Summer Pizza with a Sweet Potato Crust

For the so-called pizza wedstrijd organized by Jamie Magazine NL, I came up with this awesome pizza recipe. The crust is made from sweet potatoes, and the pizza is topped with soft goat cheese, rosemary, pine nuts, fresh lemon zest and caramelized sweet tomato sauce.

As the main ingredient of the crust are sweet potatoes, you’ll have to bake the crust in a slightly different way than you’re used to. However, the nice sweet taste of the sweet potatoes are definitely worth the extra work. Furthermore, the crust is also gluten-free, so that is great news for all allergic and intolerant readers :)

If you’re afraid the crust isn’t going to be crunchy enough, don’t worry. The two-side baking process will make sure the crust is crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. If you like American-style pizza’s, you’ll definitely love this recipe!

Summer pizza with a sweet potato crust
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 10 mins
Yield: One medium-sized pizza

Ingredients
2 sweet potatoes
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon gluten-free oat flour
1 egg
pinch of salt
1/2 clove garlic, finely diced
small tin tomato puree (choose good quality, it will make a huge difference!)
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
some soft goat cheese
small handful of pine nuts
1 lemon (zest only)
freshly ground black pepper

Instructions
1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
2. Peel and dice the sweet potato. Steam them, or cook them in very little water, until they have become soft. This will take approximately 10 minutes, depending on the size of the sweet potato dices.
3. After cooking/steaming, pat the sweet potato dices dry, and let them air dry a little.
4. When the sweet potato dices are cooled off, and no more steam is coming off, mash them up, together with the egg, 1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour, pinch of salt and diced garlic.
5. On a baking tray lined with parchment paper, sprinkle the tablespoon gluten free flour and over this, spread out the sweet potato batter in a circle with a thickness of 0,5 to 1 cm. The flour will prevent the crust from sticking to the parchment paper when you flip it over. The thinner you spread out the mixture, the crunchier the texture will be.
6. Bake the crust for about 20 minutes, and then flip it over, and bake for another 20 minutes. This will ensure that the crust will have a crunchy outside and a fluffy inside. The flipping over can be a bit difficult, but for me this always works: Take out the baking tray with the parchment paper and pizza on it. Put some parchment paper on top of the pizza and a second baking tray or large cutting board. Press it together with your hand and flip over quickly. Now take off the first/warm baking tray (which is now on top) and parchment paper, and you can put the pizza back in the oven.
6. Take out your pizza and turn up the heat to 230 degrees Celcius. Spread out the tomato puree over the crust. Take the needles off of the rosemary twig and sprinkle those over your pizza. Add the pine nuts and the goat cheese too.
7. Put the pizza back in the oven, and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, or until your toppings are starting to brown a little.
8. Zest the lemon, sprinkle this over your beautiful pizza and enjoy!