Autumn Pizza with Creamy Walnut Sauce

I can cook storm in my kitchen, I can make delicious cake when I really want to, and I can make quite good bread, but writing stories isn't my best side... I sit down in my comfy desk chair, I open the laptop, I have it all in my head...and then, suddenly, I hit the wall of nothingness... Creating recipes is so much more easier than explaining them!

People ask me quite often where do I get the recipes from, or how do I come up with some of the "weird" dishes. I collect cook books, I have dozens by now, and hundreds of oil stained pages from some old magazine or an old cook book, printed or hand written notes, copies from my grandmas notebook. I like experimenting in the kitchen, combining flavors and textures, mixing up old and new recipes. I get inspired in farmers market! You see pumpkin, and what I see it's endless options and new delicious dishes.

Here in my kitchen I'm the boss, I'm the head chef of my imaginary restaurant, here I can make mistakes and learn from them. Here the magic happens... Like that delicious pizza that I made yesterday :)

I wanted to create flavorful pizza, without tomato sauce and also vegan, so without cheese or any of a dairy products. You could of course use vegan cheese if you like but I don't like the texture, and it always sticks to the teeth (eghh). I blended some walnuts and chestnuty soya cream into pesto like grainy sauce, topped my pizza with mushroom and created heaven :))) The flavor combination was amazing! Autumny, rich, so flavorful and so darn delicious!  

Autumn Pizza with Creamy Walnut Sauce

(1 medium pizza)

You can use, my favorite now days, 24 hours rise pizza dough 

(makes three thin or two deep dish pizza rounds)

450 wheat flour (500/600 type) or pizza flour (00 type)

3/4 cup active sourdough starter or 1 1/3 tsp instant yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

300 ml warm water

2 tbsp olive oil

or

you can find different pizza dough recipes HERE

or

use pizza dough of you choice

*You will need about 300 grams of dough to make one pizza*

toppings

1 portion of creamy walnut sauce (recipe follows)

1 cup shiitake and button mushrooms, each

1/4 cup canned corn

3-4 tbsp caramelized onion , store bough or home made (I caramelized three medium onions for that recipe)

vegan cheese of your choice (optional)

garlic or radish sprouts, or rocket leafs (optional)

creamy walnut sauce 

(makes one portion, about a cup)

1/2 cup walnut

1/4 cup soya cream

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

about 1/2 tsp salt, to taste

Method :

1. Start by making the dough. If you are using my over night recipes, obviously you have to start two days before you are planning to make pizza ;) It's a long time, but it is sooo worth it!

SOURDOUGH METHOD : place active starter into bowl of stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment, add warm water and sugar, mix to dissolve sugar and break up the starter.  Add flour and salt and stir the mixture slowly with your hands or wooden spoon until it comes together. Cover with kitchen towel and leave to stand for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes the dough is ready to be kneaded. Add the olive oil and knead the dough until is elastic and shiny, about 10 minutes. Cover the bowl with lid or a kitchen towel and let it rise 24 hours in the fridge.

INSTANT YEAST METHOD : place warm water, sugar and yeast in a small bowl and mix to dissolve, cover with kitchen towel and let stand until bubbles form, about 15 minutes. Place flour, salt and oil in a bowl of stand mixer fitted with a hook attachment. Make well in the center and add the water mixture. Knead the dough until is elastic and shiny, about 7-10 minutes. Cover the bowl with lid or a kitchen towel and let it rise 24 hours in the fridge.

2. The next day, 2.5 hours before baking pizza. Take out the dough from the fridge, it should be 3-4 times larger than yesterday, divide into three equal pieces, gently shape a ball out of each piece, cover and let if rise for 2.5 hours at room temperature.

3. 1 hour before baking pizza. Preheat the oven to 250C. Prepare the pizza pans and your toppings. Make the walnut sauce, simply place all the ingredients in the bowl of an electric blender and process until creamy texture. Set aside. Slice the mushrooms, dry the corn of excess water. Set aside.

4. Assemble your pizza. Place one ball of the dough onto generously floured work space, shape the pizza by gently pulling and stretching the dough into desired shape, DO NOT ROLL OR SQUEEZE THE DOUGH. Place it on the pan.

5. Spread the walnut sauce all over the pizza round, sprinkle with mushrooms and corn. Bake in the preheated oven 8-15 minutes (depends on your oven). 2 minutes before the end of baking time, open the oven, quickly and carefully (DON'T BURN YOURSELF!!!) place caramelized onion on top of your pizza. You can do that on the beginning, before you put the pizza in the oven but some caramelized onions get burn quickly.

6. Pizza is ready when the edge is puffy and golden.

*pizza on the photos above is made with thin and crispy dough. Pizza on the photo below is made with 2 days old pizza dough.

Enjoy!