fbpx

Pumpkin Pizza Dough Movember… Whaaat the??

Find some comfort in this pumpkin pizza dough recipe….And have any of you heard this month is called Movember, Whaaat?? and here’s a hint: forget the razor guys…But first, let’s eat pizza.

I was sent this recipe from Laura who I’ve mentioned before. She found it on the site, www.purewow.com. Though it’s not vegan; the original recipe called for ricotta cheese topping, and adding blue cheese on top of a bed of baby arugula after being baked and sprinkled with a kicker of balsamic vinegar. If that sounds good, check it out. But, I’ve veganized it, (which I find a fun challenge)

Pumpkin Pizza Crust Ingredients

  • 4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp instant yeast (FYI; there are 2 tsp of yeast in the little yeast packages)
  • 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
  • ½ cup pumpkin puree (I used a half can of puree, and put the rest in the freezer to be used later)
  • ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Pumpkin Pizza Crust Recipe

Prep time: 1 hr 45min

Cook time: 15min   

Oven: 450 degrees

  1. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, mix the flour, yeast and salt to combine. In a liquid measuring cup, mix pumpkin puree, olive oil and I cup warm water to combine.
  2. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and mix on low speed for 3 minutes, then on medium speed for 2 minutes more. The dough should look smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until nearly double in size, about 1 hour.
  3. This makes a large pizza dough, so I halved it, wrapped and refrigerated the rest for later.
  4. I rolled out the dough and brushed with olive oil.
  5. Spread with the topping of your choice. We covered ours with fresh pesto we made last week. And topped with thinly sliced tomatoes, black olives, and Follow Your Heart Dairy Free Parmesan (by the way you would not know this isn’t parmesan cheese, it’s so good)
  6. Preheat BBQ grill to 450 degrees and bake for approx. 15-20 minutes.

I’m also including a recipe from one of the men in my life, Russ, our son-in-law. This is one of his specialties he whips out on summer evenings out at their place in Montauk. I had left over pumpkin pizza dough and while nervously pacing around last night, not watching the election results, I got out the dough and did a grilled flatbread. Perfect therapy for my wringing hands.

Russ’s Grilled Flatbread Ingredients

Impresses: 4 adults

Prep time: 10 minutes 

Grill time: 15-20 minutes 450 degrees

  • One thawed out pizza dough, I used the other half of the pumpkin.
  • 3 garlic cloves peeled and sliced thinly
  • 1 cup black olives chopped
  • ⅛ cup olive oil
  • 1 tbsp minced fresh rosemary

Russ’s Grilled Flatbread Recipe

Preheat grill or oven 450 degrees

  1. Place a pizza stone or direct to grill in the heated.
  2. Put the dough in a large lightly floured bowl.
  3. Work in the garlic and little at a time, by folding and punching down.
  4. Drizzle a little of the olive oil as you work the dough.
  5. Sprinkle with the rosemary, black olives and kneading all until the dough is well worked.
  6. Stretch and work on a flat surface.
  7. Sprinkle pizza paddle with cornmeal.
  8. Put on stone or on grill.
  9. Bake 15 minutes, and then turn over for another 10 minutes.
  10. Serve cut into strips or like Russ does, tears his and serves with a chilled Sancerre white wine…..I served ours with my homemade hummus and two bottles of really cold Clausthaler NA Beer. 🙂

Movember??

What is that all about? Well…“in 2003, 30 Mo Bros in Australia had an idea that would spark a global movement.Through the power of the moustache, the Movember Foundation brings to life their vision of having an everlasting impact on the face of men’s health. They do this by getting men to grow and women to support the moustache during the 30 days of November to spark conversation and raise funds for men’s health issues- including prostate cancer. Prostate Cancer Foundation is an official beneficiary partner with the Movember Foundation for their U.S. campaign. To date, the Movember Foundation has raised approximately $44 million for PCF to support prostate cancer research.“-Wikipedia

Thanks Mo Bros! $44 mil! And I can’t help but think some of the money raised is one of the reasons Rick was treated with the newest and best therapies out there: Direct Beam Radiation. I wondered last November what Casey my other son-in-law (BTW we scored with our guys), was talking about when he grew his mustache in support of Rick.

Get this; “Safeway Awareness Campaign In the course of 13 years partnership with Safeway Inc, many impactful advances in prostate cancer research have been realized. Most recently funding from The Safeway Foundation fast-forwarded the research and development of the breakthrough therapy Xofigo, which is used to put metastatic bone tumors into remission. In less than 12 months since its launch, Xofigo allowed over 60,000 U.S. men to live pain free after exhausting all other treatment options. The Safeway program changed medical research history: it has generated nearly $83 million for PCF since 2001.”-  Wikipedia

And lastly; “Scientific Retreat: Each year the Prostate Cancer Foundation holds a scientific retreat where teams of scientists and their institutions can share the results of their studies funded by the Foundation. The 24th Annual prostate Cancer Foundation Retreat was held in October 2017 in Washington DC was attended by 550 scientific leaders from academia, governmental agencies and the biopharmaceutical industry” –Wikipedia

I can tell you now from experience, how reassuring to know there are research scientists who are burning the candle at night exhaustingly, working to find the cures and treatments for the diseases ailing us. You don’t know how dependent we are on them, until you get that life-changing call from your doctor.

So if you are wondering if you should give, and more importantly where does you hard earned money goes, here are a few suggestions:

Ciao for now 🙂

10 Comments

  2. Ah-YUMMMMMMM! (Did that just come out sounding like Alexis Rose in Schitt’s Creek?!?! I hope so! I was trying to imitate her🤣). Anyway! You bbq’d the pizza! Smartie pants. Great idea on the breadsticks, too! Now you’ve got me wondering if you can use the dough forming them into tiny round dumplings? Why the heck not? Or those bread knots, speaking of ‘nots’.

    Anyway, I think you’re a cleva, cleva chef!

    Much gratefulness to the Movember Movement in raising awareness and funds supporting men’s health issues. I was not aware of this. We need men nd we need mustaches.

    Love you, Laura

    Reply

    1. Totally Alexis! Laura that was the first time I ever used dough hooks, and it worked. Thanks for the recipes…I’m making the vanilla cake tonight for a celebration 🙂

      Reply

    2. Totally Alexis! Laura that was the first time I ever used dough hooks, and it worked. Thanks for the recipes…I’m making the vanilla cake tonight for a celebration 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.