Cooking with Trevor | Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Hey everybody! Welcome to Winekeller Restaurant in Niagara Falls

I'm Trevor Littlejohn, Chef de Partie of Benchmark Restaurant. And today, we're going to make unconventional pizza dough

We're going to use cauliflower, ground almonds, chia seeds, and oregano. So let's get started cooking with Trevor

So the first thing that we need to do is clean our cauliflower

And all I did was take our head of cauliflower, core out the middle, and take out all the green leafy bits

And then I cut them into really small pieces because I don't want the food processor to overwork

And then all we're going to do is pour that cauliflower in. Try not to spill it everywhere

And we're just going to pulse that cauliflower until it looks like rice-sized pieces

So when you're done pulsing your cauliflower, what you're looking for is a mealy texture like this

So almost the same texture as basmati rice or a very coarse semolina flour

So now we're ready to build our pizza dough. And the only thing that's different about this pizza dough is that instead of flour, we're using ground almonds and cauliflower

And instead of yeast, eggs, and milk, we're using chia seeds soaked in water

And to keep it that Italian flavor, of course we've got our dried oregano

To start off, we need to measure out three cups of that pureed cauliflower

Then we're going to take our ground almonds. And we're going to work those through our cauliflower so that both are nicely incorporated

We're going to add our oregano and some salt and pepper just to taste

If you like salty, you're going to add more salt. If you like less salt, you're going to add less

If you like pepper, we just want enough pepper to kind of give us that heat

Mixing together. And once everything is nicely mixed, we're going to take the mixture, push it to the sides of the bowl

and create that well in the middle that we classically do when making any kind of pizza dough or pasta dough

In that well, we're going to place our chia seed goo. It looks so appetizing, doesn't it

But trust me, it tastes very good. Don't be scared right now

It's not going to come together like a traditional dough. This is going to be very pasty, almost like wet sand

If you're doing one large pizza, I would suggest pressing this down into the pan as wide as it will go

However, if you want to do something on an individual basis, you're going to take that dough, flatten it into the bottom of the bowl

and just with your hands, you're going to divide that into four. It gives you four personalized pizza portions

I'm going to take one right now. I'm just going to keep forming that into a ball, squeezing out any excess liquid

And that excess liquid is actually the milk that comes off the cauliflower

And we just want to kind of drain as much of that out of the dough as possible

because we don't want that to make a soggy dough in the oven. Once you get a very nice, tightly formed ball like that, you're ready to go

You're just going to put it on the middle of your tray and very gently and very carefully

you're just going to press that down into a flat pizza dough-like shape

We want to go as thin as possible here because we want everything to cook and crisp evenly at the same time

You do not need to create a perfect circle. It's like being five years old again and playing with Play-Doh

Then, to create that classic crust that we're used to, just take your fingers and make a dimple right along the edge

turning your pan and just roll it up. Okay, and then just lightly flatten to create that crust that we're used to seeing on a regular flour pizza dough

Once we've got our pizza dough transformed into our circular shape, we're going to transfer it to a 400 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes to set the crust

Let's go to the oven. All right, our cauliflower pizza dough has come out of the oven

It's beautifully golden brown and it's got a crispy crust, exactly like a regular pizza crust

Now, we're going to build a pizza. The best thing about pizza is whoever you are, wherever you're from

there's no limit to what ingredient you can put on this pizza. You want pepperoni and cheese? You make pepperoni and cheese

But today, because it's peach season and I'm in a restaurant and I happen to have it in front of me

I'm going to do a grilled peach and fennel pizza with a little bit of arugula and balsamic glaze

And I'm also going to add a little bit of goat cheese. Now, one thing about goat cheese is it's a healthy alternative to any kind of dairy cheese like mozzarella

The reason being, goat's milk doesn't contain lactose. But if you're staying away from cheese altogether, remember your grocery store has tons of cheese alternatives

that will be equally as delicious on your pizza. So here we go. We're going to start with a few beautifully grilled Niagara peaches

We're just going to scatter them around. We're going to take some pickled fennel and we're just going to drape that across

And remember, when it comes to pizza, simpler is better. Two, three, four ingredients max and that's it

What you don't want to do is put so many ingredients on your pizza that you make a soggy crust

Because remember, what we're after is that crisp crust at the end of the day

Then we're just going to finish off with a little bit of fresh arugula

Give us some peppery notes there. And our goat cheese. If you are eating cheese, goat cheese goes perfectly well with peaches

The salty and sourness goes amazing with the sweetness that comes off of the peaches

And in Niagara right now, peaches are king. And our last step, a little bit of balsamic reduction

All this is, balsamic vinegar reduced down by half. And we're just going to give that a drizzle across the pizza

And we're just going to pop that back in the oven for five to ten minutes at 325 degrees just to melt and brown that cheese

Let's go to the oven. And there you have it. Fresh from the oven, Niagara Peach Balsamic Drizzle and Goat Cheese Cauliflower Pizza. Enjoy

For more information, visit www.FEMA.gov