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.

Blackberry peach cobbler (vegan and gluten-free)

Oh, East Liberty farmers market. I love your shady location by the defunct police headquarters, your sweet Mennonite women selling goat milk, your tables of salsa and cheese and smoked salmon and hummus to taste. But you have been sadly missing berries for the last few weeks, your tables bereft of those cute little bundles of black- and blue- (and straw- and rasp-) deliciousness. Or maybe it's me? Have I been arriving too late to appreciate your bounty?

Oh, but you made up for it this week, East Liberty farmers market. I was rushing, on my way to meet friends, but I stopped by because of my love for you. And what did you have? You had blackberries. All is forgiven.

This is my first cobbler. I have never made this variation on baked fruit before, and I'm not even sure if I've eaten it. Cobblers always seem shunted to the side for the more popular pies, crisps, and crumbles. Of course, I have instituted a Pie Crust Boycott after discovering that I could have baked fruit without rolling out a temperamental gluten-free crust. Crisps, crumbles, and cobblers are all wonderful in that there is no crust. Which of course means no rolling pin. Hallelujah.

I adapted this recipe from the original by hedging on the sugar and completely re-working the crumble topping. Oh, and adding peaches. Because peaches + berries = <3.

Blackberry peach cobbler (gluten-free and vegan) (adapted from Manifest: Vegan)

Filling:

Three ripe peaches, peeled and cut into 1/2-1 inch pieces

About 1 1/2-2 cups blackberries

1/4 cup sugar

Juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon cornstarch

Dash cinnamon

Cobbler:

1/2 cup sorghum flour

1/4 cup tapioca or potato starch

1/4 cup white rice flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons sugar (preferably raw/turbinado)

1/4 cup soy-free margarine or butter, cold

1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if your margarine is salted)

Crumble:

2 tablespoons sugar (preferably raw/turbinado)

3 tablespoons sorghum flour

3 tablespoons gluten-free oats

2 tablespoons soy-free margarine, cold

Preheat the oven to 350.

In a deep 9-inch pie dish, combine the fruit, sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Stir well to evenly coat fruit.

In a separate medium-sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the cobbler and mix well. Add the cold margarine in small pieces and work into the dry ingredients using a pastry blender, fork, or your hands, until you have a crumbly texture. Add the almond milk and combine. You should have a batter with a thickness halfway between cake batter and cookie dough. Spoon this batter in large dollops over the fruit. Do not spread it out to cover evenly - each dollop will expand while baking to fill in the spaces.

Combine the sugar and sorghum flour for the crumble in a small bowl. Crumble in the margarine like you did for the cobbler, then stir in the oats. Sprinkle this crumble topping over the cobbler.

Bake for 40-50 minutes, until fruit is bubbly and topping starts to brown. Let cool somewhat before serving.

Quinoa-green bean salad with mint-date dressing (vegan)

The last three weeks or so have been very indulgent. First Sam was visiting, and we patronized multiple restaurants and cooked various unhealthy meaty, fatty things. Then I drove across the country, and along the way we seemed to find the best food in every town: Delicious Thai in Chicago! Best steak of my life in Omaha! Gluten-free pizza in Moab! Best bacon ever in Utah! More Thai in Laguna Beach! Plus, you know, a couple bars of Dairy Milk in the car and lots of butter on my toast in the morning and....

Anyway, now that I am back in my domicile and the life of cooking-for-one, I am trying to get back into eating the way I like to think of myself eating: not a lot of meat, plenty of seasonal vegetables, and some whole grains for good measure.

This dish fit the bill quite well. By the way, I originally thought I was buying shell peas at the farmers market, only to bring a basket home and try to shell them and discover that they were certainly not shell peas. They may not even be green beans, but close enough, right?

I completely forgot to take pictures of this dish, so I hope these pictures of the Southwest will suffice:

Quinoa-green bean salad with mint-date dressing (adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

About two cups green beans, washed, trimmed, and cut into 1-inch pieces

1 cup quinoa

2 cups water

1 cup fresh mint leaves

2 or 3 dried dates, pitted and coarsely chopped

Juice of half a lemon

Zest of whole lemon

1/2 small serrano pepper (can remove seeds and veins to reduce spiciness)

Dump the water and quinoa in a medium-sized pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover, and simmer until all the water is absorbed and you can see the little white ribbon in each grain.

