Friday, November 19, 2010

Olive pizza with blue cheese and walnuts



I was craving some gourmet pizza and since I had some delicious vegan blue cheese (Blue Style Sheese from Scotland), fresh thyme and olive tapenade in the fridge I though that I could combine them to create a unique pizza. Until today I never made my own pizza dough from scratch. I was always afraid to make it from scratch and I didn't want to make a mess in the kitchen. I would buy a pre-made pizza crust or a frozen pizza dough from Whole Foods since they have vegan pizza dough and pizza crust in stock most of the time. Unfortunately when I was going to buy a pizza dough or pizza crust this time, they were out. They only had cheese pizza crust and gluten-free frozen pizza dough (I don't mess around with gluten-free stuff). So I went to Publix and they didn't even have a frozen pizza dough, just some pre-made stuff that was hanging next to the freezer. They had about four varieties, even whole wheat crust. I flipped the package to see the ingredients and big bald letters with whey and mozzarella were laughing in my face. All varieties had the same unwanted ingredients. Why the heck do they have to put cheese in all of their crusts? Don't people put cheese on top? That made me so angry so I left the store without buying anything. When I got home I decided to make my very own pizza dough. I was pleased with the results and I must say I might even open a pizzeria soon :-) Here is my creation. Feel free to use any vegan cheese, but this one is the best blue cheese that I found. It truly mimics the taste of blue cheese like no other vegan cheese. I have been buying it for about two years now.


My dough before rising


For pizza dough:

2 1/2 cups flour
2 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs instant yeast
1 cup water
1 Tbs fresh thyme, chopped (optional)

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients together. Beat with an electric mixer (with dough hooks) on medium speed for about 5 minutes. Transfer the dough into a medium size bowl that was coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes. Prepare the toppings while the dough is rising.


Part of the toppings

For topping:

1 Tbs olive oil
1 large red onion, peeled and cut into circles
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
5-6 Tbs kalamata or black olive tapenade (I used a mixture of both, plus green olives)
1/4 package of Blue Style Sheese (about 2 oz), grated
1 tsp. dried thyme

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook 5 minutes, or until soft, stirring occasionally. Add the dried thyme and cook 1 more minute.

Preheat oven to 450 F.

Coat a round baking sheet with cooking spray, or brush with olive oil. Place the dough in the middle of the baking sheet and punch it down to create a pizza crust that is about 1/2-inch thick. Prick the crust with a fork several times.
Spread the tapenade over the crust, scatter onions evenly over the tapenade and sprinkle with walnuts.
Bake 10 minutes. Sprinkle the grated Sheese over the pizza and bake 10 more minutes.

Pizza before baking

Pizza after baking

9 comments:

  1. I always bought pre-made pizza bases until last week when I tried the recipe from Vegan With A Vengeance & realised it really isn't as hard as it sounds! I love that blue sneeze, I've never put it on pizza before though - yum!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love Sheese. I wish it was easy to get here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your pizza looks delicious! I have never tried the blue style sheese, but saw it in the store last week. I might give it a try the next time I see it, as I keep reading about it on the blogs. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Blue Sheese is delicious on pizza - so is the smoked cheddar one if you can get. It tastes like bacon.
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've never had Sheese. Blue Style Sheese sounds intriguing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. i'm going to have to try that blue sheese one of these days. blue cheese is one of the few dairy products i truly miss.

    how frustrating that the store-bought crusts had cheese in them! but it looks like your homemade one turned out great!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Blue Style Sheese is my absolute all-time favorite vegan cheese! I've never thought about using it on a pizza, though - what a great idea! Thanks so much for the recipe; I'm going to try this soon!

    ReplyDelete
  8. YUM!!!! I have been craving blue cheese lately and since I can;t have it with my pregnancy I would love to try it! I wonder where I can buy it. This pizza sounds SO good! Did it surprise you that making your own pizza crust was easy? No hassle w/ store bought crap. :D

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks, Noelle :-) This vegan Blue Cheese is available online from www.cosmosveganshoppe.com and www.veganessentials.com , or you can check the company directly, I have a link to their website in the recipe ingredients list. I love crumbling it us into salads and shredding it into soups. You can try other brands of cheese if you have some at home already, and you can add more veggies. Yes, I am happy that making a homemade pizza crust isn't that hard, plus I like that I can see what goes in it :-)

    ReplyDelete