Pizza By Ratio

Pizza with bell peppers (under cheese), artichoke hearts and caramelized onions

I guess I'm in a pizza kind of mood lately. I just realized my last post was a pizza post, making two pizza posts in September. You can't ever get enough pizza, right?

When I found out we were doing pizza crust for our Gluten-Free Ratio Rally this month, I was tempted to try and figure out the ratio for my go-to pizza crust. It's tried and true (and edited many times over!!), and I love it because it reminds me of family nights growing up. I decided against it, however, and pushed myself again. (But I did use some of the same flours.) If you're looking for a great-tasting, whole-grain gluten-free pizza crust to top however you wish, this pizza will deliver.

I love these rally challenges. They make me a better gluten-free cook/baker and prove nearly anything is possible in a gluten-free kitchen.

Logo designed by Anile Prakash

A big thank-you goes to Karen over at Cooking Gluten-Free!, our host for this month's rally challenge, for hosting us this month. Be sure to check out Karen's crust ratio recipe for garlic, artichoke, sun-dried tomato, pesto pizza (Oh. Yum.) and all the other delicious ratio pizza recipes from the participants this month. She has the links on her post, and there is something for every taste there.

If you're unfamiliar with the ratio rally, check out my rally page, where I have all my other rally posts which link to each monthly host, as well as Shauna's post on Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef, which was the very first rally post.

I decided to keep it simple this time around and let you choose your own toppings. I'll list some of my favorites to get you started, but this post is about the crust. It's filled with healthy whole-grain goodness and taste, and both daughters and my husband loved it. This crust has the right amount of crunch on the edges and bottom, and the right amount of soft, chewy bread for the rest. It doesn't fall apart when you pick it up, so you can eat the entire thing with your hands. It also still tastes great reheated in the oven or microwave.

I used Ruhlman's ratio for basic bread dough for this pizza crust: 5 parts flour: 3 parts water (plus yeast and salt), or 5 oz. flour: 3 oz. water. His basic recipe makes two crusts (20 oz. flour, 12 oz. water), but this particular recipe will make one pizza at least 12 inches across. I halved the recipe while I was experimenting with the ratio, so I wouldn't waste too many ingredients if things didn't turn out right, and thought it might be a good idea to keep it that way for those of you who aren't feeding a crowd. If you want more pizza crust, simply double, triple etc. to your heart's desire.

Projected prep time: 15 minutes; Rise time: 1 hour; Projected bake time: Total of 25-30 minutes
(Printable Recipe)

3 oz. (83 grams) tapioca starch (flour)
1 oz. (28 grams) potato starch (not potato flour)
*2 oz. (56 grams) sorghum flour (*see note below)
2 oz. (56 grams) amaranth flour
2 oz. (56 grams) teff flour
1 tsp. kosher salt
5 oz. very warm water (a tad less than 2/3 cup)
1/4 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. active dry yeast
1 oz. water (2 tbsp.)
1 tbsp. milled flax seed
1 tbsp. (1/2 oz.) extra virgin olive oil
Extra virgin olive oil, for brushing
Cornmeal (optional)
*OR replace the 2 oz. sorghum with 2 oz. (56 grams) millet flour (I preferred the crust with sorghum, husband liked the millet better. Both tasted great and not much difference.)
Toppings

Combine flours with salt.

In a small bowl, combine 2 tbsp. of water with the milled flax seed to create a slurry, then let it sit.

Mix sugar into warm water, then sprinkle yeast into water. (This isn't necessary, but I like to see that the yeast is doing its job before adding it to the flour.) Let sit for 10 minutes.

Pour olive oil into flour. Stir flax slurry (it should be much thicker at this point), pour into flour. Pour yeast and water into flour.

Mix with dough hook at low-medium speed until flours begin to combine, then scrape the bowl to make sure all the flours are incorporated (you may have to do this a few times - or you can start with the paddle, then scrape and switch to the dough hook.) If you don't have a stand mixer, you do all of this with a wooden spoon. Continue to mix ingredients until dough forms a ball. If you mix past this, it's okay - and may even be a little better, but the dough won't be a ball anymore. That window is very small, and I miss it many times when I'm not paying attention. It just makes it a little easier to get out of the bowl when it's still in a ball.

