Sunday I did something for the first time not only as a vegan, but ever!
I made pizza from scratch.
I mean I've bought the Boboli crust and piled it up with toppings and a lot of cheese. However Sunday was the first time I made the crust, sauce, and piled all the toppings on it.
The reason I think it took me so long was my fear of dough. Well, not just the dough but the yeast you put in dough to make it rise. The last time attempted making bread that is suppose to rise was when I was 15. My good friend Liz Kish and I attempted to make a three kings bread for our 10th grade Spanish class. The yeast didn't work, the dough did not rise, and our three kings bread was as hard as a rock. So 13 years later I faced the dough again and I won. It was actually really simple I'm not sure why I was so nervous about it?
My biggest regret is that I didn't have whole wheat flour and I had to use white processed flour which made the pizza a little less healthy. But I'll make sure to be better prepared next time.
The recipe for the dough was taken from the book Vegan With A Vengeance it's a pretty typical recipe I added some dried basil to give the crust a little more flavor. The key is to test the yeast and make sure it's active. There is a picture of bubbly yeast above, the bubbles and foam mean it's good.
Pizza Dough: the condensed novel
From Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
1 cup warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 (1/4 oz) packet of active dry yeast (the book says "not the rapid-rise stuff!" but that's what I used and it was fine.)
2 tablespoons olive oil (and more for drizzling)
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
cornmeal for dusting
In a small bowl, proof the yeast for 10 minutes by stirring in into the cup of warm water. If your yeast doesn't foam up within 10 minutes, it's dead and you should start over. (Apparently this doesn't really happen anymore, but just so you know.)
In a large mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and whisk together. Add yeast water and oil, and mix up until a dough forms. It will form quickly, and if you have leftover flour at the bottom of the bowl, just set it aside. Knead for 10 minutes until dough is elastic and somewhat firm. If it's too sticky, you can add in small amounts of flour. When finished kneading, form into a tight ball.
In another large, oiled bowl, place the ball and turn to coat the entire thing with a thin film of oil, then cover bowl with a damp cloth. Let rise for 1 hour, then punch down (it feels so good to punch dough, haha!) and knead for another minute, dusting with flour if necessary, until dough begins to feel less like a sponge (it should be spongy) and more like dough. Form into a ball again, place back in the bowl, and let it rest for AT LEAST 10 minutes, but really more like an hour or two. You can also freeze it and use it another time!
When it's time to make pizza, cut the dough into equal sections (you can do 2 medium sized pizzas, 1 really big one- tonight we made 3 smallish ones) and roll/stretch out into shape. This dough rolls GREAT- I rolled it out into super thin pies and it puffed up pretty nicely anyway.
Preheat your oven to 500ºf, (preheat your pizza stone if you have one. I wish I had one!) slide your pie onto a baking pan, and let it go until it's done- 8-10 minutes.
And they are right about how fun it is to punch the dough after all that kneading, it was the best part.
The sauce I made was slightly adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance:
1 (22 ounce can) of diced tomatoes with juice
1 tsp. of olive oil
1 tbls. of minced garlic or garlic paste (may be more garlic than you like I love the garlic)
1 tsp. of dried basil
1 tsp. of dried oregano
1/2 cup of frozen spinach
1 tsp. of salt
dash of pepper
2 table spoons of tomato paste
I simply put everything in large sauce pan and let it simmer for about 25 minutes. Then I blended 3/4 of the sauce on puree and added it back into the pan and mixed it up with the un-blended sauce.
Vegan With a Vengeance recommended putting a light layer of sauce on the dough to prevent the dough from being soggy.
What I put on the pizza was really good but you can really put anything on it and it would probably taste good. I was a little worried about missing the cheese but I honestly hardly missed it.
My Sunday Toppings:
1/2 cup of red wine vinegar marinated baby bella mushrooms chopped
1/4 cup of yellow peppers
2 tbls. of Kalamata olives
1 tbls. of marinated artichoke hearts
1/4 cup of soy mozzarella cheese
I baked the whole thing for about 12 minutes on a pizza pan on 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
I over cooked just a bit so make sure to watch your pizza closely when your cooking it on
such a hot temperature.
I had 1/2 the dough left over so it's waiting in the freezer for my next vegan pizza experiment.
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