Good Grain Thin-crust Pizza

I must say this weekend was a good weekend, maybe even a great weekend.  After going to see a movie that satisfied both husband & wife (which is easier said than done) with its perfect balance of action, suspense, romance & intelligence; said husband & wife dashed off to Shoppers to do an errand. While there, I snooped at the cookbooks & magazines…and I found this, most amazing new (or new to me) cookbook, Grain Power.  If you follow along with me, at all, you will know that I am on this quest to eat, at least some, healthier, unmodified grains in my 50ish life.  And, you may also know my insatiable "like" affair with cookbooks.  I would hate to guess the number of them in my ever-growing library or admit the nights that I lack slumber due to my cookbook reading habits…I love to read, in general, but admittedly I read cookbooks like many of you would devour novels of other kinds.  Oh, there, I feel so much better in the admission :)

Probably in light of our good "movie" experience, my husband purchased the cookbook for me. Yay!  Needless to say, I didn't try too hard to get back to sleep when I awoke for a bathroom run this Friday night.  Nor did I waste too much time Saturday morning in going about the gathering of these somewhat illusive "good grains."  I am now, quite seriously, invested in this "good grain" effort.  I/we spent the better part of Saturday & Sunday in the conquest of finding the grains to get a good start on a lot of these, delicious-looking recipes.  My first effort is the recipe that follows with my, very few, modifications.  It is not my intention to eat gluten-free, but rather to introduce myself to the plethora of grains, more modest than wheat, that do exist, out there, for our consumption.  This recipe would, however, fall into the gluten-free category.

Good Grain Thin-crust Pizza

Crust:

1/3 C Sorghum flour
1/3 C Millet flour
1/2 C light buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum (don't be afraid of this word, that starts with an "x" like I was.  It is merely a natural carb that provides thickening or stabilizing to recipes that don't contain gluten)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C warm water
1 tsp liquid honey
1 1/2 tsp quick-rise yeast (I actually used Fleischmanns bread machine yeast, as was all I had on hand - worked perfectly!)
1 large egg white
2 tbsp EVOO
Potato flour, for rolling

Toppings:

1 small can pizza sauce (I used generic)
1 tbsp grape seed oil
1 1/2 C fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 C cooked X-lean ground beef, seasoned
1/2 C cooked chicken breast, seasoned
1/4 C black beans, drained
1 handful baby spinach
1/2 C part skim mozza, shredded
1/2 C reduced-fat cheddar blend, shredded
1/2 C reduced-fat feta
2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped or use small leaves

In a medium bowl, whisk the sorghum flour, millet flour, buckwheat flour, xanthan gum & salt until well combined.

In a small bowl, whisk together the warm water & honey.  Sprinkle the yeast into the bowl, stir & let sit for 5 mins.  Whisk in the egg white & EVOO.

Pour the water/yeast mixture over the flour & stir until combined.  Cover and let sit for 20 mins.  Preheat oven to 400.  Place a large piece of parchment down on your counter where you are going to roll out your dough.  After the 20 mins, take dough out of bowl & gently form into a disk.  The dough will lack the elasticity of wheat dough, so be gentle with it.  Sprinkle the dough with the potato flour & generously sprinkle your rolling pin.  Keep some more close, as you will need to keep refreshing your rolling pin.  The dough wants to stick a little.  Roll out into a 12" crust on top of the parchment paper.  No need to flip the crust.  Grab opposite corners of the parchment & place the crust on your pizza pan or stone.  (Note:  Next time, I think I will cook my pie on a pizza pan using this method:  Place your pizza pan on top of the dough, slide your hand under the parchment & carefully flip the crust so that it is on your pan.  Remove parchment.)  Your crust will just not get quite as crisp if you leave it on the parchment.  Not quite as crisp, maybe, but uniquely flavoured & oh, so delicious!  (I may even make 2 smaller pizzas, next time, as we really like a thin, thin crust & feel the amount of dough would have sufficed)  Spread dough with pizza sauce & bake in preheated oven for 5 mins.

During this time, sauté your veggies on med heat in the grape seed oil.  I don't know too much about grape seed oil, but am impressed.  1 tbsp was plenty for all of those veg & no smoking…After veg are tender (appx 5 mins) add in any meat, if you are using something like pre-cooked chicken or X-lean ground beef & beans.  I had a little of both lingering in the fridge, so on they went, to please the cookbook buyer. Left to my own devices, I think veggie would have been delicioso!!

Now, remove crust from oven & top with the cooked veg & meat mixture.  Sprinkle on spinach, feta & mozza & cheddar, in that order.

Slide pizza back into the oven & bake for 8 mins.  Or, until crust is done to your desired crispness.  I set my oven to convection, by accident, & the pie was done to perfection in 8 mins.  Who knew…but, if you do the conventional way, you may find you need to broil the cheese for just a min or two after the 8 mins of baking. Remove from the oven.  My pie slid easily off the pan for slicing on a large cutting board.  You could leave on pan too.  Sprinkle generously with the fresh basil, slice & serve immediately…because you won't be able to wait!! And, as always, enjoy!!!

Prepping…

There's that "good grain" dough coming into its own…I only removed the cover a min to take this photo.

Dr. Oz would definitely approve of this colourful pan of veggie perfection!!

Looks so ooey gooey cheesy, but this is 1/2 C of the 2 shredded cheeses measured!!

Fresh out of the oven!

…and…plated…

Here's what's left after Darrell & I were thru with it.  A little pic of the cookbook, which deserves all the credit, should you want to go get yourself a copy!!

FYI:  The movie was Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit