Spelt Pizza with Hummus

 

 

Yesterday, I tried a new recipe for homemade pizza crust using spelt, buckwheat and gluten-free baking mix from Bob's Redmill. All in all, I deem it a success; the crust, after baking for about 20" at 475 degrees F, was nicely crispy and flavorful. Then I tried something new (and risky, cause my husband is a pizza traditionalist!) : I put hummus on the crust, followed by chopped sweet red pepper, olives, and tiny chopped asparagus spears (on just half, because it's a no-no for me). I finished it with some parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and baked it. For the second pizza, I covered the dough with ricotta, followed by veggies including some arugula. They both came out really delicious, though next time I would not bake the arugula: I would wait and add it after the pizza came out of the oven, as some of the nice tang was missing after baking. A little drizzle of grapeseed oil on top kept the arugula from drying out.
 What really surprised me was how tasty the hummus/cheese combo was! The hummus was prepackaged, and had a nice garlic tang, as well as some peppers, and that may have helped the flavor.

Here is the dough recipe I used:

• 1 TBLSP yeast
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 punch of sugar.

I let this mixture bubble to ensure the yeast was alive, then added :

• 1 1/2 cups of spelt flour, 
• 1 cup of Bob's Redmill gluten-free baking mix, 
• 1 cup of buckwheat flour, plus additional spelt as I was kneading the dough to keep it supple and non-sticky.

After mixing this together, I added about 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil.

Knead for at least 5 minutes, then cover and let rise for one hour. Punch down, knead again, and again cover and let rise for an hour. The result is a very malleable dough that is easily rolled out and pressed into a cookie sheet. This recipe made enough for two large pizzas. Oh yes, don't forget to add some dried herbs before baking: I used oregeno and basil. You could also mix a tablespoon or two of pesto in your ricotta before spreading it on the dough.