Barbecue Chickpea Pizza

Last week, Sebastian came home with a BBQ Chicken pizza. It smelled fantastic. Right away, my mind started on a recipe for a completely homemade, made from scratch, vegetarian version.

I’m so glad he gave me the inspiration, because this BBQ Chickpea Pizza with sourdough crust turned out exactly as I’d hoped.

 

I made the sourdough pizza crust earlier in the week. The recipe made enough dough for two very large pizzas. I immediately used one half for the veggie pizza I posted here and simply placed the remaining dough in the refrigerator.

The dough continued to slowly grow in the fridge, holding up exceptionally well for this recipe which was made three days later.

I also made a homemade barbecue sauce for the pizza. I find the bottled sauces in Germany to be way too sweet. After tossing a bunch of ingredients in a pot and letting them cook together, I was left with a delicious, tangy, smoky and sweet barbecue sauce.

I used a bit less than 1/4 cup of the sauce directly on the pizza dough then used another 1/2 cup to cook the chickpeas in. I was left with enough sauce to fill a medium sized jar which is now hanging out in the fridge, waiting to be used.

I topped the sourdough crust and BBQ sauce with freshly shredded gouda cheese.

As mentioned earlier, I cooked about 1 cup of drained and rinsed canned garbanzo beans in 1/2 cup of BBQ sauce. I let the sauce cook until it had reduced and thickened around the chickpeas.

On top of the cooked BBQ chickpeas, I placed a few plain chickpeas, a sprinkle of smoked paprika, thinly sliced red onions and fresh mozzarella cheese.

 

The pizza was cooked at a moderately high temperature until the crust and cheese were golden brown. Sprinkled with finely sliced basil leaves, this pizza was good to go!

Delicious!

Homemade BBQ Sauce

(I sort of tossed in ingredients as I went along so this is more of an estimate than an exact recipe. Adjust the spices to fit your tastes.)

Makes about 2 cups BBQ sauce

Ingredients

1/3 cup molasses

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

2 Tbsp. finely chopped red onion

1 cup ketchup

1 tsp. tamarind paste

1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. onion powder

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/ tsp. ground mustard

1 tsp. smoked paprika

red pepper flakes to taste

Method

1. Whisk all ingredients together in a small sauce pan. Heat to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer until the sauce reaches a desirable consistency.

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Sourdough Pizza Dough

Yesterday I shared a recipe for sourdough bagels from a book published 8 years before I was born: Sourdough Cookery by Rita Davenport.

Today I’m here to share another recipe from the oh-so-talented sourdough baker, Rite Davenport.

In her book, Rita shared not only her recipe for the dough, but also her pizza sauce recipe and suggested toppings.

You’re going to have to buy her book to get the whole kit and caboodle, but I’m happy to share the sourdough pizza dough recipe.

Sourdough Pizza Dough

Makes 2 very large pizzas

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sourdough starter

1 cup warm milk

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons cooking oil

2 1/2- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

olive oil for brushing

Method

1. Add the milk, salt, sugar and vegetable oil to the sourdough starter. Stir together. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time. Stir well after each addition. Add enough flour until the dough is too stiff to stir with a spoon. Dough should be heavy but elastic.
2. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead 5-10 minutes.
3. Place dough in a greased bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and set in a warm place, free from drafts and let rise about 2 hours or until doubled in size.
4. Divide dough into two equal parts. Stretch or roll out each part to create a round pizza dough. Create a slight ridge to form a crust.
5. Brush the dough with olive oil and continue to create your pizza as you wish.

Our first pizza dough was used as a base for a vegetable pizza which included tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, spinach and broccoli.

Oh so good!

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Fennel and Red Onion Pizza with Balsamic Reduction

While writing my pizza post from last night, I realized I never shared the previous week’s pizza.

This pizza was too good not to share.

I had a fennel bulb from my CSA delivery that needed to be used so I slowly cooked the thinly sliced bulb in a bit of olive oil along with a red onion until just before tender.

I then poured in a couple heavy glugs of balsamic vinegar and continued to cook the mixture until the vinegar reduced by over half and became thick.

Fresh yeast pizza dough naturally formed the base of the pizza, topped with a very light brushing of tomato sauce and then the fennel mixture. I used fresh mozzarella and goat cheese along with sliced black olives.

This combination was amazing.

Once baked and out of the oven, I sprinkled some of the fennel greens over top.

Sweet balsamic and salty cheese.

Delicious!

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Mushroom,Eggplant and Garlic Pizza

Keeping with tradition, tonight was pizza night.

This pizza was so simple to put together.

Faster than ordering delivery and deliciously fresh.

