Week 35: Cheese Please

That was one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten in my life. The cheese was so good it made me faint.

Elvis Aaron Presley

Some of the best pizzas in life start out as something else. This week I had in mind to make a light summer pizza with vegan cream cheese, ripe cherry tomatoes, and cucumber. I did use those ingredients, but made a last minute decision to toss a handful of vegan cheese on the pizza, and wow! The cheese took it to the next level of yumminess.

The pizza above looks decadent, but it actually has only a handful of Violife vegan colby jack cheese. I used about half a cup, which is 150 calories. Split between two people, that’s not a lot of extra calories, but it did make the pizza taste a lot richer. This is one of our favorite pizzas so far this year.

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This week I used bread flour to make the dough. I forgot to add olive oil to the mix and it still came out well and was easy to shape. I made a dough with “00” flour earlier in the week and my partner and I both liked the bread flour version better. That could be any number of factors, but since bread flour has more protein than 00 flour, I’d rather use it.

I added a teaspoon of dried oregano to the dough when mixing. I also added a generous teaspoon of garlic honey, which is honey that had garlic sitting in it for a month. Here’s a post with more detailed info if you want to make it. The garlic turns to candy, with no garlicky taste. You can eat the garlic, one a day, and it helps ward off colds.

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This week’s pizza has two layers of cheese. There’s a cream cheese layer that gets a flavor boost from a bit of miso paste, and the layer of shredded cheese. The flavors of this pizza combo taste great together, but if you are missing one or two of the ingredients, you can substitute something else.

As always, feel free to use any veggies you have on hand. Next time I make this pizza (and there will definitely be a next time, this one was super good) I would add a few jalapeño slices.

Ingredients

• pizza dough
• handful cherry tomatoes, halved
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup corn kernels
• 1/4 medium size white onion, diced
• 4 oz. vegan cream cheese
• 1/2 to 1 and 1/2 tablespoons white miso paste
• 1/2 cup vegan cheese, shredded
• salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• red pepper flakes (optional)
• few slices of cucumber, diced

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 450° for 45 minutes before you plan to bake your pizza.
2. If you have one, put your pizza stone in the oven to heat up.
3. Let dough come to room temperature (if refrigerated) for 2 hours prior to baking.
4. Slice cherry tomatoes and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Set aside.
5. If using frozen corn, run hot water over it to bring to room temperature. Set aside.
6. Add miso paste to cream cheese. Taste and see how much miso tastes good to you.
7. Heat a frying pan. Over medium-high heat, add a glug of olive or avocado oil.
8. Add the onions. Stir for 2 minutes.
9. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
10. Add cucumber slices.
11. Add corn.
12. Add tomatoes and stir for 2 minutes.
13. Take off the heat. Roll out your pizza dough.
14. Spread cream cheese and miso mixture over your pizza.
15. Layer with veggies from the pan.
16. Top with 1/2 cup of vegan shredded cheese.
17. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until crust is golden and you can smell that it’s done.
18. Slice, serve, and enjoy!