Pizza night woes

Every Friday evening we make homemade pizza and watch a movie that we've gotten from the library. It's something my girls look forward to all week and it forces us all to slow down and spend at least a little time in each other's company. We can get lost in all the noise of the week and things that need to get done and sometimes I realize that I haven't been in the same room as one or all of my children for longer than a few moments all day.

For anyone who is not eating gluten free the pizza dough recipe I use for my husband and kids will be at the end of the post. I do a variety of cheeseless pizzas for our 2 year old, who has a casein allergy, and she loves them. She does not however, love any of the gluten free options I've tried.

I first tried the same recipe just substituting corn flour cup for cup. It was dry and I had to add a lot of water to get it to stick together even a little. The end result was very corny tasting and mealy textured and hard to choke down. I then tried a meatza using ground turkey as the 'crust' and while it was very tasty, it just tasted like a really good burger and didn't remind me of eating pizza at all. This week I tried using a King Arthur gluten free flour blend substituted cup for cup. I really think I overcooked it trying to get it to look like my regular pizza so I might give it another try some day but it was very crisp on the bottom and lacked the chewy texture that I want my pizza to have.

There are gluten free pizza crust mixes out there that I'm going to probably try but it's becoming obvious that I might need to find a different Friday night meal. I suggested just plain popcorn and the husband is pretty sold on the idea. For a man who despises corn, he eats a lot of popcorn.

 I'll continue to make pizza for my family for as long as they want it until such time that either baby B is eating real food and feels left out (if she doesn't outgrow her food sensitivities) or they ask for something different. I formed them into hearts for Valntine's day and it was a huge hit! I want to create a memory that my kids will always have of this family time. My hope is that as they grow up, they'll realize that movie night was always about prioritizing time with family and that it will be a tradition that they want to continue with their families in some sense. I don't care if it morphs into Tuesday night sushi somewhere along the road but my dream is for it to become Sunday dinners at Grandma Heather's house in about 20 years. A girl can hope!

Heather's Pizza Crust
2 cups warm water
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
6 cups AP flour
2 tsp sea salt
oregano
paprika
basil
black pepper
onion powder

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the first four ingredients and 3 cups flour. Mix on lowest speed just for a minute to somewhat combine. Add the remainder of the ingredients using about a tablespoon of each seasoning but adjust for personal taste, mix until dough ball is well formed and nothing is stuck to sides of bowl. Take dough ball out, spray bowl, put dough back in, cover, and let rise for 55 minutes. Preheat oven to 425F with pizza stone on center rack. Form pizza dough into two or three crusts, top as desired, and bake one at a time for about 15 min until edges are golden brown. Feel free to let it go longer if you like burned things like my dear spouse. He grew up eating such nonsense. I don't know guys.

Let me know if anything is unclear or you want more direction. This is one of my few recipes that I have memorized and just kind of throw things in willy nilly so the seasonings are never exactly the same and I bet it would taste good with any number of combinations of things. Go wild! Let me know what works for you.