In order to enjoy pizza on occasion, I've made a few changes. One, the sauce. I stopped buying pizza sauce a few years ago and made my own from good quality canned tomatoes. In the past few months though, I've wanted to stop using canned products as much as possible for multiple reasons - additives, BPA lining in some cans or aluminum in others. First I tried to find canned tomatoes in a jar, but that seems to be an idea that's ahead of its time. So, I now use a good quality jar pasta sauce. We like Barilla Marinara. It has ingredients you can pronounce and, most important, tastes good.
Cheese is something that we still enjoy on occasion. Mostly I keep cheese around that is SCD friendly for our 4 year old who is still iffy on other forms of protein at times. SCD doesn't allow mozzarella, so I've switched to a good quality (Boar's Head) Provalone. My hubby and I have cut out most other forms of dairy, but do allow for cheese on a burger or, in this case, on pizza, once in awhile.
The most difficult part of trying to enjoy pizza on an alternative eating plan is usually the crust. Pinterest has a large number of ideas for how one might make a more healthy crust. There are recipes out there that feature grated cauliflower, grated zucchini, white rice flour, etc. Meanwhile, the manufacturers who specialize in providing products for alternative diets usually have a crust mix or even a frozen pizza crust product. The problem is that the price for the packaged form (mix or pre-made crust) is usually quite high and you get a small amount of product for the cost. Most importantly though is taste and even improved over what was previously available, these product still at times don't taste very good. Therefore, the most cost effective option seems to be making your own crust using flours and products you keep in your pantry for other baking.
Currently, I like Pamela's products. I buy the large bag of Pancake & Baking mix and I buy the bread version when I'm able to find it. I used a recipe I found on the Pamela's site for this latest pizza crust. I did change the recipe a bit to meet what I had on hand and based on experience using the Pamela's mix and other GF baking. I think this is the closest we've come to a deep dish pizza that has a satisfying crust.
Finally, toppings. My darling hubby and I love pepperoni (I know, I know). We've tried the turkey version, but it just doesn't have the same level of flavor. With "real" pepperoni, you get into more fat, sure, but even worse are the nitrates and nitrites. This time around we tried the Applegate Farms uncured pepperoni. It's more expensive, but the taste makes it worth the price. Even the 4 y.o. added pepperoni to her section of the pizza and she's usually a cheese only pizza girl.
Below is my recipe for the pizza we made last night from top to bottom. Use it as a guide or send me a note if you have something better. At the end of the day, finding a way to enjoy some of your favorite foods while trying to eat in a way that your body appreciates is important and helps you stay on track.
GF Deep Dish Pizza
Crust
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Olive Oil (not EVOO)
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Water
- 1.5 tsp Salt
- 3/4 cup of Potato Starch
- 3/4 cup of Pamela's Pancake & Baking Mix
- 3/4 cup superfine Sorghum flour
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- EVOO for pan
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Liberally apply a coat of EVOO to a half sheet pan (18 x 13), set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine olive oil, water, salt and eggs. Whisk to combine ensuring that eggs are well incorporated. Add yogurt and whisk again until you have a smooth, consistent mixture. Add Potato Starch, Baking Mix and Sorghum flour. Whisk to begin to combine liquid and dry ingredients. Switch to a spoon if necessary to finish combining ingredients. Crust will be very wet and sticky, looking more like a heavy cake batter than a bread.
Drop large spoonfuls of dough across the EVOO covered sheet pan. Using slightly wet hands, the back of the spoon or an offset spatula (usually used for decorating cakes), spread the dough so that no holes appear in the crust. This may take a bit of time, but be patient and keep working at it, eventually your crust will cover the entire pan.
Reduce preheated oven temp to 350 and bake for 25 minutes. I found it's best to let the crust cook to the golden brown stage. Then, place your oven on low broil and allow the top to cook for 3-5 minutes until medium brown, but not burnt. Remove from oven and carefully apply toppings.
Topping Your Pizza & the Final Bake
As I said above, we used Barilla Marinara sauce as our foundation. We all agreed that this crust can stand up to quite a bit of sauce, so this first pizza didn't have quite enough to balance the thick crust. This time we probably used a cup or so of sauce, next time I'd double the amount.
Top the sauce with whatever pizza toppings your heart desires. We kept it simple this time using just Applegate Farms Uncured Pepperoni. Fresh meats, like bacon or sausage, should be added to the pizza in their cooked state as only 10 minutes or so is needed once you put the pizza in the oven the second time and that's not enough to cook the meats through for safe consumption.
Complete your pizza with a top layer of your favorite pizza cheese. We used a mixture of Provalone and a little wedge of Mozzarella I had in the freezer. In the future we'll use only Provalone and any other SCD approved cheese.
Place pizza back in the 350 oven for approximately 10 minutes to allow toppings to warm through and the cheese to melt. Remove from oven and allow pizza to rest for 10 minutes so that the cheese better stays in place before cutting/serving.
~Enjoy
