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Roasted Root Vegetable Pizza | Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day Review

So I think it’s pretty obvious that I love cookbooks. I don’t even have an idea of how many I own right now, (especially since they are mostly all in storage right now), but I know I have well over 100 right now. With that many cookbooks, it’s hard to choose favorites. But every once in awhile, I come across a book that I want everyone to know about – for everyone to have. This cookbook – Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day – is one of those cookbooks.

I was actually sent a review copy of this book awhile back. And admittedly, I was a bit intimidated to get started in it. There is a lot of information in this book, and I wanted to do it justice. Let’s just say that I really should have gotten into this book the minute it arrived on my doorstep. I have been looking for the perfect pizza dough recipe for quite awhile now. I have one that I’ve been using, and it’s good. I liked it – until I made this, and now I have a new favorite. And this dough is so extremely easy – anyone could make pizza at home with this book!!

There are actually several different kinds of dough in this cookbook, but for this review, I only made the lean dough and used it on 3 different recipes from the book. And every single one of them was a winner. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a cookbook I suggest that you add to your Christmas list ASAP!

Number of Photos: some

There aren’t a ton of photos in this book, but there are 2 sections with 16 photos each of completed recipes. And there are also several sections throughout the book that have black and white step-by-step photos.

Difficulty of Recipes: easy to medium

At first look, it is a little intimidating. But the basic pizza dough is so easy that anyone could make it. There are a few recipes throughout the book that may be a little harder, but overall, the recipes look quite simple.

Availability of Ingredients: easy

Flour, yeast, salt, water. Pretty straight forward. And I didn’t see any unusual toppings or other ingredients in any of the recipes, either.

And here’s what I made:

Individual Breakfast Pizzas

I’m a sucker for anything with eggs, so I had to make this recipe. There was a variation to do them in muffin cups, so I tried them baked in muffin cups and also as just individual pizzas. The recipe does warn that you shouldn’t overfill the muffin cups, and even though all I had in mine was a small bit if cheese and the egg, they still overflowed. So if you go that route, I would suggest using jumbo muffin tins or smaller eggs. But don’t get me wrong, they still tasted amazing. And the mini pizza? Let’s just say I was sick when I made these. And you know how things usually don’t taste good when you are sick? Well, this was so good that I licked my plate clean. And I’m still thinking about it. This was the last recipe I made with my batch of dough, and the dough tasted the best on these. So I definitely think that this dough gets better with age!

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza

I pretty much followed this recipe to a T – except I did half sausage and half ground beef instead of all sausage. This was delicious! Definitely a filling pizza, but an extremely delicious, filling pizza. In fact, my mom and I were eating some leftovers for lunch the next day, and neither of us could stop eating an extra little slice. We were both stuffed!

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Roasted Root Vegetable Pizza

This recipe takes pizza to a whole new level. Instead of your typical pepperoni-and-cheese pizza night, you step it up a little and make a more sophisticated version. This pizza was SO.GOOD. This pizza made me happy. What more can you ask for!?! I did cut my vegetables a little bigger than specified in the recipe, but that is the only change I made. (recipe included below)

Overall thoughts…

I’ve seen this cookbook on several people’s “must haves” for Christmas lists. And I totally understand why now. The only downfall to this cookbook that I can even think of is that I don’t usually make pizza often enough to use up a batch of dough in 14 days, but then again, the recipe is easily halved, and the dough can be frozen as well. So I guess that means there are no complaints!! I liked this book so much that I decided to share the love, and give away a copy to one of you!

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Roasted Root Vegetable Pizza

  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 10 minutes
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Description

Made with a variety of roasted root vegetables, this artisan pizza elevates pizza night!

