No Knead Pizza Dough

This past weekend, my girlfriends got together to throw one of my high school girlfriend a baby shower. She is the first one of our group to have a baby and we wanted to do something special for her.

Since the mom-to-be has a dairy allergy, we set out to make everything dairy free. I made these vegan chocolate cupcakes that were a huge hit! I started out using the 2D tip, but the frosting ended up stringy since I used half shortening. It looked fine for the pink vanilla frosting since it looked like flowers but I just used a piping bag without a tip for the chocolate. I topped them with cupcake toppers from here.

We really had a mish-mosh of a menu that included Chinese and Italian cuisines. Since my friend loves pizza, I decided to make pizza for her using vegan cheese.

I've made pizza before, but I really hate kneading dough, even if it's with the Kitchenaid mixer. I've tried it in the bread maker with the dough cycle as well, but it wasn't quite right. This dough was perfect for me, since it required no kneading! All I had to do was dump all the ingredients in a bowl, mix, then leave it alone! Since I had so many other things to for the party, I decided to give this a go.

I halved the recipe and it made 3 good sized pies (about 12" each). I was going to try making garlic bread with this as well, but I ended up using it all for pizza.

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No Knead Pizza Dough

made by cathy's kitchen journey
as seen on King Arthur Flour, originally from Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day




ingredients:

• 3 cups + 3 tablespoons (25 1/2 ounces) lukewarm water
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 TBSP instant yeast
• 1 1/2 TBSP kosher salt
• 9 cups (38 ounces) all purpose flour

directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix until thoroughly moistened (use a spatula if necessary).
2. Loosely cover and set aside in a warm area. Let rise for 2 hours.
3. After 2 hours, transfer the covered bowl to the fridge for at least 3 hours, or up to 7 days.

to make pizza:

1. Preheat oven and stone (if using) to 450° F.
2. To make pizza, portion out a softball sized piece of dough (about 8 oz).
3. Dust a piece of parchment with cornmeal and place the dough on top. Add another piece of parchment over the dough and roll the dough out between the 2 pieces of parchment. Leave the dough to sit for 30 minutes to reduce shrinkage.
4. Remove the top piece of parchment, top with pizza sauce, cheese and choice of toppings. Transfer to baking stone or pan with the parchment. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on the thickness of your pizza.

Yield: I halved the dough recipe, which yielded 3 pies

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Weeknight Pizza

Let’s say one day, you’re craving pizza. It’s late, so do you suck it up and order pizza, or do you have time to make your own? If you happened to have the cheese on hand, the sauce on hand, the toppings ready, but no crust! No worries! If you have refrigerated crescent rolls left over in the fridge, you can make this pizza! Hypothetical situation of course!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we were trying out the Daiya cheese. I also bought the mozzarella style to make pizza. Once we brought the package home, Gary was eager to open it up and taste it. He did just that, and everyday afterward, he took a little pinch to eat. I told him I was going to use it to make pizza, and I wasn’t sure if it was enough, and since he opened it already, I had to use it up within a certain time frame.

Since I didn’t have time to make pizza dough, and I didn’t have any premade ones, I used up what I had in the pantry and fridge. This came out great, not as good as real pizza dough of course, but a great alternative if you don’t have any. I used the garlic butter flavor, and believe it or not, it’s dairy free (and possible vegan, I don’t remember)! Since there are seams on the rolls, it made it easy to tear the pizza into pieces so you don’t have to pick up the whole thing at once.

The Daiya website said that the cheese melts and stretches. I saw that it melted beautifully, but I didn’t notice too much stretch. It tasted like a real cheese pizza, and I will definitely buy this  again and use it on pizza dough. Of course, with any pizza, add as much or little of whatever topping you like! I used some shredded rotisserie chicken and sliced baby bella mushrooms. Gary said it reminded him of the Elio’s pizza he used to eat as a kid.

Weeknight Pizza
a Cathy original!

 printable recipe

ingredients:
1 tube garlic butter or regular crescent rolls
1/3 cup tomato sauce, divided (jarred or homemade)
1 (8 oz) package of Daiya mozzarella shreds

toppings optional:
baby bella mushrooms, thinly sliced
shredded cooked chicken

directions:
Preheat oven to 375° F. Open crescent package and unroll onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Separate down the middle of the middle of the crescents to make 2 rectangles. Press the other seams to close them up.

Spread sauce evenly onto both pieces of crust. Top with cheese, then toppings.

Bake in preheated oven for 12-13 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Makes 2 pizzas.

