Perfect Vegan Brunch Recipe : Breakfast Pizza!

Photograph by Rachel Swetnam Los Angeles Food Photographer- www. rachelswetnam.com

Happy Monday, Biscuit Batches! This weekend was a wonderful weekend for a food frenzy! No, I’m not talking about the Santa Monica Good Food Festival (although if I had a spare 150 bucks I would have been there in a flash.) I’m talking about the joyous hours I spent cooking in the kitchen!

The hours I spent yesterday, in my Los Angeles kitchen, were prompted by the idea to recreate one of my favorite childhood breakfasts. An idea that literally woke me up several times on Saturday night.  I wanted, I craved breakfast pizza. I know, who craves breakfast pizza? ME! That’s who! But not just any breakfast pizza, one specific kind. The individual sized pizzas that you buy from the Schwan man. (You know, the guy who sells frozen food door to door).  My dad use to let me pick out frozen items from the catalog, and I would always chose those mini pizzas. But they were far from ever being vegan. Those processed delights were topped with eggs, that cubed bacon and yellow American cheese. Which these days, to me, does not sound too tasty. So, what’s a girl to do but stay up nights thinking of how to re create one of her favorite breakfasts. So, with taste buds full of nostalgia for these delightful breakfast pizzas, I woke up Sunday morning on a mission.  And Biscuit Batches readers, here’s what I made!

Perfect Vegan Brunch: Biscuit Crust Breakfast Pizza with Coconut Milk Gravy

Yields 4 mini pizzas

Prep time: About 30 min

Cook Time 15-20 min

Biscuit Crust:

1 1/2 C all purpose unbleached flour

1 T. Baking Powder

1/4 C. Earth Balance non-dairy margarine

1 t. lemon juice

1 t. salt

1/4 C. water or non-dairy milk

Gravy Ingredients

1/2 C. coconut milk

3 T. flour

1 t. pepper

1/2 t. salt

2-3 cloves of garlic chopped

1/2 t. sugar

Tofu Scramble Topping

1/2 block Extra Firm Tofu, cubed and drained

1/2 medium Onion diced

2-3 cloves of Garlic chopped

1/2 of a Red Pepper  diced

1 C Baby Spinach chopped

4-5 Mushrooms sliced

1 t. Cumin

1/4 C. Nutritional yeast

1 t. Mustard powder

1 t. Turmeric

1 t. Salt

1 t. Pepper

Preperation:

Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, Baking Powder, Salt and lemon juice together. Before adding the Earth Balance butter cut in small cubes. Add to flour mixture and with a fork, two knives or your hands cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add water and with your hands or large wooden spoon,  stir together until mixture sticks together as dough. If it’s sticky that’s okay, if you need to add more water, add a tablespoon at a time.

Scrape dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour, and fold it in half; pat down, fold again, and repeat until you have folded the dough 4 or 5 times. (kneading) By this time, dough should not be sticky.

Divide the dough into 4 equal parts and roll each into a ball (these will be your pizza crusts! Set aside and let dough rest.

2. Pour coconut milk into a small saucepan over medium heat. Once milk is at a boil mix in pepper, salt and garlic. Add flour and whisk it vigorously until smooth and creamy. If you aren’t fast, it is going to clump up.. then you’ll have to start over again and we don’t want that. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat.

3. Roll out dough ball with a rolling pin to circles 4-5 inches in diameter. With your fingers roll over the edges of the dough to create a crust, just like a pizza. Repeat with the next three dough balls.

Place on a non stick cookie sheet and add 2-3 spoonfuls of gravy to each min pizza. (just like you would if you were putting red sauce on a pizza.)

Cook for 15-20 minutes in oven or until dough is lightly brown. Be careful not to over cook the dough, it will make crusts too tough to eat.

3. While biscuit crust is cooking make the tofu scramble.

In a medium frying pan over medium-high heat saute onion, garlic, salt and pepper with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook about a minute and add red pepper and mushrooms.  Cook an additional 1-2 minutes until veggies are soft and add tofu. You can cook as cubes or crumble with your fingers as you add to the pan. Add 3-4 tablespoons of water and cook for about 10 minutes. Don’t let tofu stick to the bottom of the pan, make sure you are stirring it often. Try to get the tofu crisp on all sides. With about 5 minutes left, mix in cumin, nutritional yeast, mustard powder and turmeric. Add chopped spinach and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes or until spinach is limp. Salt and Pepper to taste.

5. By this time the biscuit crust should be finished cooking. Remove from oven, top with 2-3 spoonfuls of scrambled tofu.Serve with a side of fruit, or potatoes!

You could also top with your favorite non-dairy vegan cheese, like Daiya.

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