I used a thawed and risen portion of fresh yeast pizza dough as a base.

Topped it with leftover marinara sauce, fresh crimini mushrooms, eggplant and garlic, then used an assortment of cheeses, including fresh mozzarella, parmesan and crumbly goat cheese.

I sprinkled the pizza with Italian seasoning, drizzled the top with olive oil then baked it on my oven’s hottest setting until cooked.

Awesome.

Now I want the leftovers.

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Artichoke, Olive and Asparagus White Pizza

Boy oh boy, am I behind on pizza posts.

Usually, once we’ve finished eating our homemade pizzas and cleaning up, I’m so full and exhausted that I can’t be bothered to even post the culinary creations.

This week’s pizza was really special. It was inspired by a recipe I found on the vegalicious website for a white pizza with artichokes, white asparagus and green olives.

We used our standard fresh yeast pizza dough as a base and built on from there.

For my sauce, I made a white bean hummus by blending white beans, nutritional yeast, basil, olive oil, salt and garlic in the food processor.

I spread the bean sauce on top of the pizza dough then added my toppings. This sauce makes an excellent dip as well. I topped my pizza with blanched white asparagus, artichoke hearts, green olives, red onions, fresh parsley and basil. Sebastian made his pizza first and had some leftover goat cheese that he was just going to toss, so I used that on half of the pizza as well.

Waste not, want not.

Prebaking and post-baking.

Served with a salad and glass of wine, this was one fancy pizza. I enjoyed leftovers for lunch the next day.

Sebastian made a salami, red onion, cheese-stuffed pepper and goat cheese pizza.

He was pretty proud of this combination.

Although I didn’t share the pizza I made last week, here it is now.

I made a fake cheese sauce that ruined this beautiful pizza. It was a flour-based sauce and I just did not like it. From now on, I’m sticking to nut, seed and vegetable-based cheese substitutes.

Live and learn.

At least it photographed well!

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Leek and Mushroom Vegan Pizza

Sorry for the recent absence. The telephone line to my apartment building was cut during construction on Monday and the entire building has been without telephone or internet until today.

It is shocking that it took an entire work week to fix the problem, especially since there are so many single, elderly people living in my building who could require emergency services yet wouldn’t have been able to call for help.

Any who… onward and upward towards the weekend!

It has been a gorgeous week in Bonn. Many of my lessons have been taught outdoors this week and my mood has been made lighter and brighter from the sunshine.

On Tuesday, Sebastian and I continued our homemade pizza tradition. He made a spinach, mushroom, onion, tomato and mozzarella cheese pizza. I went with something a little more rustic.

This vegan pizza tasted so fresh with the addition of kale, leeks and mushrooms.

The last of my almond herb cheese was used to top this gorgeous pizza.

The dough was easy- thawed and re-risen fresh yeast pizza dough from the freezer.

I sautéed the mushrooms and leek in a little olive oil before adding it to the pizza. In total, the pizza had kale, leeks, mushrooms, fresh tomatoes and the vegan cheese.

Beautiful, nutritious and delicious to boot.

Tonight I’m off to an Oriental cooking class with the woman who had the role of my mother in the last play I acted in.

She just returned from an extended trip in India so I can’t wait to hear about that as well!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!

Happy Weekend!

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Vegan Almond Herbed Pizza Cheese

I’m sure all my friends and family back in the Midwest are going “Huh?” and “yuck!” over that title.

Well get ready to change that “yuck” into a “yum!”

When we returned from our trip to Vienna, we were out of everything- even milk. Being out of milk is a dreadful thing when you love coffee as much as we do.

As a substitute, I made homemade almond milk following this recipe.

This is the creamiest, smoothest homemade milk I have ever made.

As a byproduct of the almond milk production, I was left with gorgeous, snow white almond grounds which strongly resembled ricotta cheese.

The lights flipped on.

Vegan cheese for pizza night!

 

Fresh out of the oven (and into poor lighting.)

This week, my fresh yeast pizza dough was topped with roasted eggplant, mushrooms and tomatoes. 

Not only did this cheese substitute make a delicious pizza topping, it was equally awesome raw on my lunch salad today.

Lamb’s lettuce, cherry tomatoes, roasted eggplant and mushrooms with vegan almond herbed cheese.

Vegan Almond Herbed Cheese

Adapted from this recipe

• about 1 1/4 cups almond grounds (leftover from making almond milk)
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• juice from 1 lemon (about 2 Tbsp.)
• 1/2 cup fresh basil
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4-1/2 cup water, added a little at a time

Method

1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor or high-speed blender adding a little water at a time until the mixture resembles crumbled goat cheese.
2. Use the vegan cheese to top pizzas, salads, as a spread for sandwiches or as a dip.