Vegan Cheese Pizza with Fresh Tomato Sauce

After work one day, I decided to stroll over to the nearby Whole Foods to pick up some things I wasn’t able to find in my local supermarket (instant yeast being one of them). After I picked that up along with a few pantry staples, I strolled to the dairy section to see if they had changed their selection of vegan cheeses. The last time I looked, they only had lactose free cheeses, but not totally vegan cheeses. The lactose free ones still contained casein and whey proteins from the milk that Gary was sensitive to. This time around, I actually found something that was was totally vegan!

The package on the Vegan Gourmet Cheese from Follow Your Heart boasts that it melts just like real cheese! I was a little skeptical. I didn’t think it would be the same. It was on sale, so I picked up a block of mozzarella flavor and a block of monterey jack.

So, now I had the yeast, I had the cheese, and I had fresh tomatoes that was given to us by Gary’s sister from her garden. What a perfect way to test out the the cheese with a cheese pizza! I also had some basil leaves from the plant I’ve been growing in my Aerogarden. It was due for a pruning, so I clipped off a few leaves. It was the perfect amount to make the tomato sauce.

I started with the pizza dough. I used the pizza crust recipe from King Arthur Flour. The only difference I made was subbing half the flour for whole wheat flour. I messed up on my part during the 2nd rising time. I didn’t realize I had to roll it out and then let it rise. I let it rise before rolling it out. I let it pre-bake at 475° for 8 minutes as instructed plus another 15 minutes for the sauce and cheese, and the result was a very crispy crust that still tasted great. I still have half the dough in the freezer, so I know better for next time.

After the initial pre-bake, I topped it off with a fresh tomato basil sauce (recipe below) and then 1 cup of the shredded mozzarella vegan cheese. I shredded the whole thing and realized it was a lot. I was only able to use half of the 10 oz block. I froze the rest for later. I might end up using it for a casserole or something next.

Gary though this pizza tasted great. We both thought it could never replace real cheese pizza, but if you can’t have it, this is a great alternative. I won’t be buying it all the time, because it can get expensive for a small block of cheese. What it had in common with real cheese pizza? I burned the roof of my mouth just the same!

Tomato Basil Pizza Sauce
adapted from: recipezaar.com
printable recipe

ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups diced peeled fresh tomatoes (or one 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper, freshly ground
2 tablespoons fresh basil, coarsely chopped or 2 teaspoon dried basil

directions:
Heat oil in medium saucepan over a medium heat until hot.

Add garlic; cook 30 seconds or until fragrant.

Stir in diced tomatoes, salt and pepper and cook for 8-10 minutes or until slightly thickened, stirring and mashing tomatoes with potato masher until crushed. I used an immersion blender after about 10 minutes and whizzed on low a few times, leaving the sauce slightly chunky.

Stir in basil.

Place in small bowl; cool to room temperature This sauce may be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated or up to 2 months ahead and frozen.

Chicken and Spinach Pizza

Adapted from: Allrecipes.com
Made by: Cathy

I've been meaning to make pizza for a while now. I was a little intimidated at first because I haven’t had much experience making yeast bread. This was one of the easier recipes I've tried though. There was minimal hands on time, more waiting time than anything. The crust was nice and crispy with a chewy center. The original recipe probably made a really large pizza, or 2 smaller ones. It was just the 2 of us, so I halved the recipe.

This was a great way to use up my leftover chicken from the night before.

What’s funny is that first thing that Gary said after he took a bite was “Mmm, this taste like real pizza!” Um…I think that was the point!

Ingredients:
For the crust:
1 1/8 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon brown sugar
3/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
cornmeal for dusting

For the topping:
1 cup pizza sauce (I used jarred pasta sauce)
1 cup low moisture shredded mozzarella cheese (or more if desired)
1 cup cooked chopped chicken
1 10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.

2. Stir the salt and 1 tablespoon of oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 1 cup of the flour.

3. Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. If using the dough hook of a mixer, gradually pour in the rest of the flour as the mixer is running on low speed. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. (I used saran wrap and a paper towel. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out.

4. While the dough is rising, preheat oven with the pizza stone inside to 425° F (220° C). If you are baking the dough on a pizza stone, you may place your toppings on the dough, and bake immediately. If you are baking your pizza in a pan, lightly oil the pan, and let the dough rise for 15 or 20 minutes before topping and baking it.

5. Dust parchment paper with cornmeal. Roll out your dough to about 12" in diameter. Mix together the remaining oil, garlic powder, and onion powder. Brush the oil onto the crust. Pour the pizza sauce in the middle and spread in a circle with the ladle. Layer half the spinach on the crust. Layer half the chicken, then remaining spinach and chicken.

6. Transfer the pizza to the baking stone along with the parchment paper. Bake pizza in preheated oven, until the cheese and crust are golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.

The pizza was great for my first time making pizza. Next time, I will probably add some Italian seasoning to the crust. I meant to do that too, but I forgot. I can’t wait to try different toppings.