My sweet celiac and youngest, Izzy

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Pizza

Lord this amazing obsession in America, brought over from Italy and France...flatbread....an appetizer, a small plate, a delicious goodness that has become a huge meal with enormous and amazing toppings....an absolute slap in the face to the gluten free community.  In my opinion that is.  I have tried every premade or store bought and even some fresh pizza oven places who offer gluten free pizza crusts and i have to say I am most disgusted with it.  Flatbread is a general term thrown around loosly and in the gfree world seems to mean a cardboard nasty mess.  DISGUSTING....until now.  It has gotten so bad that Isabelle will not even TRY pizza from a pizza place or from my own oven.  Poor thing associates pizza with pain, both dairy and gluten and I'm not sure which is worse when it comes to pizza for her but she HATES it and will not try it mostly at all.  BUT still my obsession and life's work seems to be to find a gluten free crust that won't make her sick but meets some of my requirements too since going gluten free.  It should have a bite to it, it should have a rise to it and it should LOOK like pizza, NOT a cardboard box.  Most importantly it should taste amazing.  Impossible?  If you have been gluten free recently you would think so.  I have mentioned before the Art of Gluten Free Baking and she has a pizza crust that has yeast in it and you let it rise twice and bake it twice and when I say it's good, TRUST me it's yummy!  After all the crap I've tried, it is as close to a real pizza if not better than I have ever had.  I made it with my friend, Henrietta, on one of our baking testing days...I can make the crust gluten and dairy free and since Izzy doesn't like cheese I leave half without!  I have heard that for the dairy free Daiya cheese is a good alternative but I have not tried this yet so please don't quote me on this one!
Her crust recipe is as follows:http://www.artofglutenfreebaking.com/2009/08/gluten-free-pizza-edited-62910/
I follow the recipe but I let mine rise a bit more than the thin style and then prior to baking I brush with olive oil and dock the dough. My favorite thing is to after it's cooled, brush again with olive oil and minced garlic then top with slices of tomato and fresh mozarella with shredded proscuitto and shredded basil and rebake until the cheese is melted and bubbly.......Izzy still picks the cheese off but I have had more compliments on this pizza than when I made it with the gluten dough....and it makes pizza marguerita taste like Italy sans glutino! Buon Appetito!

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