gluten-free buckwheat pizza crust

Since I've been going mostly gluten-free in my baking and cooking, I invested in some organic buckwheat flour! I'm not really familiar with it except that it's used to make soba noodles, and it's somewhat bitter in taste. I'll be experimenting with it more though later on.

Today I made a gluten-free buckwheat pizza crust topped with cottage cheese and vegetables! I omitted the garlic powder and apple cider vinegar, which is most likely why my pizza dough came out tasting not so great, SO don't be like me, and just follow the recipe :)

After I baked the pizza dough, I spread about half a tablespoon of olive oil right onto the surface of the dough, then topped it with two cloves of minced garlic, a few dollops of cottage cheese, one diced roma tomato, thin zucchini slices, some freshly chopped parsley, and some salt and pepper to taste. 

Though I wasn't too fond of the crust, I loved the brightness of the parsley atop the vegetables and the slightly salty punch the minced garlic bits created beneath the bed of toppings. As it turns out, cottage cheese may not be the best kind of cheese to use on a pizza because of its high liquid content. I took my pizza out of the oven to find it half of it covered in the liquid; but either way, I like the texture and light flavor of cottage cheese so the little mishap was made up for.


I posted the buckwheat pizza crust recipe below, but I don't have a stone baking sheet as called for by most of the recipes I found, so I tweaked it and made it silicone-baking-mat-friendly. I can't really vouch for using foil or parchment paper to bake your pizza dough on; I'd imagine the dough would be stick to the foil, so grease it REALLY well if you do intend on using it!

After topping your baked pizza dough with whatever you like, put it back into the oven and bake for another 7-10 minutes and it should be about ready to be cut and served :)

Buckwheat Pizza Crust

adapted from This Chick Cooks
yields 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 baking soda
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/2 cup water
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs apple cider vinegar

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 375° F and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or spray the non-shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil really well (I don't know about parchment paper, but you can try it!)
-  In a medium bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together. In a smaller bowl, mix all of the wet ingredients together and add it to the dry ingredients.
- Mix the ingredients until you see dough strings form. The dough will be thinner than normal, like cake batter; if it's too thick, add a bit more water. 
- Scoop out the dough onto the prepared baking sheet and using the back of a spoon (or just oil your hands) to work the dough and smooth it out until it becomes a thin sheet. 
- Bake the dough for 15-20 minutes until slightly golden. Remove and top with toppings then bake for another 7-10 minutes. Remove once again from the oven, slice up and serve!