One of my least favorite things about doing TED is the complete and utter lack of pizza. While we don’t eat pizza very often at our house, we favor quality ingredients and artistry when we do. Before I started doing TED and we knew that my son had FPIES, we made our own sourdough pizza dough from scratch. Since we can’t keep wheat in the house anymore, (too big of an exposure risk for my highly curious and allergic toddler), and I’m not a huge fan of the nut or cauliflower-based versions, I like to try NEW THINGS. Like tapioca and arrow root flours.
I’m going to preface this with the following disclaimer: THIS IS NOT CHEAP. In fact, baking with alternative flours is fairly expensive unless you are able to buy your ingredients in bulk. Which I do. Even then, I reserve this for the occasional pizza night, and it’s not something that makes it into our regular meal rotation.
One benefit of tapioca and arrow root is both are classified as resistant starch. Both are natural prebiotics, which feed the healthy gut bacteria and are an important part of every diet. (Cooked, cold potatoes are also a wonderful source of resistant starch and are much easier on the wallet.) What Paleo diet fans are now discovering is the gut NEEDS carbs to feed that healthy gut bacteria, otherwise they starve. We need healthy gut bacteria to combat the icky gut bacteria, like yeast, and maintain a symbiotic flora fauna balance.
This is my favorite way to get prebiotic goodness. I mean, PIZZA. C’mon. I also like to add some great veggies and a little nitrate-free salami to the mix. Here I used organic crushed tomatoes in a jar for my “sauce”, fresh chopped basil, S&P, full-fat mozzarella, nitrate-free salami from Trader Joe’s. I also topped it with fresh baby arugala after the pizza was done cooking, and before slicing.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup arrow root flour (you can also sub tapioca, but I prefer the texture of arrowroot)
- 1/3 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar (ACV)
- 1 teaspoon REAL sea salt
- 1/2 cup avocado oil, or melted ghee
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1 large egg, whisked (I prefer duck eggs when available for baking)
Directions:
- In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients and whisk until incorporated.
- Add warm water, ACV and oil, then stir.
- Whisk egg in a separate bowl, then add to flour mixture and stir until fully incorporated.
- Check the “tackiness” of your dough. You want it to be a little bit sticky, but not so sticky that you can’t form a ball. Add a tbsp of coconut flour at a time until you have a slightly tacky dough, but not too much because you don’t want it to be too dry. It should be fairly soft and pliable.
- Form a ball out of your dough.
(Dough will look like this) - Using two largish sheets of parchment paper, put the dough ball in the center of the first (bottom) sheet, and then place the second (top) sheet over the dough ball.
- Using your rolling pin, gently roll dough out between the two pieces of parchment paper until it measures about 12″ in diameter.
(I’m terrible at making circles.) - Remove top sheet of parchment paper and poke several holes in the unbaked crust using a fork.
- Bake on parchment paper with a stone or baking sheet at 425 degrees for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven, add toppings and bake another 3-5 minutes, or until everything is warm.
- Serve with joy! Because pizza.
Tips:
Use as little stirring as possible, otherwise your dough will be dense.
Follow the directions. This sh*t is expensive to mess up. (Ask me how I know.)
Get adventurous with your toppings.
Drink a glass of wine. Or two. And be sure to share, but not with the kids.
That’s Amoré!
Carrie
Discuss Here