Roasted Vegetable Pizza with Masa Harina Crust

I have an abundance of masa harina flour in my kitchen. This is probably due to my fondness of authentic Mexican food. However, I'm always looking for new ways to use it since I love its flavor. I haven't had any pizza in awhile, so now that I have some extra time, I decided to do just that. Of course, when I tried looking for a recipe for a pizza dough using masa harina, I found nothing. Nada. Zilch. Okay... I did find one recipe, but it had a terrible rating and it wasn't even yeasted. I still wanted a pizza crust, not cornbread, know what I mean?

Anywho, after a little pondering and adjusting of the ingredients in my usual pizza dough, I came up with a wonderful pizza crust that perfectly compliments the roasted veggies. It's delicious.

For the roasted vegetables, I used the oil that came in my jar of oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes. It's infused with wonderful flavor and it tastes great on the vegetables.You can also thinly slice some garlic cloves to roast along with the veggies, but I was out at the time and had to sub powder. If you're a garlic lover like me, I probably would have roasted about half a head or so! Also, I roasted the vegetables the night before, just to have it out of the way, but you can also do it while the dough is rising.

Roasted Vegetables:
2 small zucchinis, halved width-wise and sliced into 1/4" thick slices
1 yellow squash, halved width-wise and sliced into 1/4" thick slices
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 (or more!) Roma tomatoes, halved
5-6 white mushrooms, kind of thickly sliced
1 1/2 Tb. oil
1 tsp. garlic powder

Masa Harina Pizza Dough:
2 1/4 tsp. yeast (or 1 package)
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 c. very warm water (should feel like the water in a hot tub!)
1 1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
1/2 c. masa harina
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. Tone's Spicy Pizza Seasoning (optional, but adds awesome)
1 1/2 Tb. oil (I use sun-dried tomato oil here too)

To make the vegetables:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Spray with non-stick. Toss the sliced vegetables with the oil and garlic powder and roast for about 30-40 minutes. You want the vegetables to be softened and browned. Remove from the oven.

To make the dough:
1. In a small bowl, combine the yeast, sugar, and water. Give it a quick stir and let it sit about five minutes, until foamy. If at the end of five minutes, there's no foam, start over. Otherwise, your dough won't rise.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour, masa harina, salt, oregano, and Tone's. If you don't have any Tone's you can add a teaspoon of basil or Italian seasoning instead.

3. Add the foamy yeast and the oil to the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until well-combined.

4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead about 5 minutes, or until smooth.

5. Shape dough in a log and set aside in a warm place to rise. I used my Excalibur dehydrator set at 95 degrees to raise mine. Let it rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

6. Once the dough is done rising, divide the log into two equal pieces. Roll them out, stab them with a fork multiple times, and bake them at 450 degrees for about 7 minutes. I have a real good pizza dough tutorial here.

Now that your crust is ready, it's time to top the pizzas! To make these pizzas I used a jarred sauce, then I topped it with some cooked, crumbled Gimmie Lean vegan "sausage", the roasted vegetables, black olives, nooch, and some more Tone's.

7. Once the pizza is topped, bake it one last time at 450 for another 12-15 minutes, or until the crust is nice and browned and the toppings are hot (especially important if you make the veggies the night before!). Then enjoy!

I know I've mentioned a roasted vegetable pizza before, but this time I finally delivered!