Pesto Pizza

Pesto Pizza

My Mommy is in town this week! Alex and I have been having way too much fun showing her all the awesomeness that is Southern California. Last night we spent two hours shopping Mother's Market and came home with way too many delicious groceries.
We were all craving pizza so we decided to veganize one of our old favorites, pesto pizza! The pesto pizzas we used to get had chicken (eww!) and real mozzarella cheese (blech!). To make this pizza, we used a vegan pesto, 'teese' brand mozzarella cheese, and fresh veggies on top of a home-made crust.
The pizza came out absolutely wonderfully. The crust was crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, and super garlic-y!

Crust Ingredients:
1 sachet active dry yeast
1 teaspoon turbinado sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Crust Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
In a medium mixing bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
In a separate bowl combine flour and salt.Once yeast and sugar mixture looks creamy, beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes then add dry ingredients and oil to yeast mixture.
Using a wooden spoon or whisk, stir all the ingredients together until just combined, about 2 minutes.
Then using either a bread hook attachment or your hands, knead and stretch dough until dough is elastic-y but softened, about 5-8 minutes. 
Using your hands, stretch dough into the shape of the pan. Be careful doing this, pulling gently at the sides until the dough stretches out. Don't rush it, you don't want any massive holes for your toppings to fall through!
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured pizza stone or baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, until crust edges JUST start to harden and golden. 

Once the crust is made, top with (in this order):
vegan pesto
Teese mozzarella 'cheese' (shredded with a cheese grater)
tomatoes
onions
garlic (diced or pressed)

Spread toppings and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Let pizza cool for 5 minutes, then cut into 8 slices and enjoy!

P.S. Sometimes we make it without cheese, cause we love the taste of just fresh veggies. Here's a photo: 

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