Chick Pea Flour Pizza and Pie

I was very happy to finally find organic chick pea flour in Ontario, after looking for years, since every now and again, I want something like pizza and pie!

Gluten free, organic pizza and pie

pizza!

This recipe was originally just a pan bread recipe with rosemary, so if you wish, you can keep it plain and bake it for the full 30 minutes without adding any toppings!

The crust is more like a cookie or pie crust than a pizza crust, but that doesn’t bother me in the least!

My toppings have consisted mostly of cooked mashed squash or sweet potato and / or greens like zucchini, spinach or chard because tomatoes don’t agree with me.  Sometimes I mix in or top with crumbled goat cheese, but I can’t have cheese nearly as often as I’d like or I risk sensitizing to it again, so I must practice restraint.

If you can eat tomatoes and regular cheeses, but just have to avoid gluten, you can go that route too.

Here’s the recipe for the crust

Measure out and sift if necessary
1 1/4 c chick pea flour
some salt and whatever herbs or spices you like (ie cumin, rosemary)
Whisk in
1 1/4 c water and
1/4 cup olive oil

Let sit for an hour.

I have played around with the recipe (or maybe I just made a mistake one day and kept doing it) and now use 1 1/3 C chick pea flour, 1 1/3 C water and 1/3 C olive oil and it works fine too!

I also started doubling the recipe and freezing the extra pizza to reheat another time. I leave it in the pie plates I bake it in, cover with foil (which I re-use several times), slip it into a used plastic veggie bag and freeze, after cooling in the fridge overnight first. I leave the foil on for the first half of the time I’m reheating, then remove it. If you tolerate the plastic lids some baking dishes come with, you could just use those, but the ones I have, have never off-gassed, so I don’t want those lids near food. Plus, even if off-gassed, plastic isn’t safe to use in the oven (or microwave, if you use those).

Preheat oven to 350 F
Lightly (or a little more than lightly) oil a pizza pan

I usually use glass pie plates and casserole dishes because I don’t have a stainless steel pizza (or cookie) pan.
I found 1/4″ of batter was too thick, it works better and the pans are easier to clean when the batter is thinner in the pan. If it’s too thin, it can get overdone at the edges.

Pop into oven for 20 minutes
Remove and add toppings
Put back in oven for another 10 minutes

Enjoy!

cooking the greens

That time I used some frozen garlic scape pieces, zucchini, bok choy and spinach.

Crust after 20 minutes in the oven. Early attempt with too much batter. Thinner is better.

Toppings added to 20 minute crust
(here with crumbled goat cheese)

in the oven

pizza!
With extra to freeze!

Lazy topping – spicy baked squash with frozen peas

This one had shallot in the crust, with squash, chard and goat cheese topping. YUMMY!

AND

if you want pizza and dessert and are lazy (or just plain low on energy), you can use a single large pan and just make the pizza on one side and the pie on the other

pizza and pie
(dinner and dessert)

Notice the pie side is bigger on this one, I had not had any pie (or cake or cookies) for years when I came up with this idea!

I can’t find any photos of just pie, but I know I’ve made a few of those too.

For the dessert pizza pies, I use winter squash and add cinnamon or cardamon and a bit of butter and maple syrup. Sometimes I add goat cheese too. Someday I may try using sliced fruit.

Apart from using the original recipe as a starting point (which didn’t even come with an oven temperature), the rest I have made up according to what I have on hand and have the energy to prepare.

Have fun experimenting!

Here’s the recipe again, without all the talk:

Measure out and sift if necessary
1 1/4 (or 1 1/3) c chick pea flour
some salt and whatever herbs or spices you like (ie cumin, rosemary)
Whisk in
1 1/4 (or 1 1/3) c water and
1/4 (or 1/3) cup olive oil
Let sit for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 F
Lightly (or a little more than lightly) oil a pizza pan (or whatever you are using)
Pop into oven for 20 minutes
Remove and add toppings
Put back in oven for another 10 minutes
Take out and Enjoy!

The organic chick pea flour I was using is from Mountain Path (Ontario) but the last batch didn’t agree with me (they are not a gluten free facility) so in the future I will be getting it from Cuisine Soleil, who prepare only organic and gluten free foods, and have their products distributed across Canada

PS… These are obviously not glossy food porn photos, just some old snapshots…My camera broke last June, so I haven’t been able to take better photos for sharing (not that I take good food photos anyway). I guess that’s my way of saying that the pizza and pie taste much better than they look in these photos… Hope you agree if you try it.