Easy Gluten-Free Pizza

It's late for a school night but I'm staying up watching Extreme Couponing and Khloe and Lamar and wearing my slanket (off-brand snuggie) so I can get this post up (oh, the sacrifices!) because I am so excited to share this yummy healthy alternative to my favorite food...pizza!

While trying to find a good cookie recipe to use garbanzo bean flour in (not an easy task!), I found a lot of recipes for pizza dough, and I've had it stuck in my head ever since. So tonight I found a flatbread recipe that looked delicious and really simple...and guess what! I was right :)

This flatbread, called fiana, is a popular appetizer in South America. The recipe is from About.com

I didn't use a recipe for the pizza topping, I just used what we had. This is the part where you can get creative! For my first try at this pizza crust, I wanted to keep it simple with tomatoes and cheese, so the topping wouldn't overpower the crust.

The recipe used a 12 inch pan, which I didn't have, so I used a 9 inch pan. It made the crust really thick, like deep dish pizza. When using a smaller pan, I learned to use less olive oil- I ended up having to pour some of it out of the pan once the batter was partially baked.

Overall, this was REALLY good pizza. I want to play around with it though, maybe trying different pizza toppings and doing a thinner crust. I also want to try a vegan pizza. Besides the parmesan cheese, the crust is already vegan!

GARBANZO BEAN PIZZA (it's worth trying!)

INGREDIENTS

flatbread

• 2 1/2 cup garbanzo bean flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6-7 tablespoons olive oil
•  2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
• about 1 tablespoon pepper
• 2-2 1/2 cups water

tomato topping (Note: these measurements are not exact, I just eyeballed it)

• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese
• 1 tablespoon crushed garlic

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
• In large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, 3 tbs olive oil, cheese, and pepper
• Whisk in 1 3/4 cups of water until well mixed. Set aside for half an hour to let the flour absorb some of the water.
• Place 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil into pan, depending on pan size. (Note: for a thick pizza crust, use a 9 inch pan or smaller. For a thin pizza crust, use 12 inch or bigger. The bigger the pan, the more olive oil you need-you just need enough to cover the bottom.)
• Stir 1/4 -3/4 cups of water into batter until the batter is just thin enough to pour. Remove the pizza pan from oven and pour batter into pan.
• Bake until golden and crispy. (There isn't an exact baking time-you just need to watch it closely. Thin crust will take about 10 min, but thick crust can take about 40 min)
• Check the pizza frequently. When it is no longer soupy (but not quite baked all the way through) take it out of the oven and spread pizza topping over the crust. Put it back in the oven until it is fully baked.  
• Enjoy!