Thoughts on pizza making...

With much self-sacrifice**, I made my husband a "regular" pizza crust last night. Amazingly, I still had wheat flour (albeit at the very back of the top shelf of the pantry). More amazingly, it had not expired.

**it wasn't that much of a sacrifice; see below.

Why did I ever think baking from scratch was hard? With **one** flour? I guess it's similar to the adjustment from zero kids to one. You wonder how on earth you will manage but once you get the hang of one, adding a second makes your job only about 12% harder instead of twice as hard.

After making the pizza crust with only four ingredients, one of which was salt, I made this crust.

In case I haven't mentioned it, this blogger is one of my gluten free heroes. I've loved everything I've made from her blog (and I kind of went nuts baking over the last month so speak from experience). In fact, I made a double batch of this pizza crust without trying it first. That's how much I trust her and her recipes. Check it out. Chocolate chip cookies! Sandwich bread! Things I thought I would do without until I could afford $5 for something that used to cost $1!

I did substitute additional sorghum flour for the teff, though, as my gluten free budget needs a break. When I went nuts baking as I mentioned earlier, I kind of also went nuts on the flour buying.

Which I guess disqualifies me as a cheapskate, but let me preface by saying that I buy in bulk at the best prices I can find. Also, I only buy one new type of flour every few months, making substitutions when I can. Despite the high cost of flours, making from scratch is definitely cheaper than buying pre-packaged GF stuff. Talk about sticker shock!

This isn't a picture of me. Nor is it a picture of pizza. With a hungry toddler fussing at my feet, I never remember to take pictures. So here is a semi-related picture of Big Girl making lasagna. Otherwise this post would just be a big block of text. You're welcome.

Anyway, my pizza turned out fantastic tasting, though I don't think I rolled the dough thin enough to cook in the time allotted (which is all user error and not recipe error). I was using a smaller pan and thought cooking it longer would compensate. It did cook through but was just a little "breadier" of a crust than I'm used to (ahem, cracker-like crust, I'm looking at you).

So do I miss the convenience of Little Caesar's? You bet. But I'm also glad to have two decent pizza places within five miles as well as awesome DIY recipes. I'm so glad it isn't 20 years ago.

Disclaimer: please don't get upset with me for baking a glutenated crust in my kitchen. I know some people wouldn't be able to handle the cross-contamination. However, I have weighed the risks with my level of sensitivity and I feel comfortable with the amount of precautions I take. Your mileage may vary, obviously.