Vegan Pizza w/ Wheat Crust

Dinner was a quick toss together of ingredients tonight. (I was too busy shopping for the bits and pieces for the rest of the week's meals; moo shu veggies, edamame and sesame soba salad, and some sort of green curry yet to be determined.) I even bought mozzarella for Jeff's half of the pizza but he declined in favor of an all-vegan dish. It's very sweet of him to try no dairy dishes here at home with me. But I digress...

Ingredient list:
10 ounces flour (this will yield two pizzas worth of dough)
1/4 oz. packet of active dry yeast
2 tsp corn syrup or sugar
7-8 oz. warm water
small jar pizza sauce**
toppings of your choice (veg, fruit, fake meat, etc.)



First the crust. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F, while you prep everything.

I tossed a 1/4 packet of active dry yeast in with a couple teaspoons of corn syrup and 2 oz. of water to make a slurry and let that froth on the warm stove top. I weighed out 10 oz of flour and a pinch of salt. (I used 8 oz all purpose, and 2 oz wheat, but you can shake it up as you see fit.)

I could have let the yeast foam properly with a little flour, but I was in a hurry. (Thankfully, my boyfriend likes thin crust pizza.) I tossed the slurry into the stand mixer where the flour already was. (Use the dough hook attachment if you've got a mixer, otherwise a bowl, a spoon, and your hands can do the job just as well.) I then added roughly 5 oz. of water until the dough formed into a nice, easy to handle ball.

I set the dough aside (covered) to let rise while my boyfriend and I cut up the toppings:

1/3 block firm tofu into tiny cubes
1 cup grape tomatoes
shiitake mushrooms (which got lightly sauteed with garlic and olive oil)

When the dough rose a bit I split the ball in half, threw half in the freezer, wrapped up for later, and rolled the other into a rough circle. I laid it on a corn meal dusted pizza pan. I pricked the crust with a fork several dozen times just so it wouldn't puff up too much during cooking, and then topped with:

canned pizza sauce
pineapple pieces (drained)
veggie pepperoni
pickled banana peppers
the previously cut up veg and tofu

With a bit of salt and pepper, and it all got tossed in the oven for roughly 14 minutes. A relatively healthy, vegan dinner that only took about 45 minutes to make. (I could have let the dough proof and proof some more and taken 3 hours on the dough, but I'm too lazy for that.) And when it's as cold and crummy out as tonight, pizza just seemed like good comfort food.

**If you ever want a wacky dessert pizza I recommend using the same crust, skipping the pizza sauce, and laying down a layer of peanut butter, topped with sliced fruits like strawberries and bananas, and covered with a thin layer of fruit jelly. Bake the same way. It's a little messy, but delicious for breakfast or a snack.