cauliflower crust pizza bites

How To Make cauliflower crust pizza bites

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  1

  Place a pizza stone in the lower position, or use a baking sheet if you don't have a pizza stone, and then preheat oven to 450f (232c).
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  2

  Clean your cauliflower in the sink, and then dry as much as possible.
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  3

  Cut the florets from the head, leaving as little of the stems as possible.
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  4

  Chef’s Tip: Cauliflower stems are great in a lot of Autumn soups and stews, so you might want to reserve them for another use.
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  5

  Add the florets to a food processor, fitted with an S-blade.
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  6

  Give the florets about 6 to 8, 1-second bursts at high speed until you get what we call, cauliflower snow (finely chopped cauliflower).
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  7

  Chef’s Note: You should have about 3 cups of cauliflower snow.
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  8

  Chef’s Tip: We need to get rid as much of the moisture from the cauliflower as possible. So, use a steamer to steam the cauliflower for about 4 minutes.
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  9

  Chef’s Note: I tried doing this in the microwave, but it changed the texture of the cauliflower in a way that I wasn’t happy with.
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  10

  Place the steamed cauliflower in the center of a nice clean tea towel, and then squeeze until you get all the water out.
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  11

  I got almost a quarter cup of water out of the cauliflower.
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  12

  Chef’s Tip: Let the cauliflower cool a bit before doing the squeezing… unless you like third-degree burns.
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  13

  Chef’s Note: I found that by squeezing out all that additional moisture, you will get a chewier crust. So, don’t skip this step.
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  14

  Gather your ingredients.
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  15

  Add the squeezed cauliflower to a bowl, and then add the cheeses, salt, basil, oregano, garlic, egg, and crushed red pepper. Add some freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Mix thoroughly.
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  16

  Chef’s Note: The egg was a bit of a problem. Most recipes called for two eggs, but that left the final crust tasting like egg. I tried two yolks, but that wasn’t much better. I finally settled on one medium egg. That held the mixture together, without overpowering the crust with egg taste.
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  Make the crusts 3 inches in diameter, and I used a stacker press to achieve that goal.
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  18

  Chef's Note: If you're not looking for appetizers, then this mixture should make one 12-14 inch pizza crust.
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  19

  Add the crusts to a piece of parchment paper.
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  20

  Chef’s Note: The thickness of the crust made a big difference. If I used 2 ounces of mixture to make the crust, it was too thick and overpowered the pizza. I tried 1 ounce but that didn’t give me enough crust to hold together. I found that if the pizza round is 3-inches in diameter, then 1.5 ounces is the best.
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  21

  Chef’s Note: If you’re doing this by hand don’t make the crust any thicker than 1/4 inch.
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  22

  Slide the parchment paper with the pizza crusts onto the hot pizza stone, or the baking sheet, and then cook for about 11 to 14 minutes.
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  23

  Chef’s Tip: Don’t go by oven time… instead, take them out when they are starting to turn a nice golden brown.
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  24

  They should look like this.
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  25

  Add some sauce to the browned crust.
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  26

  Chef's Tip: I found out (about the 4th try) that brushing the crusts with a bit of extra-virgin oil, really helped with the flavor.
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  27

  Add some cheese, or any additional toppings.
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  28

  Return to the oven and cook for 8 to 12 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown. Enjoy.
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  29

  Keep the faith, and keep cooking.
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