Potato Pizza Crust
Introduction
One of the foods Josie missed the most when she went gluten-free was pizza. “I really love pizza,” she says. “I always have.” It’s so versatile and opens up creativity. Depending on what you load on top it can be healthy or unhealthy, vegetarian or carnivorous, basic or extravagant. Sadly, most of the gluten-free pizza crusts are dry, styrofoam with no flavour and little nutritional value.
Jimmy James, a chef friend who worked at a pizza joint, let her in on the secret to a good tasting gluten-free crust: boiled potatoes. Adding them into the flour mix she already uses, adds flavour and moisture. After a bunch of experimentation this recipe is the result. It’s delicious and cooks to a perfectly crusty crumb.
The side hustle is that this is a healthier pizza crust too. Skin on potatoes has far more nutritional value than the equivalent amount of flour. And psyllium, a binding agent that gives the crust structure, is also a source of fibre, which means it slows down the conversion of carbohydrates into sugar and fat, an important attribute in such a carb heavy meal. Research also shows psyllium may help lower cholesterol, blood pressure and sugar sensitivity.
All that justifies pizza as a healthy dinner. But the reason Josie worked so hard to find an excellent pizza crust recipe is because it’s such a great excuse to use some of her other favourite foods, like her pesto, miso mushroom gravy, goat cheese and cherry chorizo.
Ingredients
6 potatoes, skin on and boiled
3 Tablespoons tahini
1.5 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon psyllium
1 cup Pamela’s Gluten-free flour
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Boil potatoes until they are soft enough to easily poke a fork into them.
Mash potatoes with a masher or in a food processor until it's smooth, like for mashed potatoes.
To a big bowl or stand up mixer, add all the other ingredients, except the flour: tahini, salt, psyllium, yeast, baking powder, garlic, cayenne. Stir to combine.
Now mix in the flour. It should become a big ball. Add a teaspoon of water if too dry and a little flour if too wet.
Split dough into two equal pieces. Rip off four pieces of parchment paper. Sandwich each ball of dough between two sheets and roll out until flat and thin.
Before adding any ingredients, bake crusts for 15 minutes. Lifting with the parchment makes it easy to transfer the crust to the baking sheet.
Remove crusts from the oven and dress with your choice of ingredients. Here’s our suggestion: pesto, shiitake mushrooms, olives, jalapenos, sun dried tomatoes and chorizo covered with mozzarella cheese.
Bake dressed pizzas for 10 more minutes. Remove parchment and return to the oven until the crust is crispy and the cheese is just starting to brown, probably less than 5 minutes.