Time for a revival of this blog.
Starting with Pesach pizza.
Background:
Pesach, or Passover in English, is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the Jewish people leaving 400 years (approximately) of slavery in Egypt.
The Jews left so quickly that they didn't have time to let the bread dough rise and so they had these cracker-like things called matzah. So on Passover, no leavened foods are eaten.
There are many different customs for every holiday (depending on family tradition) and Passover is no exception. One such custom is not too use "gebrokts" aka or "matzah shruyah" aka "having any liquid touch your matzah." People who have this custom do not use matzah meal (finely ground matzah) to bake with nor do they dip matzah in soup, etc. It is the equivalent of chametz, or leavened foods which is a big no-no according to all traditions and customs.
Another custom is to use or not use "kitniot," which includes rice, beans, lentils, peas, peanuts, sesame seeds, mustard, and various other items in that family. Sefardi Jews (Middle Eastern background/family origin) generally use, Ashkenazi Jews (European) generally don't. I say generally, because not everyone follows the tradition into which they were born (for various reasons).
So...I needed a recipe that doesn't use matzah meal and doesn't use kitniot. I personally eat gebrokts but not kitniot (yes to derivatives or small, non-visible amounts in a mixture). I found a dough recipe on the Between Carpools blog here so I figured I'd try it out.
Recipe (my edits in parentheses):
1 cup potato starch
1 cup almond flour
2 tsp. salt (1 tsp salt)
3 tsp. baking powder (1 tablespoon-ish baking powder)
2 eggs
¼ cup water (⅛-ish cup water)
Directions (paraphrased):
Mix potato starch, almond flour, salt, and baking powder
Add the eggs and slowly add the water until the dough comes together. It'll be moldable but you don't want it to look slimy or very wet. It looked kind of like instant mashed potatoes. This picture is in the middle of mixing.
Spread in a 9x13 pan (or make smaller individual pizzas). It will feel very thin, but that's just right; it puffs up a little bit when it gets baked.
Bake on 400 degrees fahrenheit (or 200 degrees celsius) for 10 minutes.
Top with sauce and cheese and whatever else you want, bake for another 20-ish minutes, take it out and this is what was left 15 minutes after I cut it.