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Fresh Yeast Pizza Dough

As I type this, a friend of mine is cooking in Umbria, Italy. After returning from my cooking vacation in Italy, I passed along the business card. What do you know, he booked!

I can not wait to hear about his vacation. If his stay is anything like mine, it is going to be one his favorite vacations.

All this reminiscing is going somewhere, I promise.

Pizza Dough.

On the first day of my cooking course, I learned how to make real Italian pizza dough. It was so easy and tasted simply divine.

I promised myself I would make homemade dough from then on out.

No delivery.

No frozen pizza.

Homemade pizza all the way.

Well, to say that I didn’t hold to that promise is putting it lightly.

As a matter of fact, I’ve been ordering more pizza lately than I’d care to admit.

You see, Sebastian and I have started a bit of a bad habit. For the past 3 weeks, we’ve ordered pizza every Tuesday.

Gross, I know.

Yesterday, I put a stop to this dirty habit by preparing enough homemade pizza dough to last us 6 weeks.

Here’s my step-by-step to homemade pizza dough and how to use fresh yeast.

Let’s get started!

Simple stuff here: 1 kg of all-purpose flour, 2 tsp. sugar, 2 blocks fresh yeast, 2 large pinches of salt, 2 (+) cups of warm water.

Here’s what a block of fresh yeast looks like in Germany. It is kept in the refrigerator section of the grocery store and costs about 20 cents.

Pull back the paper and this is what you get. A dry, crumbly block of yeast. You can already smell it by now.

The bowl contains the sugar and 2 cups of warm water. All you have to do is break up the yeast and drop it into the waiting water.

Fresh yeast has a strange texture, one I’m not quite sure how to describe. Sort of rubbery and spongy all at once.

    Stir the yeast and water, breaking up any yeast chunks and allowing it to evenly dissolve. Then, set the yeast off to the side and let it do its thing.

  Meanwhile, mix the flour and salt.

After only a minute or so, the yeast will begin to foam.

It’s alive!!!

  Make a well in the flour and pour the yeast mixture in.

Now put your camera down and get in there with your hands.

Mix, mix and mix some more.

  Add more water as needed to form an elastic dough. I added about 1/4 cup more water.

Once the dough looks like this, it’s ready to be turned onto a floured surface.

 Now it’s time to kneed.

  Kneed the dough for about 7 minutes, or until it is smooth and stretchy.

Almost there, feel free to add another dusting of flour if the dough begins to stick to your surface.

Looks good!

  Place the dough into a large floured bowl. Flour the top and sides of the dough as well.

Slice an X into the top. You will literally be able to see the dough rise in front of you. 

Fresh yeast is the way to go!

Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise in a warm place. My sunny radiator worked great.

Here is what the dough looked like about 20 minutes later.

1 hour later.

After an hour of rising, punch the dough down.

Kneed the dough again for a few minutes.

Cut the dough into 6 even portions.

Individually kneed each of the dough balls.

Roll each ball around in flour to prevent sticking in the bag.

    Place each pizza dough into a freezer-safe bag.

Close the bag and freeze until ready to use.

To use a frozen dough, simply remove from the freezer a day before you want to make pizza. Allow the dough to thaw in the refrigerator. 1 hour before making the pizza, place the dough in a large bowl in a warm place and let it rise once more. Punch down, kneed and bake as usual.

With plenty of pizza dough ready to go, I really have no more excuses. 

Frozen pizza is a thing of the past.

To see more about my experiences taking cooking lessons in Italy, visit the links below.

Learning about Umbria from other Bloggers

Welcome to Italy and Florence

European Chocolate Festival

Cooking School Day 1

Cooking School Day 2

Cooking School Day 3

Cooking School Day 4

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Before going to bed, I wanted to wish my big brother, Ben, a very happy birthday.

I admire your positive attitude and jovial nature.

I’ve been thinking about you all day.

Just so you know, there are 18 little kids from all over the world, currently living in Germany, who heard about 15 Brother Ben stories today.

You’re awesome and I’m so lucky to have you for a big brother. I love you, Boy.

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Black Bean Mexican Pizza

Last week when I saw Katie’s Black Bean Mexican Pizza, it immediately went on my Recipe Wish List.

I thawed out a frozen whole wheat pizza dough I’d stored in the freezer, so putting this recipe together took about 20 minutes from start to finish.

 

I topped the cooked pizza with homemade guacamole for dinner on Thursday…

and ate leftovers cold and guac-less for lunch on Friday.

Sunshine makes all things better.