Transfer dough to a ceramic or glass bowl (not necessary, but I do this because I let it rise in my oven and my mixer bowl doesn't fit very well in there on the racks) and cover bowl with a damp clean cloth or dish towel. Move to a warm, draft-free spot and let it rise for an hour. (As I said above, I use my oven. I warm my oven to about 100 degrees about 10 minutes before I start the dough, then turn it off. By the time it's ready to rise, the oven is warm but not too warm. And as long as I don't need it for something else, it makes a great place to let the dough rise.)

After an hour, your dough should be about doubled in size. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. (Remove your dough first if you're using this spot to let it rise!)

Unless you're using a pizza stone (I don't use mine in any of these photos), rub a little olive oil onto the pan surface. If desired, sprinkle a tiny amount of cornmeal on top. (I usually do this.)

Roll or pat your dough out evenly onto the pan.

Brush with a light coating of olive oil, prick with a fork a few times. Bake for 10 minutes.

Top with desired sauce(s) and toppings (see some of my favorites below if you need ideas), then return to oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until cheese (if you're using it) is melted and beginning to bubble.

Artichoke & caramelized onion

Turkey pepperoni & fresh onion

 Let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

You can see that the crust holds up, even hot out of the oven, to bending and being held by hand:

*Just a sampling of some of my favorite toppings, in no particular order:
Pizza sauce, ricotta cheese, garlic, mozzarella, feta, spinach, artichoke, white onions, red onions, caramelized Vidalia onions (in butter & Tony Chachere's), green bell pepper, red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, turkey pepperoni, pineapple, chicken and apple sausage, turkey sweet Italian sausage, mushrooms, olives, fresh tomatoes

Some of my favorite topping combinations:
-Tomato pizza sauce, diced green bell peppers directly on top of sauce, mozzarella cheese, turkey pepperoni, pineapple, fresh red onion
-Ricotta mixed with fresh garlic, topped with mozzarella, then topped with sauteed zucchini sticks, salt and pepper OR fresh spinach instead of zucchini, directly on top of ricotta and then mozzarella on top of spinach
-Tomato pizza sauce, jalapeno slices, caramelized onions and sweet turkey Italian sausage with mozzarella
-Tomato pizza sauce, feta cheese crumbles, mozzarella cheese, chicken and apple sausage and caramelized onions (my brother got me onto that one)
-Tomato pizza sauce, red or green bell pepper, artichoke hearts and (or not) caramelized onions

Enjoy with the toppings of your choice!

Don't forget to head on over to Karen's host post to see her amazing pizza and all the other fantastic recipes brought to you by rally participants this month! Thanks again, Karen!

Hummus and "pita" bread

When things start getting warmer outside, I start making more hummus. I don't know why I crave it more in warmer weather, but I do. I love to eat it as a snack (or a meal!) with just pita bread. I love it with veggies. I love making sandwiches with it. Pita bread, hummus, a slice of provolone. A very good sandwich. Add some fresh spinach and a tomato. Oh my.

Perhaps I enjoy eating it more because it's a cooler food. Although it tastes great with warm pita bread, it tastes wonderful with foods at cool temperatures. Perhaps it's because hummus is a food you can sit down and enjoy for a while while you're watching the spring unfold around you. Like watching Western Tanagers catch insects right outside your window ...

I don't know why I like it so much, I just know that I do. I used to love eating hummus and pita bread at Serop's Cafe in Baton Rouge. I don't live in Baton Rouge anymore, but it was a favorite place to eat when I visited. I haven't tried it since I've been gluten-free, so if any of you have had good gluten-free experiences there, please let me know! Serop's makes the best hummus, in my opinion. I've tried to recreate it, and haven't quite gotten it. But this recipe I've come up with is good.

And pita bread? My oh my, I love good pita bread. It's not easy to find gluten-free, is it? Shortly after going gluten-free, I contacted Udi's and asked if they'd consider making some pita bread. I got a response that if I'd bake the pizza crust a few minutes, it worked pretty well for pita bread. They were right. It's not pita pocket bread, but it's a good replacement pita bread for the time being. Instructions below.

You'll notice I don't use tahini as a main ingredient in this recipe. You can certainly add it if you desire, and I'll add the optional amount below. I started making this without tahini because my oldest daughter was allergic to sesame for a while - at least that's what we believe. She broke out in hives a few times after eating hummus and we narrowed it down to the tahini, especially since there are some sesame allergies in the family. A few years later, she tested negative for a sesame allergy so we cautiously gave her a little. No reaction. She eats sesame now with no problems, including occasional tahini. We keep an eye on it, though. Because I have some friends who also have sesame allergies, I'm used to making it without the tahini. Every once in a while I'll add it, though. It's just as good either way!

