Coconut Flour Pizza Crust

With my last post I mentioned that I tried two new gluten and grain free pizza recipes. Here's number two. This one takes advantage of coconut flour. Are you familiar with this great flour? It's much higher in fiber than traditional flour with gluten and it "contains over 19% non-gluten protein." If you have grain issues this may be a great alternative flour for you. I use Tropical Traditions coconut flour. I also usually buy my organic coconut oil from them too. Their Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil has wonderful flavor and is excellent for cooking and baking with.

This gluten free pizza crust cooks up very similarly to a regular wheat/white flour crust, which is surprising when you look at the list of ingredients and see only 2 tbsp. of flour in it. The main difference in my opinion is it doesn't get quite as crispy as a traditional pizza crust and it will absorb some of  the pizza sauce you put on it.  It reheats very well or in our house we've been eating leftovers cold because of it being so hot out. Either way it tastes great! This recipe is from Tropical Traditions, they also have a video demonstration of how to make it, you can check it out here: http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/recipe_Gluten-Free_Pizza_Crust.htm


What You'll Need: for 1 small to medium pizza, serves 2-3
For the crust

• 2 cups organic, whole milk mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 2 large organic eggs
• 2 tablespoons flax meal
• 2 tablespoons coconut flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder 

For the pizza sauce  - This is the same sauce I used for the recipe I posted Tuesday.

• 15 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
• 1 small onion diced
• Olive oil
• Oregano - around a 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. 
• 3 cloves garlic smashed and chopped
• 1+ tbsp. sugar - optional
• Sea salt

For the topping 

• 3/4 - 1lb shredded, whole milk mozzarella
• ~1lb sweet Italian sausage
• Dried oregano to sprinkle on top of the pizza

Getting Started:
For the crust
1.  First preheat your oven to 350º, then put all of your crust ingredients into a medium size bowl and mix until you have a sticky dough. It works well to start by mixing with a spoon and then your hands. A small note, I didn't have flax meal on hand when I made this recipe, so instead I used an extra 2 tbsp. of coconut flour and it worked great.

2. Spread or roll the dough out on a parchment lined cookie sheet to about 1/4" thick. 

3. Bake in your preheated 350º oven for 15 minutes, then pull the crust from the oven and flip it to it's other side. You can either use a spatula to do this or pick-up the parchment paper and flip the crust onto another piece of parchment.

4. Put crust back into the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. 

5. Pull the crust from the oven and allow to cool before putting your toppings on it. This only takes about 15 min. or so. 

For the Sauce:
1. To make your pizza sauce, first cook your onion until softened in a little bit of olive oil in a medium pot.

2. Add your crushed tomatoes, chopped garlic, oregano (start with 1/4 tsp. and add more later if it needs it, sorry I never measure and just go my taste) and a pinch of sea salt. Simmer for 15+ minutes, occasionally stirring.

3. Blend your sauce with a submersion blender until smooth, then do a taste test. Add more oregano, salt and/or a bit of sugar if it needs it.  I use sugar if my tomatoes don't have any sweetness. I think it adds a nice bit of extra flavor to a pizza sauce, but by no means do you need it. After adding extra seasoning, allow to simmer for an additional 5 - 10 minutes, then set aside

For the toppings
1.  Slice, or form into small chunks, your Italian sausage and cook it in a medium size pan. The pizza will only be placed under a broiler for a couple of minutes once assembled and not baked, so cook your sausage a step further then just simply browning it. Once it's done, drain any extra fat off of it by placing the sausage on some paper towel.

2. Spread your pizza sauce on your crust and then top with your toppings. I always like to sprinkle a little dried oregano on the pizza once it's assembled, makes the pizza just that much more tasty! 

3. Place pizza (on a cookie sheet of course) under your oven's broiler until cheese has melted. This won't take long so don't get distracted and forget it's in there. I"m terrible about forgetting things under the broiler, it's one of those mistakes that happens when I try to multitask in the kitchen! :-)

Serve the pizza immediately. Enjoy!!!