Gluten-free vegan pizza crust

I have a confession to make. I kind of cheat when I make pizza crust. I use.. a mix. Yes, I know; the ingredients of the mix I use are common, and I could easily sling together a slew of gluten-free flours and do this myself, and abandon the mix and my shame forever. But it is so easy this way! And... I have not been terribly successful on the GF vegan bread/pizza crust front, and I am afraid of failure and disappointment when all I really want is some hot, crusty, melty pizza. Yes, I am a baby.

The reason why I am posting this as a recipe is that over the course of my experimentation I have substantially tweaked the back-of-the-bag recipe for pizza crust, both to accommodate my additional allergies (hi, eggs!) and to improve the taste and texture of this crust. I think my tweaks are helpful enough that I feel justified in posting them.

In posting the pictures of the last pizza I made with this crust, I am also admitting another great shame: I used moo-cow mozzarella on this pizza. Let me explain. Goat mozzarella exists, and is sold both at the Whole Foods and Giant Eagle in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, someone is capitalizing on the desire of us cow-milk-sensitive folks for good pizza, and so these tiny bricks of cheese tip the checkout line at $7-9. Ugh. Trader Joe's, my go-to source for cheap staples, had a nice little bag of shredded goat mozzarella for less than $4, and though it tasted a little weird and didn't melt like moo-cow mozz, I was willing to compromise. Joe has not been holding up his end of the deal. Last week, after seeing the goat mozzarella's usual spot on the shelf empty for the fourth week in a row, I asked an employee, who confirmed that Trader Joe's had heartlessly discontinued the item. That night, my belly clamoring for some pizza, I stood bereft in the cheese aisle of Giant Eagle, looking at the $8.99 brick of goat mozz... and the $3.50 ball of snowy, elastic moo-cow mozz. I made my decision, and scurried to the cash register, clutching my contraband cheese and looking around furtively. I tried to lessen my misdeed by combining the mozz with some soft chevre, and oh... it was good. I forgot how beautifully mozzarella stretches, how gooey and lovely it becomes. I forgot about the mild salty tang of fresh cheese. Never again.

This crust is thin and crispy, with a bit of a chew to it. The only downside is that it seems to have a very slight bitter aftertaste, which is easily counteracted by quickly stuffing another piece in your mouth. I find that half of the dough makes enough pizza for two people. I usually freeze the other half, wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap then placing inside a ziploc bag.

Gluten-free vegan pizza crust (adapted from Bob's Red Mill)

1 package Bob's Red Mill GF pizza crust mix

1 package yeast (included)

1 1/4 cups warm water

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for baking

2 tablespoon Ener-G egg replacer, plus 1/4 cup water

2 teaspoons flaxseed meal

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon white wine

Combine yeast and water in a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer if you have one, and let stand for about 5 minutes. Then add the flaxseed meal, stir, and let stand for another few minutes. Add the olive oil, Ener-G, honey, and wine and combine. Add the mix, and blend until well-combined, about 1 minute on medium speed in the mixer.

Split the ball of dough in half, leaving each half in the bowl. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes at room temperature (even better: place in the fridge and let rise for at least 3 hours).

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 425. Generously sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal, and with wet or oiled hands, press one half of the dough onto the sheet, spreading it out to the edges as thin as you can. Don't worry about uneven edges. Brush the entire surface of the dough with olive oil, then bake for 7-8 minutes.

Add toppings, then bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese is melty and bubbly.