Sunday, August 26, 2012

Cauliflower Pizza Crust


After months of seeing this circulate the Pinterest blogosphere, I decided maybe we needed to try it. Max Man enjoys making a homemade pizza. We haven't done this in a long time but I could tell he had a hankering for it. I decided to beat him to the punch and let him know that I had a special crust to try from Recipe Girl.

To be honest, this was really easy to do. However, I don't know if it is a testament of the cauliflower recipe, my oven, or lack of a proper pizza stone/crisper but the crust didn't crisp the way a pizza crust should have. I give the taste a B+, I never once had the thought that I wasn't eating a conventional pizza crust, it was only lacking the even crisp throughout the pie, namely the middle area. Since the days of braces, I've always eaten pizza with a fork so that was an easy remedy when it came to eating. Max Max, on the other hand, well he was having a hard time trying to pick it up and shovel in his mouth, finally conceding to my fork method.  

Regardless of the crust, the taste was great and I would definitely recommend trying this. I am looking forward to making it again and working on ways to improve the crisp factor using a pizza stone, grilling it, broiling longer, who knows! Because I was so skeptical to begin with, I did not change this crust recipe at all from the source. We used it to make a half goat cheese-pesto pizza, half japapeno-pepperoni pizza, our favorites!

Nutritional facts can be found in Recipe Girl's post.

Grocery List:
  • 1 large head of cauliflower
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese, finely shredded
  • 1 tsp. dried oregano
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp. onion powder
To start, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Next, use a cheese grater to grate the cauliflower head until you've reached the stems. Should equate to about 2 cups.
 

Cauliflower produces a lot of water so you will want to take a few paper towels to help squeeze the moisture out of the grated veggie.
 

The blogger whose recipe I followed also recommended nuking it in the microwave to help dry out the moisture. I did this for about 6 minutes and then removed. Then, I placed in the freezer to help with the time of cooling down so I could add the egg without it cooking into the cauliflower flakes. Once cooled, you may add the egg, cheese, oregano, garlic and onion powder. Stir well to combine.
 

Grease your surface of choice, whether you use a cookie sheet or pizza stone. Pat the dough into a thin and even layer on the sheet, about 9 inches in diameter. This does not stretch like a regular dough so be gentle and pat it out to stay connected. Spray the crust lightly with nonstick spray, this will help it brown. Place in the oven and cook for 15 minutes. If your edges are browned but your middle still feels doughy, I would in hindsight cover the edges with foil, only exposing the middle, and allow the pizza to cook for another 3 minutes to help firm up that middle area.

Next, remove the crust from the oven and it should be a firmer, golden brown.
 

Turn the oven up to broil. Top with your sauce and pizza toppings of choice, then place back into the oven and let broil on high for 5 minutes.

When ready, let cool for a few minutes, slice and serve!

Tastefully yours,

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