Pizza Hazzah!

I don't know why I haven't tried this sooner. Every time it's been pizza night, I've resorted to Amy's gluten-free vegan spinach frozen pizza while everyone else enjoys crispy, chewy, doughy decadence. SO not fair. And while I've been depriving myself all this time, I could've just experimented with making my own gluten-free crust. Which I finally did last night.

I modified my standard recipe for pizza crust by substituting a mix of white rice flour and all purpose gluten-free flour for the regular and whole wheat flour, and added 1/4 tsp of xantham gum for binding. I gotta say, my first attempt at this concoction was pretty successful. I'd even consider serving it to regular people.

While the dough didn't quite rise or stretch like traditional pizza dough, it did have a nice pliable texture, which made it easy to press it into a pizza shape on the oiled baking sheet.

Because I had bought a perfectly ripe avocado earlier in the day, I decided to make a Mexican-style pizza with salsa, mashed pinto beans, mushrooms and avocado. The layer of beans and salsa went on pretty thick.

The crust baked up crisp underneath, with a soft, kinda biscuity texture on the inside. It held up really well to the slightly watery toppings. A final drizzle of olive oil around the edges after the pie came out of the oven kept the crust from becoming too dry and brittle. Then I topped it with the slices of avocado.

My only wish was that I had some Tofutti sour cream to dot on top. Oh, and perhaps a big handful of Daiya cheese, too. Nonetheless, this made me pretty happy, and I'm looking forward to leftovers for lunch and Superbowl Sunday. Delish!