Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Pizza In a Pinch

I've been meaning to make pizza for days in an attempt to clean out my freezer. I had some frozen Creole Steamed Sausages (from my cookbook) that I've been meaning to use, and I had one last pack of stashed, frozen Daiya mozzarella that I hoarded when I heard the Memphis Whole Foods was going to stop carrying it. Turns out, that was just a nasty rumor, so I stocked up for nothing.

But I just haven't had the time to make homemade pizza dough. It's so freakin' simple to make DIY dough, so there's no good reason to buy the pre-made stuff. But homemade dough can take up to two hours for the first and second rise. Since I work all day, and I don't care to wait all evening on dough to rise, making homemade crust is restricted to weekends. I always use Isa's "Pizza Dough — A Novel" recipe from Vegan with a Vengeance.

But another busy weekend passed me by with no time to make dough, but today, I REALLY wanted pizza. I got all sad about my pizza plight, and I even considered buying a pre-made dough at Kroger, but they all contained milk or non-vegan dough conditioners. Whole Foods sells a vegan crust, but the only one is nearly 20 minutes from my house. So I resorted to an old favorite — French Bread Pizza:

I haven't had French Bread Pizza in years! In fact, the last time was probably in my pregan days, and it was more than likely a frozen Lean Cuisine cheese French bread pizza. Ick!

This one was topped with Prego traditional marinara, Daiya, sliced Creole Steamed Sausages, bell peppers, kalamata olives, and mushrooms. I love the way the soft French bread makes for the world's thickest crust. I've always been a thick crust kind of girl.

So next time you're in a hurry and have no time for a homemade pizza crust, don't forget about French bread.

What do you do when you need pizza in a hurry?

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I want to make quick pizza, I make dough with baking powder instead of regular yeast dough. It's not as good as yeast dough, but good enough.

Kenike said...

I use naan or pita bread and sometimes tortillas. I also stash the frozen gf cornmeal crust from Whole Foods in the freezer because you don't need to thaw it before cooking. Love pizza!

Mihl said...

I never had French bread pizza. It's a cool idea!

Bethany said...

I agree with tofuhead. In fact, even when I have the time, I still make a baking powder dough. It's so quick and easy, and I think it tastes great! I love pizza :) I make it almost every weekend!

The Health Sensei said...

when i need it in a hurry (twice a year maybe) we go to Spak Brothers. Vegan options for pizza, wings, tacos, and more. Awesome.

Ricki said...

That recipe reminds me so much of the English Muffin mini-pizzas my mom used to make when I was a kid! :) I always make non-yeast (ie, non-having-to-wait-for-it-to-rise) pizza dough. It's almost like a quickbread, but it works great, so it's fast enough that I use that recipe in a hurry!

Sharan said...

Flat bread pizzas all the way baby! I usually chop up some onion,bell peepers, and broccoli, and I am good to go!

Dianne said...

Great idea! I rarely plan to make pizza, so when I start craving it I'm like, will I still want this THREE HOURS from now? I never would have thought of french bread. Yay!

vegan.in.brighton said...

On man, I've been looking at the Tumblr dedicated to vegan pizza all day & now this has made me want pizza eeeeeven more!

Kari said...

English muffin pizza for sure. But french bread's a great idea, I don't think I've ever done that.

Leslie Richman said...

Yum! We like those Flat Out flax flatbread things...awesome for pizzas.

Jennifer said...

I make quesadillas and put "pizza" stuff in them instead of traditional fare.

Erin said...

Oh man, I ate a TON of Lean Cuisine french bread pizza back in the day. That stuff was the jam. I really like pita pizzas, and I've used brown rice tortillas as a crust too. Basically, anything with sauce and vegan cheese is good!

foodfeud said...

This sounds way better than the oozy french bread pizzas we got in school.

Unknown said...

I haven't had french bread pizza in years (it was the nasty stuff). Can I just say that this is brilliant?

KLund said...

For pizza in a hurry, I use Greek pitas. During the summer and we have more time, we cook our pizzas with a yeast dough crust on the grill.