This recipe certainly is a keeper.

I can foresee it becoming a regular ‘round these parts.

Do yourself a flavor favor and make this pizza soon.

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Chicago Style Deep-Dish Pizza

After celebrating the last two Christmases in Germany, I’m finally going home this year.

Unfortunately, it’s looking like Sebastian won’t be coming with. Oh how I wish he was a teacher.

This past weekend while in Cologne, we bought a bag of hazelnut flavored coffee. Flavored coffees don’t exist here in Germany and Dunkin’ Doughnuts is the only place to buy flavored beans.

The coffee purchase sparked a whole conversation on the foods and restaurants I look forward to visiting once back in the US.

Naturally, Chicago style deep-dish pizza was on my list.

The last time I was home, I enjoyed the cheesy delight with my friend Christina.

Saddened by the fact that Sebastian was going to miss out on this culinary masterpiece, we resolved to bring Chicago to Germany.

With the help of this blog and this recipe, we were able to do just that!

Homemade Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

We followed this recipe almost exactly. The only substitution was using fresh yeast and different sized pans. We also mixed and kneaded the dough by hand.

This recipe calls for simple ingredients, most of which you probably already have.

  The combination of butter, oil and cornmeal into this dough make it delicate and crunchy all at once.

Mixing by hand works perfectly well.

 While the dough is rising, prepare the sauce.

Simple enough with canned tomatoes, Italian seasoning and garlic.

 Oil the pans then check on the dough.

Fresh yeast has yet to fail me.

If you are afraid of baking with yeast, do yourself a favor and find fresh yeast. It will change your life.

The dough punching honor went to Sebastian this time.

He’s a pizza-making pro.

Prebake the crust.

The mozzarella layer goes on the bottom, followed by your veggies and meat. Sebastian chose a Milano salami for his half.

Next up, tomato sauce.

Then parmesan and olive oil

  As the pizza bakes, your house will smell increasingly amazing.

Let the cooked and de-panned pizza sit for 15 minutes before cutting.

Finally, dig into the delicious layers! 

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Crust

• 4 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 3 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
• 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 block fresh yeast
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or salad oil
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water

Filling

• 2 balls mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 3 cups of the sautéed vegetables, mushrooms, onions and green peppers
• 28-ounce can plum tomatoes, lightly crushed; or 28-ounce can diced or chopped tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced, optional
• 1 tablespoon sugar, optional (we didn’t use)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Pizza Seasoning or mixed dried Italian herbs (oregano, basil, rosemary), to taste
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, to drizzle on top

Directions

1) To make the crust: Break the yeast into the warm water with a sprinkle of sugar, allow to foam a bit then mix the dough ingredients, and knead to make a smooth crust. This will take about 7 minutes at medium-low speed in a stand mixer or about 3 minutes stirring and 10 minutes kneading by hand.

2) Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and let rise till very puffy, about 60 minutes.

3) While the dough is rising, ready your 14" deep-dish pizza pan. (We used 1 pan which is about 10 inches and another smaller pan) Grease it with non-stick vegetable oil spray, then pour in 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil, tilting it to cover the bottom of the pan, and partway up the sides.

4) Stretch the dough to make as large a circle as you can. You can do this on a lightly oiled baking mat, if you choose; or simply stretch the dough in your hands.

5) Lay the dough in the pan, and stretch it towards the edges till it starts to shrink back. Cover, and let it rest for 15 minutes. Start preheating the oven to 425°F while the dough rests.

6) Stretch the dough to cover the bottom of the pan, then gently push it up the sides of the pan. The olive oil may ooze over the edge of the crust; that’s OK. Let the crust rest for 15 minutes or so, as your oven comes up to 425°F.

8) Bake the crust for 10 minutes, until it’s set and barely beginning to brown. While it’s baking, prepare the filling.

9) Drain the tomatoes thoroughly. Combine them with the Pizza Seasoning or herbs, and the garlic and sugar (if you’re using them). Add salt to taste; you probably won’t need any additional salt if you’ve used the Pizza Seasoning.

10) Cover the bottom of the crust with the sliced mozzarella, fanning it into the crust. Add the meat or sautéed vegetables, then the tomato mixture.

11) Sprinkle with the grated Parmesan, and drizzle with the olive oil.

12) Bake the pizza for about 25 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the topping is golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and carefully lift it out of the pan onto a rack. A giant spatula is a help here. Allow the pizza to cool for about 15 minutes (or longer, for less oozing) before cutting and serving.

Yield: about 12 servings.

 

Crispy, flaky, buttery crust.

Lightly seasoned tomatoes.

Two layers of gooey cheese.

A taste of home.

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