Projected prep time: 5 minutes
1 15 oz. can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained with liquid saved
Fresh-squeezed lemon juice, to taste
1 large clove of garlic, pressed
3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Few dashes of cumin, to taste
(Optional: A few tbsp. of tahini)
You'll need some of the chickpea liquid, start with a couple of spoonfuls

Place all ingredients into food processor.

Blend until getting smooth. Adjust with more chickpea liquid and seasonings/lemon juice as necessary.

Blend again until smooth.

That's it. So simple. Refrigerate until ready to eat, unless you're eating it immediately.

Now for the "pita" bread ...
Bake time: 5 minutes
Udi's pizza crust

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place whole crust on baking sheet.

Bake for 5 minutes (top rack if gas oven). Remove and cut into wedges.

Handy tip: If you love pita chips, this stuff makes great ones. Cut into smaller pieces and bake longer. Yum!

Enjoy!

Royal Grapefruit & Clementine Sorbet

Can I tell you how absolutely refreshing this sorbet is? It is. So. Good.

Every year around Christmas I have a table selling Watkins (I'm an independent associate) at a local trade show. There are three things I do with the money from the booth. The first is buy some animals to donate to families in need through World Vision. This is a fun thing to do at Christmas and helps teach the children about those less fortunate. We usually purchase a goat as a Christmas present to ourselves, and then other animals (usually chickens and ducks) for Christmas presents to some family members.

The second thing I do is buy 12 months of Fruit of the Month club from Harry & David for my husband, daughters and myself. This is a treat we enjoy all year, and it's very worth the price in our opinion. (The third thing I do is use any remaining money to help with the rest of the Christmas presents!)

Our most recent fruit box from Harry & David was "Royal Grapefruit." Each one was beautiful (and of course this photo happens to be a little blurry and under bad lighting).

I have fond memories of eating grapefruit with my father many mornings with our breakfast. Grits with a pool of melted butter in the middle and a grapefruit half drizzled with honey. Oh, so good!

As I've gotten older, grapefruit has been harder on me. I can only eat a small amount at a time, so sitting down to a whole half is nearly impossible. I've missed it.

So when we had a whole box of the lovely fruit, I knew I didn't want it to go to waste but what to do? The girls were eating sections of it with nearly each meal but it would take a while to go through them and I wanted to use them up while they were still really good.

I noticed a recipe for grapefruit sorbet on the care card inserted in the box with the fruit and immediately had an idea for a variation of the recipe - and what better way to use up the grapefruit?

Projected prep time: 20 minutes; Projected churn time: 25-35 minutes
1 cup organic cane sugar
1 cup water
1 tbsp. grapefruit zest
A few curls of grapefruit rind
2 3/4 cups fresh-squeezed Royal Grapefruit (or other large grapefruit) juice
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed clementine juice
1 cup IZZE Sparkling Clementine
Grapefruit gummy candy, optional (Jelly Belly makes a good one)

Have your grapefruit zest and larger rind curls ready.

In a saucepan, combine the water and sugar, stir well. I use organic cane sugar, which has a browner color to it. It also dulls the natural color of the sorbet a little, but I wanted to use it instead of refined white sugar.

Bring to a boil and, continuously stirring, cook for about 1 minute or until the sugar dissolves.

Remove from heat and pour into a large bowl over zest and rind curls (you'll be removing the rind curls, so if you have something you can put them in - I used a tea ball - then that makes it easier) and set aside to cool.

Juice the clementines (they are small enough that I used a citrus press) ...

And juice the grapefruit (I used the Kitchen Aid citrus juicer attachment for my mixer).

Spoon out any smaller seeds that the juicer screen didn't catch.

Combine the two juices and add the Izze Sparkling Clementine.

Remove grapefruit rind curls from sugar syrup and set aside for garnish. Pour juice mixture into zest and syrup and whisk together.

Pour into ice cream maker (I use a Cuisinart that has a handy freezer bowl I keep in the freezer at all times) and churn for 25 to 35 minutes.

Spoon sorbet into an airtight freezer-safe container and freeze until firmer. I took the final photos after it had been freezing for about 2 1/2 hours. It got firmer after that. You can also eat it just like this as a slush. After I spooned it into the freezer container, I spooned out the rest and ate every last bit.