Scale

Ingredients

Lean Dough

  • 3 1/2 cups (1 pound 12 ounces) lukewarm water (100F or below)
  • 1 tablespoon (0.35 ounce) granulated yeast
  • 1 – 1 1/2 tablespoons (0.63-0.94 ounce) kosher salt
  • 7 1/2 cups (2 pounds 6 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

Roasted Root Vegetable Pizza

  • ½ pound lean dough
  • 7 cups ¼-inch diced root vegetables (red beets, yellow beets, parsnips, carrots, turnips, or your favorites)
  • ¼ cup olive oil, plus more for drizzling
  • ¼ cup aged balsamic vinegar
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • ½ cup fresh ricotta cheese
  • 1 garlic clove, finely minced
  • flour, cornmeal, parchment paper or rice flour for the pizza peel

Instructions

To make the dough:

  1. In a large bowl, (preferrably one with a non-airtight lid), mix together the water, yeast and salt.
  2. Measure the flour with the “scoop and sweep” method, or weigh the flour. Add in the flour to the wet mixture, mixing with a wooden spoon until all the flour is incorporated. You may need to use wet hands to get the last bit incorporated.
  3. Cover with a non-airtight lid and allow to rise at room temperature until the top begins to flatten, about 2 hours. Don’t punch down the dough.
  4. After rising, refrigerate and use over the next 14 days.
  5. **the dough is easier to use when it is cold, so before using it for the first time, it’s best to refrigerate overnight, or for at least 3 hours.

To make the pizza:

  1. Place a baking stone in the oven.
  2. Toss the vegetables, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Turn on your oven to it’s highest setting. Place the vegetables in the oven (they will roast as your oven preheats). Turn the vegetables often to make sure they don’t burn.
  3. When the oven is preheated, the vegetables should be soft. Remove them from the oven and set aside.
  4. Sprinkle a pizza peel generously with flour. Dust the surface of the dough with flour and, using a pair of kitchen shears or a serrated knife, cut off a ½-pound portion, about the size of an orange. Dust the dough with more flour and shape it into a ball by pulling all the sides around to the bottom, rotating the ball a quarter turn as you go.
  5. Flatten the dough with your hands or by rolling out with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Roll into a cirle, ⅛-inch thick. Dust with flour to keep the dough from sticking. Transfer the dough to the pizza peel, unless you stretched it on the pizza peel. The dough should have enough flour on it so that it will move easily from the peel to the pizza stone.
  6. Spread the ricotta and garlic evenly over the dough. Scatter 1¼ cups of the roasted vegetables over teh dough and drizzle with a small amount of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  7. Slide the pizza onto the preheated pizza stone. Check for doneness at 8-10 minutes. If one side is browning faster than the other, turn the pizza.
  8. Allow to cool slightly, then cut into slices and serve.

Notes

  1. Recipe slightly adapted from Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day


**Disclosure – while I did receive a copy of this book from the publisher for review, all thoughts and opinions are my own.**

All writing and photography is copyright © 2007-2015 by Deborah Harroun unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Colleen @ What's Baking in the Barbershop?! says

    December 6, 2011 at 5:35 am

    I can see why this cookbook is so popular now too! It looks and sounds amazing. I’ve made a breakfast pizza before that was a huge hit. And that root veggie one looks awesome! My favorite pizza topping is roasted sweet potatoes! I think I’m going to purchase this cookbook for a friend, thanks to your review! 🙂

    Reply

  11. Elizabeth N. says

    December 6, 2011 at 6:22 am

    Peppers, onions, tomatoes, and pineapple are my favorite traditional toppings. But I do love a good Mexican pizza every now and then.

    Reply

  15. Amanda S says

    December 6, 2011 at 7:16 am

    I love jalapeno’s on my pizza – yum! Would love to win this cookbook for my husband – he’s all about making pizza lately 🙂

    Reply

  32. Karly says

    December 6, 2011 at 8:53 am

    *sigh* Recipes like this make me so very sad that my family doesn’t eat root vegetables. Then again, it IS a veggie pizza…I could totally eat the whole thing myself and not feel too indulgent, right?

