I’m doubling down on beets today with this beet pizza that’s made with a beet dough crust. You can’t really taste the beets in the crust, so that’s why I added sliced beets to the topping, but look at that color! It’s so perfect for spring and along with that asparagus season is here, so I threw some in with mini heirloom tomatoes, goat cheese and soft boiled eggs.
I seriously love this pizza. My family—not so much. One, I can’t get Matt near goat cheese; and two my little guy gave it the “ewww” and said it looks like Barney throw-up. Fine by me, because I happily had it for dinner and lunch the next day.
I’m keeping the text short today because I’m set to madness trying to get things in order before the baby comes. And sorry the post is a bit picture heavy, but I couldn’t help myself, the light was great and the food was so colorful.
Beet Crust Pizza
Ingredients
- Crust (makes two 12 inch crust)
- 1 cup lukewarm water
- 2 teaspoon active-dry
- 17 ouncesunbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons honey
- ¾ cup pureed beets (about 2 large beets, roasted and peeled)
- Topping
- 4 oz. goat cheese
- 10-12 stalks of asparagus, trimmed, blanched and then tossed in 1 tablespoon of olive oil and ¼ teaspoon of salt and pepper
- 3 soft boiled eggs, sliced
- 1 roasted beet, sliced
- 4 oz. mini heirloom tomatoes, halved
- 3-4 tablespoons pesto (optional)
- 1 handful of watercress (optional)
Instructions
To make crust:
Preparation: Place pizza stone on lower middle rack. Heat oven to 500° F.
- Combine and stir water and yeast in a mixing bowl until mixture resembles miso soup. Add flour salt, honey and pureed beets to yeast mixture and combine until dough just comes together.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough until the flour is incorporated, about 5 minutes or until it is smooth and elastic. The dough should be moist and slightly tacky. (If it’s sticky, add in more flour 1 tablespoon at a time until smooth). Form dough into a ball. Lightly oil a bowl and place dough in, turning once to coat dough with olive oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm area to double in size, about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Once doubled evenly divide dough in half and refrigerate one half for another time or double the topping recipe to make two 12 inch pizzas.
- Lightly grease a sheet of parchment paper with olive oil. Transfer one ball of dough to parchment and stretch it out by hand as much as possible. Lightly brush olive oil on another piece of parchment paper and place it on top of hand-flattened dough. Use a rolling pin and work from the middle of the dough outward to flatten dough to ¼ inch thickness. Peel off top parchment paper.
Note: Dough can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for up to three days.
Assembly:
- If using pesto, evenly spread it on the crust with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon, leaving ½ inch border. Top with 3 oz. goat cheese on top and layer with asparagus, soft boiled egg slices, mini heirloom tomatoes and remaining 1 oz .of goat cheese.
- Slide the pizza (with the parchment underneath) on to the hot pizza stone. Bake for 3-5 minutes until pizza crust starts to slightly brown. Rotate the pizza once and remove parchment, continue to bake for another 3 minutes. Remove from oven. Optional: Garnish and with watercress, or any choice of greens you prefer. Slice and serve.
Notes
Notes
:
- The pesto is optional and not necessary. If you do use pesto, keep in mind the crust will be chewier and softer rather than on the crispier side, than if no pesto were used.
- Of course change out any of the toppings to suit your preference.
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