I make slightly illegal pizza crusts. I get paid for them in food. More like a barter. So, I don't technically sell them. If I did, then they would be more than slightly illegal. The crusts themselves are not the culprit. They don't contain any controlled substances or anything not found in your local natural foods grocery store. The problem, you see, is that I have no official approval for making and distributing baked goods to the public. In this day and age, you need a piece of paper that says you are allowed to do this kind of thing. Or you need to do it in a place that has been pre-approved for such carryings on. A place with blanket approval, if you will. Which is quite hilarious when you think about it: you take a test online showing knowledge of safe food practices, then you can bring your ingredients to Appointed Pre-Approved Place X (henceforth to be known as APAPX), make your stuff, and distribute at will, labeling it according to standards based on where and to whom you are distributing. What if your car has nuclear sludge smeared on the backseat? What if your dog pooped in your favorite mixing bowl right before you left so you had to transport the dirty bowl next to all your other ingredients, only cleaning it when you got to APAPX? What if you have a nose picking habit? Don't laugh. These are serious considerations. All of these things are possible. Well, perhaps not the nuclear sludge thing...unless you're an aspiring baker whose day job is as a researcher at Los Alamos!
What I'm getting at here is that there are all these regulations with baking and selling and anything to do with food movement. A lot of it is purely for show in my opinion. I understand the need for standards. I appreciate that contamination is a very real concern. I bake, for Pete's sake. If there is (a little too much) leftover arrowroot in my 1/2 c. measuring cup and it affects the amount of almond flour that goes into the recipe, well, that could be disastrous. I know all about contamination and the serious repercussions. Most people who bake or prepare food on a large scale do, whether or not they have any desire to sell their goods. It's not the type of thing you wake up one day and start doing randomly after never having done it before. It's not for the faint of heart or completely compulsive - it takes way too much time and attention. Many if not most people who have any desire to do these things for a living or part of a living are not casual about it. They are driven to create food and they do it with gusto and want to share it. They certainly don't want to poison anyone or even give them indigestion. They want to share deliciousness far and wide. If even the flavor of something is a little off it just won't do. I am speaking for myself here, but I'm not unusual in this regard, I'm sure of it. We are a self-policing bunch. We have to be. But we also tend to be people who are wired that way.
And, seriously, if someone is going to go to the trouble of baking for other people, don't you think they want it to be not only good, but safe to eat, if only to keep and expand the potential eaters of the creations? If you kill off your potential customers, you'll never make a living at this business. I guarantee us individual baking aspirants have more of a stake in that than any governing body.
======
Illegal Pizza Crusts
Makes about 8 6" thin crusts or 2 10 inch thin crusts...or whatever combination works for you
Adapted from Joy of Cooking
No need to preheat the oven when you first start putting ingredients together. The crusts will need to rise for 20 minutes, so that's the perfect time to preheat the oven.
Ingredients
1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. sorghum
1 c. white rice flour
1 c. tapioca flour
1/2 c. arrowroot starch
1/2 c. potato starch
1 tbsp. xanthan gum
1 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp active dry yeast (Note: Those yeast packets only contain 2 1/4 TEASPOONS of yeast. It's more cost efficient and less annoying to buy a jar of yeast because you can measure it out.)
1 c. buttermilk
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons rice or apple cider vinegar
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
1/4 c. very warm (115 - 125 degrees) water
Instructions
Mix together all the dry ingredients. Be sure to break apart any clumps.
Add all the wet ingredients and mix on low to medium speed for a few minutes if using an electric mixer, or stir with a wooden spoon (old school!) for about 5 minutes, being sure to turn the dough over itself to get everything mixed in. The dough will be a bit sticky but will want to stick more to itself than to other things.
Wet your hands lightly, and form the dough into as many equal-sized balls as you'd like to have crusts. Grease 1-3 cookie sheets (again, depends how many crusts you're making) using shortening. Place up to three balls on each cookie sheet, leaving as much room between them as possible, as you'll be flattening them down.
Wet your hands again and whenever dough starts sticking or becoming hard to maneuver, and using a flat hand, press down on each ball twice, making sort of a cross on it to flatten it. Then go back through and flatten them all down again using your palm or the heel of your hand until you have crusts that are about 1/4 - 1/2" thick. Another option for this step is to place plastic wrap over them and flatten that way. Sometimes the wrap will stick horribly, sometimes it won't, even if you grease it. I've tried both ways and have come to prefer just using my hands.
Cover the crusts with a clean towel or kitchen cloth and let rise for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400. Position your oven racks so they are both approximately in the middle of the oven, or as close as possible.
Prick the crusts multiple times with a fork.
When the oven is fully preheated, it's time to bake the crusts!
If you can fit all your baking sheets on the top of the 2 racks, great. If not, put 2 there, and 1 on the bottom. Set your timer for 4 minutes, and swap the sheets, so you'll now have 2 on the bottom and one on the top. Bake for another 4 minutes.
