Yesterday was John’s birthday. It happens to fall on National Pi Day, and it makes this former math teacher giggle every year. For several years I’ve made him pie for dessert instead of cake at his request. His favorite meal is pizza. If you haven’t noticed, we don’t have pizza often. It’s hard enough when you’re gluten free, but toss in dairy and tomatoes and it all gets more complicated. Now, John can still eat pizza, he’s not allergic, but the date falling during Lent puts a hitch in the situation. This issue was discussed last week in a Facebook group I follow. One suggestion was to try a pierogi flavored pizza. Thanks for the idea, Elizabeth; it was great!
We tried to make real gluten free pierogis when we were studying Poland last school year. It was pretty much a flop. They all fell apart in the boiling water. It was so bad that I finally baked the rest. The baked ones were great, but I pretty much gave up trying to make gluten free-egg free pierogis ever again. Pierogi Pizza was a much better idea.
I started with this pizza crust recipe. As always I was missing a few ingredients, so I improvised a little.
I started by mixing this gluten free flour blend:
2 cups sorghum flour
2 cups tapioca starch
1 cup potato starch
1 cup teff flour
I doubled this pizza crust for my family, but next time I might triple it. It worked out this time because I had extra mashed potatoes and dessert coming. Don’t worry I plan to share the dessert recipe in the next post.
Pizza Crust
1 3/4 cups gluten free flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon guar gum
1 teaspoon ground flax seed
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup almond milk
2 Tablespoons safflower oil
1/2 teaspoon vinegar, optional
In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients and blend thoroughly.
Add the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Add a tablespoon or two of additional liquid at a time, until dough comes together easily. Cover and let sit at room temp for at least one hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. With lightly oiled hands, press dough into a 10″ circle on a lightly floured pan, building up edge slightly. Bake for 13-15 minutes.
Remove crusts from oven, top with sauce, etc. and return to oven. Heat until toppings are bubbly, about 8-10 minutes. Parbaked crusts can be stored frozen to use as needed.
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This is the part where we diverged from traditional pizza recipes.
Earlier in the week I started fermenting sauerkraut using cabbage from my St. Patrick’s Day produce pack using mason jars and this method. The finished product was waiting in the refrigerator.
Once I had my pizza dough mixed and resting, I started boiling 2.5 -3 lbs of potatoes for our mashed potato “sauce”. These I mashed with almond milk and some nutritional yeast. Sorry I didn’t measure that part. Then I mixed in about two cups of sauerkraut. Taste and add salt if needed. The adults in the house thought that it needed more kraut, but the kids thought it was just right.
While the potatoes were boiling, I started browning one very large thinly sliced onion in a dry cast iron skillet over medium heat. Stir regularly. Once the onions were pretty brown 10-15 minutes, I drizzled them with a couple of tablespoons of safflower oil, sprinkled them with salt, and reduced the heat to medium-low for another ten minutes or so.
Then I sliced mushrooms and tossed them in to saute with the onions. I had a few sprigs of fresh thyme from my St. Patty’s pack, so that went in too. At this point I felt that it needed some color. Once the mushrooms were cooked I added some spinach I had in the fridge leftover from our spring rolls the day before.
Somewhere towards the end of mashing the potatoes and cooking the mushrooms, I patted the dough out on the floured pizza pans and parbaked them according to the directions above.
I spread the mashed potato “sauce” on the cooked crust and topped it with the onion and mushroom mixture. Discard the thyme stems as needed. Bake for another 8 minutes and serve with oven roasted asparagus.