    Reply

  33. Sarah H.P. says

    December 6, 2011 at 9:22 am

    My favorite pizza topping is ham and pineapple! There’s just something really nice about the sweetness of the fruit with the saltiness of the ham! Love it!

    Reply

  37. Teri Carter says

    December 6, 2011 at 9:58 am

    I am not a fan of red sauce so my daughter and I make pizza at home all the time. We use pesto and throw on whatever sounds good usually something involving chicken and artichokes.

    I like a garlic sauce with fresh sliced tomatoes, zucchini, Parmesan cheese, nummers I am making myself hungry!

    Reply

  50. Tomi says

    December 6, 2011 at 10:57 am

    I like lots of different pizzas but my old standby is sausage & mushroom. Can’t wait to try the dough though been looking for a foolproof one!! Thanks!

    Reply

  56. Chels R. says

    December 6, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    Oh my gosh! I love homemade pizza! It was something I was really intimidated by for many years and then this summer, I found a dough recipe I really liked ( mostly because it was simple and it made enough for 2 pizzas) and I’ve tweaked the flavor over the past few months now and I’m in love. We’ve made several different types of pizza’s now, and only like blogged one or two ( shame on us) but my favorite one we’ve made and have yet to blogged is our Caprese Pizza. We made it a few weeks ago for my parents and it was like dying and going to heaven. Unbelievable! I love the addition of the egg on a pizza. I’ve really been wanting to make a breakfast pizza 🙂

    Reply

  59. Chels R. says

    December 6, 2011 at 12:29 pm

    I can’t believe I wasn’t following you on Pinterest???!!! What was I thinking, I pin a lot of your stuff. Okay, I’ve rectified my mistake and I’m following you now 🙂

    Reply

  63. Biz says

    December 6, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    While I haven’t used those dough recipes, I’ve used the artisan bread for not only baking bread in my dutch oven, but also for pizza dough – I always make my dough at least two to three days in advance – it does taste better the longer it sits – and I’ve used the dough up to two weeks out.

    I just remove it from the fridge an hour before I need to start making dinner. Love it!

    My favorite pizza? Well, I have two. One is my rueuben pizza made with a rye flour crust with caraway seeds:

    http://mybizzykitchen.com/2010/01/16/reuben-pizza-success/

    And my Chicago style deep dish pizza – holy shizz, this is the real deal – you spread room temperature butter on the pizza, then roll it up and using a rolling pin get all these layers of butter. Okay, my mouth is watering just thinking about this pizza – I’ll have to make it again soon!

    http://mybizzykitchen.com/2011/10/02/best-deep-dish-pizza-recipe-ever-and-holiday-challenge-update/

    Reply

  64. Dynamics says

    December 6, 2011 at 3:58 pm

    I just bought two individual pizza stones. I cannot wait. If I do not win I still have to wait until Christmas to see if anyone bought it off my list.

    Reply

  67. Becca @ Crumbs and Chaos says

    December 6, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    It’s hard to pick just one…classic pepperoni would be my all time favorite! This looks like an awesome book, I just recently picked up Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day at the library and I’ve made some great bread from it!

    Reply

  74. Joanne says

    December 6, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    I have healthy bread in five and I LOVE it! I got a copy of this book and still haven’t cooked from it…not sure what I’m waiting for! That pizza looks awesome!

    Reply

  80. Calee says

    December 7, 2011 at 9:15 am

    My favorite pizza topping is FRESH mozzarella cheese and basil with fresh tomatoes. If I had to pick ONE of those it would be the basil. 🙂

    Reply

  89. Marsha says

    December 7, 2011 at 10:18 pm

    I have two favorite topping combinations: classic mozzarella and basil with red sauce and also chicken, spinach and mushrooms with red sauce. I have seen the book in stores but have not had time to look through it yet. That day is coming soon, I know, because it looks really good.

    Reply

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