That Pizza Life

               This whole Paleo foods thing has been quite the interesting experience. A fun experience no doubt, but very different from normal cooking and eating.

               I’m a HUGE lover of pizza. I think a lot of people are. Good thing that my “Paleo Cookbook” by Juli Bauer had a Pizza Crust recipe. Toppings are pretty straight forward. You place whatever edible thing you desire and can call it a pizza. The crust on the other hand, is not as straight forward and either makes the pizza, or it completely ruins it. Contrary to normal pizza crust, and like everything in a Paleo lifestyle, it is completely Gluten Free. Now gluten free does not mean flour free, it just means you can’t use ingredients that contain gluten, such as wheat. Instead of using wheat flour for this pizza crust the recipe calls for “Tapioca flour/starch . . . [and] Coconut Flour” (Bauer 288).

               After following the recipe and making the dough, to make a pizza, you have to put it into the iconic pizza shape. When I tried to do this, it didn’t exactly work out as I had planned. There was a little too much dough which caused me to have to make a more square shaped pizza (see below). The recipe did say that it would make a 12-inch crust (Bauer 288), but because my pans were limited, I could not do that. Suffice to say, next time I might try to make two pizzas out of the dough.

               12 minutes after putting my crust in the oven, it came out puffy and really tasty. Most gluten free crusts are more flat so this was a great surprise. Several toppings, and a bunch of cheese later, my family and I had a wonderful half cheese, half vegetable pizza that was incredibly delicious [see below picture].

What do you think about using other flours in cooking? What is your favorite type of pizza? Any weird combinations of toppings? 

Bauer, Juli, Bill Staley, and Hayley Mason. Juli Bauer's Paleo Cookbook: Over 100 Gluten-free Recipes to Help You Shine from within. Las Vegas: Victory Belt, 2015. Print.