I have been dying to share my recipe for Pizza with Aquafaba! I intended to post it last week, right after I posted my recipe for Baked Tofu Feta, but then I plunged into a weeklong whirlwind of Vacation Bible Adventure camp at church with the boys and it didn’t happen. Each night last week I sat down with really high hopes for my productivity level….and each night I collapsed into a pile on the couch and barely even had the energy to skim through Facebook. But this week things are a little calmer (a little—I can’t keep still for too long), and I am so excited to share my new recipe with you!
I’ve been on a quest for really perfect pizza dough for some time now. On my quest I discovered that it might not be the recipe so much as the cooking method. I stumbled across a few recipes that all agreed that to get a crispy outside crust with a chewy inside you needed really hot temperatures. Like REALLY hot! Like grill hot. This way the outside of the crust will cook quickly without the inside of the crust cooking too long. We’ve been grilling our pizzas like this all summer long and it makes such a difference!
I also wanted to tweak my old dough recipe. It’s really good—a staple that has served us well for years—but I wondered if tweaking it a little bit would add to the crisp and soft texture I was going for. I added 1 T of gluten flour (Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten), and…drumroll please…..some aquafaba! Aquafaba has so many uses beyond an egg replacer, and one of those uses is in bread. It gives it such a nice texture, and I really think it makes a difference in breads (like in my Maple Dinner Rolls). Definitely crack open a can of beans and add some—it’s totally worth it!
^^^ For whatever reason, Jonathan eats all of his pizza upside down. We still haven’t figured out why!
For pizza toppings I like to keep it pretty simple and straightforward—olives, Follow Your Hearth mozzarella, homemade Baked Tofu Feta, basil, mushrooms for the boys, and Field Roast Italian sausage if I’m feeling fancy. I’ve also been making my sauce from scratch and it is Irving’s new addiction. He must ask for it weekly. And the thing is, it’s super easy. I’ve adapted the recipe from Jen Hatmaker a little bit to make it a thicker sauce. I make a big jar of it and keep it in the freezer—I can usually get about 3 pizza nights out of it (unless Irving steals some of it for pasta!).
^^^ Look at those perfect air bubbles!
Give this a try while the weather is still perfect for grilling (though I will be warming up the grill all winter long—grilling in the winter rain will be totally worth it for pizza this delicious!). When you do, take a picture and tag #frieddandelions on your favorite social media. Oh, and share this recipe with your friends—good friends need to make sure their friends have good pizza in their lives!
Pizza with Aquafaba
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 2 1/4 t yeast one packet
- 1 1/2 c hot tap water
- 1 T maple syrup
- 1 T gluten flour I like Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten
- 3 T aquafaba liquid from any type of canned bean
- 1 t salt
- 2 T olive oil
- 3 1/2-4 c white flour
For the Sauce:
- 1/4 c olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic minced finely
- 28 ounces of canned crushed tomatoes or run your canned diced tomatoes through the blender
- 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
- 1 t dried oregano
- 3 T balsamic vinegar
- 2 T sugar or use maple syrup
- 1 t salt add more to taste
Toppings
- Baked Tofu Feta
- sliced olives
- veggie sausage I like Field Roast
- mushrooms
- veggie cheese I like Follow Your Heart Mozzarella
- basil or parsley
Instructions
For the Dough:
- Pour the hot water into the bowl of your mixer.
- Add the yeast and maple syrup on top and allow to proof for 5-10 minutes, until yeast is puffy.
- Add the olive oil, aquafaba, gluten flour, salt, and first cup of flour to the yeast/water mix and begin to mix (I use my dough hook the entire time to save on dishes).
- Continue to add flour, 1 cup at a time, until you have a sticky dough (it will still be pretty sticky, though you should be able to pick it up in one big blob as well).
- Drizzle some olive oil over the blob of dough, turning to coat it completely.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in a warm area of your kitchen to let it rise (I like to use my dehydrator, set to 100°. You can also preheat your oven for 10 minutes and then turn it off and allow your dough to rise in the closed oven.
For the Sauce:
- Pour the olive oil into a medium sauce pan and warm over medium low heat.
- Add the minced garlic and stir, being careful not to let the garlic burn.
- Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, vinegar, sugar, and salt to the oil/garlic mixture and stir well to incorporate the oil and tomato paste completely (this takes a minute).
- Reduce to low heat and cover the sauce. Let it simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring every once in a while).
To cook the pizza:
- Place your pizza stone on your cold grill (this is important to prevent cracking!)
- Preheat your grill on high for about 30 minutes (mine registers 600° at this point).
- In the meantime, separate your dough into 4-6 portions, adding just enough flour to keep it from sticking to your hands, but not too much to keep the dough soft.
- Set the dough aside, and work with just one ball at a time.
- Roll one out to the desired size and thickness (I keep mine about 1/4" thick and 10" across).
- Place it on a sheet of parchment paper and then onto a pizza peel for easy transferring to the grill. (you could also use a cutting board)
- Top the pizza with sauce and toppings.
- Transfer the pizza (with parchment paper) to the preheated pizza stone and cook on the grill for 5 minutes, watching for the crust to brown.
- Carefully remove using a pizza peel.
- Allow to cool for a minute or two before slicing.
- Repeat with remaining dough.
- Extra dough can be stored in the fridge for a week. Be sure to allow it to return to room temperature before using.
