You know that feeling when literally all you want in your life is a good slice of Pizza?
If you’re anything like me, that feeling is a constant. Like when Ellen DeGeneres decided to order a pizza at the Oscars last night? Yeah, I would have been all over that. Seriously, no time for selfies — must. eat. pizza.
The stars aligned yesterday; I finished the 30 day yoga challenge at my studio, had a pretty free day for the first time in what felt like forever and it was Oscar Sunday (a bigger deal than Superbowl Sunday in my house), so I decided I would make up a big Sunday night dinner…of pizza (duh). I figured that if the celebs wouldn’t be pigging out then someone should, and that someone was me.
BUT THEN Ellen went and did that little bit about pizza during the show — it’s like I have ESPN or something
…actually Chatelaine posted a picture of a “Tuscan Margherita” pizza on their Instagram yesterday morning that I saw on my way home from Yoga (so literally at my most-hungry) and from then on I could not imagine eating anything else, hell I just wouldn’t stand for it.
I wandered pretty aimlessly around the grocery store, picking up every item that could conceivably be delicious on pizza: artichokes, prosciutto, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, arugula, parmesan cheese, spinach…you name it, it was probably in my cart. But dude, epic pizza was going to be had, there was no doubt.
I settled on two kinds of crusts (both from Chatelaine, aka my bible): Cauliflower (hailed as “THE BEST CRUST EVERRR”) and a regular gluten free rice crust (no yeast or any pre-baking required). I flicked on the pre-Oscar show (you know, all three hours of it) and went to town:
Cauliflower Pizza Crust (adapted from Chatelaine):
1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon of garlic salt
Olive oil (optional)
Start by prepping cauliflower — wash and remove stems and leaves from one head of cauliflower, and chop the florets into chunks. Toss into your food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Be careful not to overdo it, or you’ll end up with a puree and that just will not fly.
Place the “riced” cauliflower into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for eight minutes. One large head will produce 2-4 cups of riced and cooked cauliflower — I doubled the recipe, but still have a bunch more. If you don’t feel like making a zillion pizzas, the leftovers can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Line a baking pan with parchment paper (to avoid stickage — don’t skip this step, the crust WILL stick to your pan and you’ll never get your pizza).
In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, beaten egg and mozzarella. Then add oregano, minced garlic salt, mix well. Transfer that onto your cookie sheet, and pat out into a nine inch round. Bake for 15 minutes. Then remove from oven and let cool (to allow crusts to become a little more solid).
Once again, I didn’t fully read the instructions. Partially because I was doing like 80 things at once, partially because I had moved into that point of being so hungry I would have happily eaten the raw dough. But this is what Chatelaine wants you to do to make the pizza:
Add all your toppings (sauce, cheese, etc.), then place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (a few mins) — to that end, toppings need to be precooked since you’ll only be broiling the pizza for a few minutes. OR do what I did and just throw all your toppings on and bake for another 10 mins or so…it was still pretty delicious.
I topped one pizza with:
Olive Oil
Prosciutto
Goat Cheese
Fresh Arugula
And the other with:
Tomato sauce
Mushrooms
Sundried tomatoes
Artichoke hearts
Mozzarella cheese
I’m not going to lie — I was skeptical about this crust, but it turned out prrrretty delicious (the one with the tomato sauce was especially delish) — the best part of all this is you can totally wing it and put on as much stuff as you want, and in whatever combinations you so desire.
While I was doing that, I was also making a slightly more standard Gluten Free Pizza Crust (also from Chatelaine…they’ve literally never done me wrong):
1 cup white-rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup fine cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey
Position rack in lower third of oven and set oven to 425F. Place a large baking sheet or pizza pan in oven to heat (I used a pizza stone — if you don’t have one, you should totes get one, they’re awesome and totally multi-purpose).
Cut 2 pieces of parchment paper about 12 × 12 in. and place on counter, coat lightly with oil.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, tapioca, cornmeal, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt. Separately, whisk egg with oil, honey and 1/2 cup water in a small bowl and then add to flour mixture and stir (I found using my hands to mix made things way easier).
Divide dough in half and place 1 portion between the two pieces of parchment, oiled sides touching dough. Roll dough into a 9-in. round so crust is fairly thin (about 1/3 inch). Remove dough from parchment to a cutting board and repeat with remaining dough.
Remove hot baking sheet from oven, place on a heatproof surface and flip both rounds onto sheet. Top each with your favourite toppings.
I topped one of the rounds with:
Olive Oil (just a drizzle)
Pears (one, very thinly sliced)
Caramelized onions
Brie Cheese
Fresh Thyme
And the other with:
Pesto
Artichoke hearts
Chopped Spinach
Mozzarella cheese
Bake in lower third of oven until crusts are golden around the edges and toppings are cooked, about 15 min.
Let me tell you, it was good. Not just “good considering it’s gluten free”, but actually good. The cold pieces I just ate for lunch were even outstanding (none of this soggy crust bidness here).
Maybe don’t try to make four pizzas at once (your kitchen will suffer), but definitely give these babies a try for your next Pizza night.
Piece (of Pizza) out. (Ugh, sorry I had to. My puns are almost as good as Ellen’s, riight?)
twobiddies 