Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Cauliflower Pizza Crust - YUM!

A few notes to start:
I used my pampered chef food processor thing to 'rice' the cauliflower. It has 1 cup of cheese in it. so that's not great....but I only put a sprinkle of cheese on the top of my pizza. There is so much flavor in the dough that you dont need cheese on top. I really just put sauce and mushrooms/onions on mine. it was awesome. Awesome. 
I put a piece of aluminum foil with cooking spray on my baking stone to cook it. it did not stick to it. People complained about that a lot in the comments.  I let it cool for a long time on my cooling rack before actually topping it and then cooking again. 
Its really the size of a large personal pan. I spose 2 people could share it if you had a salad to go with it. 
Ingredients:
1 cup cooked, riced cauliflower
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (I used an italian blend)
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp kosher salt
olive oil (optional)
pizza sauce, shredded cheese and your choice of toppings*
Directions:
Remove stems and leaves from 1 head of cauliflower, and chop the florets into chunks. Add to your food processor and pulse until it looks like grain. Do not over-do pulse or you will puree it. (You can also use a cheese grater). Place the “riced” cauliflower into a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 8 minutes (may need to adjust according to your microwave). No need to add water.
One large head will produce between 2 and 3 cups of riced and cooked cauliflower. The remainder can be used to make additional pizza crusts immediately, or can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.
To make the pizza crust:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray (or use non-stick aluminum foil on a cookie sheet, which is what I did). In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup cauliflower, beaten egg and mozzarella. Add oregano, minced garlic and salt, mix well. Transfer the mixture to your cookie sheet, and pat out into a 9″ round.
Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool awhile. This helps to make the crust more solid. 
To make the pizza:  add sauce, toppings and cheese. Place under a broiler at high heat just until cheese is melted (approximately 3-4 minutes). *Toppings need to be precooked since you are only broiling for a few minutes.