The bottom of the crusts should be golden brown, the tops will spring mostly back when pressed in.
At this point, the crusts are cooked enough for storage, but will need to go in for another 8-10 minutes to be cooked through.
Top as desired, or store as desired and finish baking later.
(I sometimes sneak one as a snack at this point. I call it sample testing. Even though they're not completely done...they are lusciously chewy at this point, and butter melts nicely on them when they're fresh out of the oven.)
Enjoy!
<S
What I'm getting at here is that there are all these regulations with baking and selling and anything to do with food movement. A lot of it is purely for show in my opinion. I understand the need for standards. I appreciate that contamination is a very real concern. I bake, for Pete's sake. If there is (a little too much) leftover arrowroot in my 1/2 c. measuring cup and it affects the amount of almond flour that goes into the recipe, well, that could be disastrous. I know all about contamination and the serious repercussions. Most people who bake or prepare food on a large scale do, whether or not they have any desire to sell their goods. It's not the type of thing you wake up one day and start doing randomly after never having done it before. It's not for the faint of heart or completely compulsive - it takes way too much time and attention. Many if not most people who have any desire to do these things for a living or part of a living are not casual about it. They are driven to create food and they do it with gusto and want to share it. They certainly don't want to poison anyone or even give them indigestion. They want to share deliciousness far and wide. If even the flavor of something is a little off it just won't do. I am speaking for myself here, but I'm not unusual in this regard, I'm sure of it. We are a self-policing bunch. We have to be. But we also tend to be people who are wired that way.
And, seriously, if someone is going to go to the trouble of baking for other people, don't you think they want it to be not only good, but safe to eat, if only to keep and expand the potential eaters of the creations? If you kill off your potential customers, you'll never make a living at this business. I guarantee us individual baking aspirants have more of a stake in that than any governing body.
======
Illegal Pizza Crusts
Makes about 8 6" thin crusts or 2 10 inch thin crusts...or whatever combination works for you
Adapted from Joy of Cooking
No need to preheat the oven when you first start putting ingredients together. The crusts will need to rise for 20 minutes, so that's the perfect time to preheat the oven.
Ingredients
1/2 c. brown rice flour
1/2 c. sorghum
1 c. white rice flour
1 c. tapioca flour
1/2 c. arrowroot starch
1/2 c. potato starch
1 tbsp. xanthan gum
1 tbsp sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tbsp active dry yeast (Note: Those yeast packets only contain 2 1/4 TEASPOONS of yeast. It's more cost efficient and less annoying to buy a jar of yeast because you can measure it out.)
1 c. buttermilk
3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons rice or apple cider vinegar
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
1/4 c. very warm (115 - 125 degrees) water
Instructions
Mix together all the dry ingredients. Be sure to break apart any clumps.
Add all the wet ingredients and mix on low to medium speed for a few minutes if using an electric mixer, or stir with a wooden spoon (old school!) for about 5 minutes, being sure to turn the dough over itself to get everything mixed in. The dough will be a bit sticky but will want to stick more to itself than to other things.
Wet your hands lightly, and form the dough into as many equal-sized balls as you'd like to have crusts. Grease 1-3 cookie sheets (again, depends how many crusts you're making) using shortening. Place up to three balls on each cookie sheet, leaving as much room between them as possible, as you'll be flattening them down.
Wet your hands again and whenever dough starts sticking or becoming hard to maneuver, and using a flat hand, press down on each ball twice, making sort of a cross on it to flatten it. Then go back through and flatten them all down again using your palm or the heel of your hand until you have crusts that are about 1/4 - 1/2" thick. Another option for this step is to place plastic wrap over them and flatten that way. Sometimes the wrap will stick horribly, sometimes it won't, even if you grease it. I've tried both ways and have come to prefer just using my hands.
Cover the crusts with a clean towel or kitchen cloth and let rise for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400. Position your oven racks so they are both approximately in the middle of the oven, or as close as possible.
Prick the crusts multiple times with a fork.
When the oven is fully preheated, it's time to bake the crusts!
If you can fit all your baking sheets on the top of the 2 racks, great. If not, put 2 there, and 1 on the bottom. Set your timer for 4 minutes, and swap the sheets, so you'll now have 2 on the bottom and one on the top. Bake for another 4 minutes.
The bottom of the crusts should be golden brown, the tops will spring mostly back when pressed in.
At this point, the crusts are cooked enough for storage, but will need to go in for another 8-10 minutes to be cooked through.
Top as desired, or store as desired and finish baking later.
(I sometimes sneak one as a snack at this point. I call it sample testing. Even though they're not completely done...they are lusciously chewy at this point, and butter melts nicely on them when they're fresh out of the oven.)
Enjoy!
<S
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