Garnish with sweetened grapefruit rind curls, clementine wedges and grapefruit gummy candy if desired.

Enjoy every refreshing bite!

This post is linking up with Seasonal Sundays over at Real Sustenance. Check out the other great recipes celebrating the season!

Savory or Sweet Puffed Oven Pancake

I'm telling you right now that the savory version of this puffed oven pancake may be one of my best creations ever. I think I've come up with some pretty tasty concoctions, and they each have a place in my heart. Many of them, however, have taken up a good time in the kitchen - with some frustration thrown in before finally giving me something I was satisfied with. This was one of those times where not only did it taste great and come out perfect the first try, it was easy.

I made the sweet version of this pancake one morning for breakfast. The entire house was in agreement that it was a keeper. I adapted the pancake part of the recipe from the Puffed Oven Pancake recipe out of the Better Homes and Gardens Our Best Recipes cookbook. They also had a suggestion for the fruit.

The savory version, however, was my concoction one of those nights where I not only didn't feel like cooking anything elaborate, we were also getting low on groceries. I declared it was probably going to be an eggs and biscuits kind of night for supper. As I started pulling out the ingredients for the eggs and biscuits, I saw the spinach and heard it calling, and suddenly thought of the puffed oven pancake I'd made for breakfast a few mornings before ...

Projected prep time for sweet version: 15 minutes; Projected prep time for savory version: 35 minutes; Projected cook time: 20-25 minutes

Pancake ingredients:
2 tbsp. butter
3 eggs
1/8 cup almond flour
1/8 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup brown rice flour
1 rounded tsp. milled flax seed
1 tbsp. sweet rice flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp. sea salt

Savory ingredients:
Grapeseed oil
1 medium white onion, diced
5 red potatoes, cubed in small pieces (Note: another potato type will work fine, just alter the amount for the size)
2 or 3 good sized handfuls of fresh spinach
3 or 4 eggs (you'll scramble them)
Monterey Jack cheese
Sea salt
Herbamare (original)
Black pepper

*OR*
Sweet ingredients:
3 cups sliced fruit
1/4 cup mandarin preserves or orange marmalade
Powdered sugar (optional)
Whipped cream (optional)

Note: If you do the savory version, you'll need to start cooking your potatoes and onions before baking the pancake. See below for instructions.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place butter in a skillet (I used cast iron) and put in oven for two or three minutes until butter is melted, then remove from oven.

Sift dry ingredients together in small bowl.

Whisk eggs together in a medium mixing bowl. Add dry ingredients and milk, and whisk together well. Immediately pour into hot skillet.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. The pancake will puff up and brown. Note: I've made this a few times now and each time it has puffed up differently. Sometimes it puffs all over like the photo below and sometimes it puffs more evenly and then all the way up the sides - don't know why it's different each time, humidity changes, perhaps?

It will start to deflate some as it cools.

While your pancake is baking, work on your toppings.

I'll start with the savory (don't forget to start cooking your potatoes and onions before baking the pancake).

Place onions and potatoes in a pan with some grapeseed oil.

And cook until potatoes are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Scramble eggs into pieces and season to taste with salt, Herbamare and pepper.

Mix the eggs together with the potatoes and onions over low heat and then add the spinach.

Toss together until the spinach is mixed well with the rest of it.

Spread over the puffed pancake.

Then sprinkle cheese on top.

Return pancake to oven until cheese is melted.

Kindly ignore the paper plate. And the poor photo. It was a throw-together supper on a crazy night.

And now for the sweet topping. I chose sliced peaches (they were frozen, but very close to fresh - immediately frozen after being picked fresh from my dad's peach tree) and frozen organic blueberries for mine.

In a small saucepan, melt preserves over low heat.

If you are using fresh fruit, just slice it and have ready to spread over pancake. If you are using frozen, you'll need to thaw it. I thawed my frozen peaches over low heat, then added the blueberries after I removed from heat, stirring just until thawed, and sweetened with organic sugar until it tasted just right.

Then I strained the juice out.

And spread the fruit over the pancake, then spread the melted preserves over the fruit.

Then I sprinkled some powdered sugar over all of it.

I wanted to put a dollop of whipped cream on each slice, but I was out of whipping cream. It tasted wonderful without it.

The entire pan disappeared pretty quickly (as it did with the savory version - no leftovers, but enough for seconds!).

Enjoy!