Shall I Compare Thee to A Hummus Pizza?

You may recall from my Hawai'i post that I had a rather disappointing encounter with a hummus pizza.  

He was gorgeous, but I wanted more from the relationship than he was willing to give.  You know, flavor-wise.  

     Well, my friends, I have whipped out my brand new pizza stone for this and holy crud is it worth it (insert de-flouring joke here).  I do not have a pizza peel however.  For those of you who don't know, a peel is that big fancy wooden board thingie they show in the commercials that looks like a big flat shovel.  Apparently, it's handy for getting your 'za into and out of the bloody hot oven.  So, while this bad boy tasted beautiful, this is the shape it turned out:

He may not be all that much to look at, but he's got it where it counts.  Ooooohhh yeah...

No matter what shape yours turns out you will want to eat a lot of this as fast as you possibly can.

     Here's a couple of things about a pizza stone.  They're not too expensive.  The one I bought was about $25 and was made in the USA, too.  Love that.  You have to heat your oven really high (500 degrees and up) and you need to heat your stone at least 30 minutes before inserting the pizza.  I used a spatula and the bottom of a baking sheet as the "peel".  It worked great with a thicker crust, but not so much on the super thin one.

     Find a pizza crust recipe you like.  This one called for the oven to be heated to 550°.  It's probably a good medium for any dough you choose.

Ugly But Worth It Hummus Thin-Crust Pizza

Pizza dough

Olive oil

2 cloves garlic

Hummus

1/4 small squash, cubed

1/4 small zucchini, cubed

Sundried tomatoes packed in oil

Feta cheese

One half hour in advance, move the middle rack down to the bottom third of the oven and put the pizza stone on it.  Preheat to 550°.  While the stone is pre-heating, roll out your dough very thinly (1/4-1/8 inch).  Flour your peel or dust it with cornmeal.  Transfer the dough to the peel and brush the top of the crust completely with olive oil.  Using a garlic press, crush the garlic over the crust and brush it around as evenly as possible.  Transfer the crust to the stone and bake it for 2 to 4 minutes depending on how thinly you've rolled it.  It will start to bubble almost instantly.  When the crust has bubbled up, dried a bit, and has turned just a tiny bit tan, remove it from the oven and as quickly as you can, spread with hummus, add the veggies and lightly sprinkle the cheese.  Return it to the oven for another 2-4 minutes until the edges have begun browning.  Remove it from the oven and let it cool slightly until it's just above room temp.  This won't take long with a thin crust pizza.  It is still wonderful once it's at room temp, but too warm, you can't taste the hummus as much.

Notes:

I could take or leave the tomatoes.  Hubby liked them.  In a previous incarnation of this recipe, I used sweet little peppers cut into strips, those were wonderful but I forgot when I was making this one.  Next time I want to try shredded carrots.  To veganize this, you could easily leave off the feta.

Also, upon further experimentation (and a little hint from America's Test Kitchen) I found that a little parchment paper under the thinner crust pizza helps it keep its shape during transfer.  Just slide the pizza off, paper and all.  Don't worry, the paper won't burn in the oven, which was my original fear...

Review:

The boys both approached this with a little hesitation.  But once they had a bite, they were hooked!  I also made an additional crust covered in olive oil and garlic and cut it up into strips to dip into the hummus.  They liked that even better.  None of those pesky vegetables to get between the bread and the hummus... =)