Bring a large pot of water to boil, and cook the green beans a little longer than blanching - about 2 minutes. The beans will turn bright green and will float up to the top of the water. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking.

Puree the mint, dates, lemon juice and zest, and pepper in a food processor or blender until thoroughly combined and paste-like. Dilute with a little water until the mixture is more of a dressing consistency.

Combine the beans and quinoa, either in a serving bowl or in individual bowls, and top with dressing.

The best steak of my life.

The Drover

And it was $12. Thank you, Omaha.

Peach crisp with vanilla goat milk ice cream

The weatherman says it will be 93° F tomorrow in Pittsburgh. Yesterday was Independence Day, and Sam and I feasted on shellfish, swam in a friend's pool, and narrowly avoided a riot at Point State Park when we went downtown to see the fireworks.

Extreme heat, ritual consumption of unhealthy food, water sports, and civil unrest - sounds like a classic American summer.

I have a great nostalgia surrounding summer on the east coast. When I think "July" I think hot nights, fields of fireflies, days at the local pool, the scent of honeysuckle drifting across the backyard, lying on our backs at the fairgrounds trying to catch the fireworks falling from the sky. I think of the tinkling song of the ice cream truck wending through the cul-de-sacs of our neighborhood, heat rising from the asphalt, sweat in my eyes, Wednesdays at the air-conditioned library.

Now that I'm sort-of-grownup, its interesting trying to place my current experience of summer within the framework of my childhood ideal. I am working on a research project this summer, so I spend days holed up in my apartment or in the library (again valued for its air-conditioning) with stacks of scholarly papers and government reports, losing myself in exciting ideas.

Sam has been visiting me for the last two weeks or so, and we have been filling our days with hikes in the surrounding countryside, trips to the Strip District, good times with friends, and delicious food both created and purchased. We had a wonderful sushi dinner at Chaya, complete with soy-free "soy sauce" (then we read this article and felt bad about enjoying our tuna rolls) we grilled lamb and zucchini and corn, I tried again to make injera.

With my fridge filled with farmer's market purchases, I made this delicious crisp, and the ice cream that we ate with it. Crisps are so easy to make, as I noted in the magnificent strawberry-rhubarb crisp I made earlier in the summer. I will never make a lidded pie again!

This ice cream was awesome and easy to make without an ice-cream maker. It was sweet and creamy and full of vanilla flavor. Instead of making a custard base with egg yolks, this recipe makes a pudding base using cornstarch. It works well!

Peach Crisp (crumble topping adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

6-10 ripe peaches, depending on size of peaches and depth of pie dish

Juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons white sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/3 cup sorghum flour

1/3 cup tapioca or potato starch

1/3 cup almond meal

1/3 cup uncooked oats (not instant)

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 tablespoons demerara/turbinado/raw sugar

6 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350.

Peel peaches if you want (you can leave the skin on, but some people don't like it) and chop into eighths. Dump the sliced peaches into a deep 9-inch pie dish. In a separate bowl, mix together the 2 tbsp sugar, lemon juice, cornstarch, and vanilla, making sure to fully mix in the cornstarch. Pour this mixture over the peaches in the dish, and stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flours, oats, baking soda, and sugars. Pour in the melted butter, and mix together with a fork until you get "pebbles" of various sizes. Spread this mixture over the peaches, and pop the dish in the oven. Cook until the crumble topping starts to brown and you can hear the fruit bubbling, about 20 minutes.

Vanilla goat milk ice cream (adapted from Mark Bittman)

2 1/2 cups whole goat milk

1/3 cup sugar

pinch salt

1 vanilla bean

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon agar-agar powder

1 teaspoon vodka (optional, helps ice cream stay soft)

In a saucepan, combine 2 cups of the milk with the sugar and salt. Split the vanilla bean down its length, scrape the seeds into the mixture, then add the bean itself. Heat over medium-low heat until just steaming, and in the meantime...

