The Super Peel

I feel like I just discovered gold. My pizza crust was crisp. Gluten free and crisp!!!!

In my quest to continue eating a vegan diet, I’m trying to eliminate eggs from everything I cook. I made pizza tonight using Bob's Red Mill pizza mix. I’ve used this mix many times to make gluten free pizza, only this time, instead of eggs, I used the egg replacer (two tbsp flaxseed meal with six tbsp water) recommended on the package. When I took my first bite, I knew that something magical had happened. The cooked pizza dough was crisp! For the first time, my pizza crust was crisp! Like I mentioned, I’ve made pizza with this mix many times. But usually the crust is a bit cakey, definitely not crisp. I also think that heating the pizza stone in the oven at 450 degrees while I assembled the pizza also adds to the crispiness. Turns out that when you remove the stone from the oven in order to put the assembled pizza onto it, the dough hits the hot stone and gets almost cauterized. But even when I did it this way the last time I made pizza, it wasn’t as crisp as it came out tonight. I have to believe it was the elimination of the eggs and the addition of the flaxseed meal mixture. My pizza dough will never have eggs in it again!

The other pizza news I want to share with you has to do with a most amazing invention called the Super Peel. I have no idea how I made pizza without it. The guy who invented it is a genius. A friggin’ pizza genius.

The Super Peel makes getting the pizza from your assembly surface onto the pizza stone (or whatever you cook the pizza on) a total cinch. Once your pizza is assembled, you remove the heated pizza stone from the oven, then you use the Super Peel to move the assembled pizza onto the pizza stone. It’s remarkably simple and brilliant, I swear!

Some tips for rolling out your gluten free pizza dough:

1. Flour your surface with some gluten free flour.

2. Flour your rolling pin or use a non-stick rolling pin (which I HIGHLY recommend - I bought mine at a Williams Sonoma outlet).

3. Sprinkle some gluten free flour onto the surface of your pizza dough before rolling it with your rolling pin. Continue to add flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your rolling pin.

4. Roll it out as thin as you can without it tearing.

5. Obviously you don’t want it to be so big that it won’t fit on the pizza stone, so you’ll have to do some carefully eyeballing to make sure it fits.

6. If you use the flaxseed meal egg replacement, I would recommend doing what I did.I put the flaxseed meal and water in a blender, blended it for about 45 seconds, then I added the water and yeast mixture, and the oil, to the blender, blended for about 45 seconds. Then I poured this liquid mixture into the bowl of my stand mixer along with the Bob’s Red Mill pizza mix and combined thoroughly. You can use a hand mixer if you don’t own a stand mixer. I suppose you can do it by hand if you don't own a hand mixer, but you'd have to be Popeye:).

I’m so enamored with the Super Peel that I’m posting pictures so you can see how it’s used. If you go to the Super Peel’s website, you can watch a video of it being used.

Placing the rolling cloth onto the Super Peel


Positioning the Super Peel cloth (it comes with a clip that holds it in place but we found that you can manage without the clip...for 1st timers, the clip would be helpful)


Beginning to inch pizza onto the Super Peel cloth


Continuing to inch pizza onto the Super Peel cloth


Amazing, isn't it?! The dough remains in perfect condition, no tears!


Almost there!


Pizza is completely on Super Peel


Now we reverse direction in order to move the pizza from the Super peel onto our pizza stone


Easy Peasy! Works every time!


The pizza has landed. The Super Peel has done its' job!

Now the pizza goes into a 450 degree oven for about 10 - 12 minutes. I kept a very close eye on it so it wouldn't burn.

When I took my first bite, I knew I'd hit payday. Tears of joy. I couldn't even speak. This was as close to the pizza crust pre-Celiac that I could remember. Even though I've been making gluten free pizza for three years, this preparation was a homerun. Between the combination of ingredients and the way the heat of the pizza stone baked the crust, it was just what I'd hoped for.

By the way, the recipe I used for the toppings comes from two of my favorite cookbooks, Vegan With A Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Real Food Daily by Ann Gentry.

In order of toppings, from the first topping to the last:

Vegan Pesto (RFD cookbook)
Basil Tofu Ricotta (VWAV cookbook)
Tempeh Sausage Crumble (VWAV cookbook)
Sauteed onions
Roasted red peppers
Diced tomatoes

My husband and I agreed that the Tempeh Sausage Crumble MADE the pizza toppings sensational. It is amazing how tempeh can taste exactly like pepperoni. Though I own Vegan With A Vengeance, I hadn't yet tried the Tempeh Sausage Crumble until I saw it mentioned on this blog. Thank you Healthy Librarian, for turning me onto this fabulous recipe for tempeh!

For those of you still new to gluten free, know that there is hope. When you can have pizza this good, you know life ain't so shabby:).