tomato base
red onion slices
courgette slices
tomato slices
yellow pepper slices
black olive halves
lots of freshly ground black pepper
soya 'mozzerella' super melting but not browning cheeze..lol
Place the completed pizza's in the hot oven and cook for 15 minutes. If making two, cook for 10 minutes and then swap the pizza's over and cook for a further 1o minutes to ensure even cooking.
NB: Now our super melting soya mozzerella just didn't want to brown but it sure did melt and taste delicious. The pizza base was completely delicious and didn't taste biscuity or crumble. The very edge of the pizza that wasn't covered in topping did get very hard but then I hardly ever eat the crust so that was all good for me. lol. But I have now retired from my gluten free yeast free pizza base search as Susan's recipe is just brilliant. Thank you Susan!
As we were having a good old fashioned pizza, movie and beer night...I didn't make a salad to go with the meal. It was so strange but we lived. lol. I did make a batch of my homemade potato wedges.
Red's Homemade Potato Wedges
(Original recipe from Rocket and Roses Vegan Kitchen)
 |
| Ooops a fuzzy photo but it was taken in two seconds before they were eaten...lol |
2 tbsp sunflower oil
lots of freshly crushed black pepper
low sodium salt
In a large bowl place the cut potato wedges and drizzle over the oil and with your hands toss the wedges until they are completely coated. Grate in a lot of pepper and toss again.
Pour the wedges into a deep roasting pan and place then into a pre heated oven at 400'F/200'C. Bake for 20 minutes and then using a sturdy spatula 'shovel' the wedges and toss. Some will be stuck to the bottom of the tin but keep shoveling..lol. Then place back into the oven for another 20 minutes.
They should be browned on the outside and fluffy on the inside. At this point I place a layer of tin foil in the pan to cover the wedges and then put them at the bottom of the oven to keep warm. And then place the pizzas in the oven to cook.
When ready to serve scoop the wedges into a large bowl lined with kitchen paper and then sprinkle with the salt and toss them to cover. And then serve.
So we had our pizza and we had some wedges and now all we needed was some beer....so we were set. And the pizzas were delicious...the wedges crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside and not overpoweringly salty...the beers were a lovely change as I hardly ever drink these days. But I have to confess I maybe had one too many as I sure did have a hangover the morning!
And the movie? S had requested an action movie and The A-Team turned up via our DVD club this week so it seemed to fit the bill. lol. It was funny and definitely full of action!
Oh and dessert...was Vanilla Sugared Mixed Berries over a scoop of vanilla soya icecream...lovely.
Enjoy!
~R~