In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup of the milk with the cornstarch and agar-agar, and stir until combined. Make sure the cornstarch doesn't just stick to the bottom of the bowl!

When the milk-sugar mixture is steaming, add the cornstarch mixture and stir constantly as the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. As soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat way down, to the lowest possible point. Cook for another 5 minutes or so, until the mixture is quite thick. Remove from heat, pour into the bowl you will use for mixing later (such as the bowl for your stand mixer), cover, and pop in the freezer.

When the mixture if fully chilled but has not yet begun to freeze, remove from the freezer and take out the vanilla bean. Add the vodka if using. Mix throughly with a handheld mixer or stand mixer at medium-high speed, then replace in the freezer. You will need to keep an eye on the mixture, removing it periodically from the freezer throughout the freezing process and mixing it throughly so ice crystals don't form and the ice cream stays light and soft.

Take a slice of the crisp, top with a big scoop of the ice cream, and sprinkle a handful of fresh local blueberries on top. Sit on the couch and eat, closing your eyes with pleasure with each bite.

Grilled corn

I ran out of money when I was in Tanzania. I thought I had lost my credit card and debit card, and I called my mother in a panic, telling her to cancel the cards before someone picked them up and used them. Less than 24 hours later, I found both cards in an obscure pocket of my backpack, but too late: the cards had been cancelled, and I could only rejoin the global economy by having the cards shipped to me.

With less than 3 weeks left in Tanzania and extremely uncertain shipping times from the US to Dar es Salaam, we agreed that my cards should be sent to Vietnam, my next destination. A tricky few weeks followed, my pockets empty and my belly growling, constantly approaching my friends to borrow a few shillings.

We spent 10 days in Ifakara, a small town in the interior of Tanzania. Basically a single street, the town quickly gave up its secrets - unexpectedly speedy internet cafes, and a cluttered market where one could buy lunch. With funds low, the most cost-efficient way to fill my belly was to buy fruit and vegetables for pennies on the street, then prepare them to be eaten with a dull pocket knife and the edge of a concrete step. I sucked juice from my hands as I nibbled around the fibrous core of a mango; I smashed coconuts on the sidewalk and slurped the thin milk from cracked shells, carved the sweet flesh into my mouth, astoundingly white in this country devoid of bleach.

And I ate grilled corn. As often as I could get it. The vendors would turn the nubby, irregular ears on their charcoal grills, I would purchase an ear for less than 10 cents, and they would hand it to me with a lime wedge that had been dipped in a mixture of chile and salt. I would rub the lime wedge over the ear, covering the kernels with a mixture of lime juice and seasoning. It was genius, it was dirt-cheap, and it was absolutely delicious.

Corn is getting cheap here in Pittsburgh as the early-producing varieties start to come into season, and Sam and I bought 7 ears for a couple dollars at the farmers market. I could see no reason to deviate from the recipe of the corn vendors in Tanzania, so here it is. Enjoy.

Grilled corn (adapted from those resourceful Tanzanians)

4 ears of corn, still in husks

1 lime

pinch salt

pinch red pepper flakes, or a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper

For each ear of corn, pull back the husks without detaching them from the base of the ear. Remove the silk from inside, then fold the husks back around the ear. You want to make sure the ear is completely covered so it can steam inside the husk, so you can remove excess husks as you see fit.

Grill the ears on a hot grill, turning to brown the husks on each side. Remove from the grill and when cool, peel back husks. Mix the salt and red pepper in a small dish, then cut the lime into fourths. To serve, dip the wedges of lime into the salt mixture and rub over the ears of corn until seasoned to your liking.

Spring pea dumplings in lemon-sage broth: gluten-free and vegan

It is a source of great sadness to me that I never feasted on the wide variety of dumplings in the world before I went gluten-free. Sure, I ate some fantastic rice-flour packages of deliciousness in Vietnam, but it seems that most dumplings on restaurants and recipes rely on those gluten-ful wrappers (that may also contain egg). Ditto for ravioli. I used to LOVE ravioli, and I still miss its gluten-egg-cow cheese-laden goodness. One of my goals for this summer was to make gluten-free dumplings/ravioli. I have been really embracing the early summer produce lately - I have thousands of plans for strawberries once I can get to the farmer's market again - and so I fixated on a fresh, green pea dumpling. I think the picture accompanying this recipe is what really inspired me - that image of translucent dumplings with bright green innards, floating gently in a clear broth - so summery! I sat on my porch in the evening light to shell the peas.

