The kid may not like peanut butter, chocolate, chocolate chips, lettuce, or most vegetables... but he loves pizza. I'm not sure if there are too many kids who don't.
While Chris was at our house, most of his meals were gluten free... simply because I just won't buy things with gluten. It's a scary monster that I don't want in my kitchen. My husband is very lucky that I still let him buy "regular" wheat bread and cereals... or maybe I'm the lucky one, since he puts up with me! Yes. It's most definitely the latter.
One afternoon we decided to make pizza. And not just any pizza. Pizza made primarily from almond flour. Amazingly I told Chris it was just pizza, and he didn't even question what the crust was made of. Score one for the aunt.
I've been using almond flour in most of my recent baking. It's low glycemic and it's easier on my blood sugar than using a lot of gluten free grains and starches.
This is how the crust turned out. It was beautiful. I almost reached for a tissue. I was proud! I made a thick crusted 12" pizza with this dough, but I think next time, I would split this dough in half and make two thin crust pizzas. The crust was golden & crusty on the outside, and soft and pliable on the inside.
It made a perfect gluten free pizza. No one complained. Even the husband ate 3 pieces. And they had no idea that it contained something healthy other the almond flour.
White beans. Cleverly hidden little mashed white beans for some extra fiber and just because I wanted to see if it would work. My husband is not a huge fan of beans and I suspect my nephew isn't either. And they never knew it was hiding in their pizza.
We used regular mozzarella on this pizza. I was completely out of my non-dairy casein free Daiya cheese. I knew better. In hindsight the next time this happens, I'll just leave a few slices cheese-less so my tummy will be happy. My tummy was not happy. I think just this once though, it was worth it to watch my nephew create that happy smile on our delicious almond flour crust pizza.
My tummy has since forgiven me.
Gluten Free Almond Four Pizza Crust
Adapted from The Comfy Belly
(Free of gluten, soy, casein, yeast, and grains)
Printer-friendly recipe.
Makes 1 large 12"-14" thick pizza crust -or- 2 medium sized gluten free thin crust pizzas.
Dry Ingredients:
2 cups almond flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon basil
Wet Ingredients:
3/4 cup mashed white beans, such as navy beans or cannellini beans
3 eggs
3 tablespoons olive oil
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12" round pizza pan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl mix all dry ingredients together.
- Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add all the wet ingredients.
- Mix the wet & dry ingredients together thoroughly. You will have a very wet dough.
- If you're making two pizzas split the dough in half.
- Spread the dough in a circle on the parchment paper with a spatula. It may help to wet the spatula with water or spritz it with non-stick cooking spray to keep the dough from sticking.
- Pre-bake the dough in the preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes until they are golden brown.
- Add toppings and bake an additional 10-15 minutes until your toppings are cooked through or melted.
- Cool pizza for about 5 minutes and then serve!
- Enjoy!
