Vegan Pizza Day 2012
We had some omnivore friends over for dinner, and it happened to be Vegan Pizza Day. I made two pizzas: one was brushed with herb oil (see below) and then had artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, capers, and white Daiya. The other had a red sauce, pineapple, tomatoes, capers, and white Daiya. The first one was my favorite.
{Both were better than the pizzas I threw together last night. Those had crusts that were way too thick and doughy for my taste.}
I experimented with two ways to make thin crispy crust this time:
For the first one, on the advice of Roberto Martin in Vegan Cooking for Carnivores, I bought a cheap pizza screen. (I thought a pizza screen was a pizza pan with holes in the bottom. I now realize that he probably meant the actual “screen” kind—mine might be more accurately called a “crisper”). I made sure to roll the dough out very thin, about the size of the pan, and then placed it in the pan.
For the second one, I also rolled the dough out super thin, this time slightly larger than my pizza paddle. I then pre-baked the dough on the baking stone for about 10 minutes. After that, I removed it, put the toppings on, and baked it the rest of the way fully dressed.
Both crusts came out pretty crispy. The pizza screen one might have been a little bit crispier, but it was also on the bottom rack. The one on the baking stone took longer to bake, but I think this was mostly due to the thick layer of toppings. So, as it turns out, I didn’t necessarily need to buy the pizza screen/crisper, but it was a little easier to deal with and would be pretty easy to use in the BBQ once the weather gets super hot here.
This was the first day that I’ve spent a little time flipping through Vegan Cooking for Carnivores, which I have out from the library. It’s where I got the recipe for herb oil. Fresh rosemary {Trader Joe’s}, basil {farmer’s market}, thyme {lemon thyme from our herb garden}, olive oil, garlic {fresh, from farmer’s market}, salt, and pepper in the Vitamix = yum! Isn’t is a pretty green? There is a ton left-over (another larger jar plus this one), and I’m sure I will be putting it in/on a lot of things over the next few weeks. In general, I’ve cut back on cooking with oils, but I will use the herb oil sparingly for that little extra something in a variety of dishes. I’m already thinking of pasta, sauteed kale…
Beezelbarb 