I then blanched the shelled peas, and whipped them up in a food processor with shallots, sage, chives, olive oil, and lemon zest.

I was very, very pleased with the recipe for dumpling wrappers I found. The dough was easy to work with, and didn't taste too.. well, doughy after being steamed. I was surprised at how elastic the dough was. Rather than torture myself with rolling out dough on a surface and cutting out wrappers, I rolled and assembled each wrapper in my hands, pinching off a glob of dough and flattening it out before sealing it shut around some filling.

I got better at the wrappers as I went. You can see how thin I got one here.

I steamed the dumplings in a jury-rigged steamer - a colander balanced over a big pot of simmering water.

I was very pleased with the results - the fresh, green taste of the dumplings together with the tangy, herby broth. It made for a great dinner - even at 11 pm.

Spring pea dumplings in lemon-sage broth: gluten-free and vegan (loosely adapted from 101 Cookbooks and Epicurious)

1 cup shelled green peas

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh sage, plus a few stems, cut in half

1/4 cup finely chopped chives

1/2 cup minced shallots

zest and juice of one lemon

3 cups low-salt vegetable broth (chicken works too)

olive oil

dumpling wrapper dough (recipe follows)

Boil a medium-sized saucepan of water. Dump the shelled peas in the water, and cook very briefly, until the peas turn bright green and rise to the surface of the water. It will take less than a minute. Drain the peas immediately and pour cold water over them continuously until they are cool. This stops the peas from cooking further.

In the bowl of a food processor, or in a blender, combine the peas and 2 tablespoons of chives,2 tablespoons sage, and 1/4 cup shallots. Add half of the lemon zest, and a tablespoon of the olive oil. Process the mixture until desired texture, then season sparingly with pepper and salt. Set aside.

For each dumpling, pinch about a tablespoon of dough from the ball. Roll the small piece of dough briefly in your hands, until it has a uniform, smooth, elastic texture. Flatten out the dough in your hands, using the knuckles and heel of one hand to press the dough against the other hand. When the dough is as thin as you can get it without breaking it, or is about 4 inches in diameter, place a small amount of the filling (a little less than a tablespoon) in the center of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper over the filling and pinch the edges shut. Cover the freshly-assembled dumplings with a damp paper towel as you work, so they don't dry out.

In a medium-sized saucepan, saute the remaining shallots in the olive oil until soft. Add the broth, and the stems from the sage. Simmer.

While the broth is simmering, steam the dumplings. If you have a bamboo steamer you can use that. If not, place a small amount of water in the bottom of a large pot, so that it does not reach the bottom of a colander balanced in the pot. Oil the inside of the colander to prevent the dumplings from sticking, and arrange the dumplings inside. Cover the top of the colander. Bring the water to a simmer, and steam the dumplings until the wrappers are soft and translucent. (Took about 20 minutes for me).

Add the remaining chives, sage, and lemon zest, as well as the lemon juice, to the broth. Continue to simmer for about one more minute, then remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove the sage stems.

Place a few dumplings in the bowl of each bowl and ladle the broth over them.

Dumpling wrapper dough (adapted from Hey, that tastes good!)

1/2 cup tapioca starch

1/2 cup sweet rice flour

1 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon Ener-G egg replacer

1 tablespoon oil

5-6 tablespoons water

Combine the tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and xanthan gum in a medium bowl, and stir to combine. In a separate small bowl, combine 5 tablespoons of water and the Ener-G egg replacer. Add the oil to the dry ingredients, then add the water mixture. Stir to combine. Add another tablespoon of water as needed. Mix the dough with clean hands to help incorporate the last of the flour, and knead briefly in your hands until the dough has a smooth and elastic texture.