Hot Air Balloon Pizza {whole wheat veggie pizza}

A hot air balloon shaped pizza? What the what? You might be thinking to yourself ‘she may have lost it a little’ (well, I probably have, but you already know that) but let me explain…I’m sharing this whole wheat veggie pizza as part of a virtual baby shower.

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This hot air balloon pizza has a whole wheat crust and roasted veggies and is all in part to celebrate my friend Chelsea-Bea who is expecting her first baby! The theme of this virtual baby shower is #Babysgrandadventure

Get it…hot air balloons? Adventure?

The story of how Chelsea and I met is kind of funny. Last year (an exact year to this Friday might I add) I was attending a Christmas fair type of event one of my friends was helping with (there were different vendors and it was put on by the Junior League). There were also different demonstrations happening throughout the evening, and the second they did a cocktail demonstration, I shimmied my way up to the front and started snapping pictures with my phone (obnoxious, I know). As I made my way back to my friends, this gorgeous girl comes up to me and says ‘are you sweetphi?’ WHAT? Someone came up to me and asked me if I was sweetphi?! I felt so happy and giddy. Someone recognized me because of my blog?!? That girl asking the question was Chelsea!

I immediately started talking with her, and asked her how she knew about my blog and she told me that she was also a blogger and was new to Milwaukee. I eagerly told her I started a group of Milwaukee Food Bloggers and told her she should join. In the sweetest way possible, she told me that she had requested to join. I told her I’d of course love to have her in the group.

Upon returning home, I told my hubby ‘SOMEONE CAME UP TO ME AND ASKED IF I WAS SWEETPHI’ he thought I was joking, but I wasn’t! I then opened my computer and logged into the group admin page and sure enough…there was her request to join…and it was from about 2 months prior! OOPS!

I felt so bad, I immediately emailed her and told her that the platform had changed (which it had!) and that I wasn’t notified when new members requested to join (which was true!) I felt so bad, and my hubby  jokes to this day about it.

Over the course of the last year, I’ve gotten to know Chelsea. She generously had me over to her apartment to show me her photography set up and her and her husband cooked me dinner. They made this delicious whole wheat pizza with roasted veggies on it. I had never had whole wheat pizza before (at least one that tasted good!) so when I was putting together this virtual baby shower for her, I just knew I had to make a whole wheat roasted veggie pizza. Side note-the first time I went over to her house I also had one of the biggest food blogger fail moments ever. I had made these little frozen banana sundae bites following a tutorial, but by the time I got to her house they had turned into a big blob and looked like a giant pinterest fail. Here I am newbie food blogger and all, and what I bring looks not so great. On top of that, I learned that Chelsea doesn’t like bananas. I felt like a total failure, but she was so sweet about the whole thing and we’re still friends. And big props to her husband, he not only ate the banana sundae bites but he even complimented them – and trust me – there was nothing to compliment. So I just KNOW they’re going to make amazing parents!

Now onto the nitty gritty of making the pizza, it all starts with the veggies: it was my first time using romanesco and purple cauliflower (both of which are available at the farmers market or I’ve seen them at Whole Foods or specialty grocery stores), and I have to say, I’m going to be using both again…the vibrant colors are so catching, and the flavors of cauliflower are ones I truly enjoyed!

I used romanesco for the trees, and then used purple cauliflower and red and orange peppers for the hot air balloon outline. The dough is super simple to make, but you could also buy a crust and then cut it into shapes. I made two shapes, one for the hot air balloon and one for the trees.

And then when you’re ready to serve it, you can just cut off the little basket of the hot air balloon shape, and then cut it into little slices:

Here are all the bloggers participating in Baby’s Grand Adventure Virtual Baby Shower:

Art of Natural Living – Baby Shower Washcloth Bunny Favors

The Frosted Vegan – Maple Apple Cider Caramels

Order in the Kitchen – ”Hello World” Airplane Sugar Cookies

The Speckled Palate – Indoor S’mores

Stew or a Story – Whole Grain Apple Scones with Homemade Caramel Sauce

The Sweetphi Blog – Hot Air Balloon Shaped Pizza {Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza}

Chelsea- from the bottom of my heart, congratulations on your up coming bundle of joy!

Hot Air Balloon Pizza {whole wheat veggie pizza}

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Print Rate

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes minutes

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• For the crust-
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbs Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1 Tbs Cornmeal for lining the pan
• 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour plus 2 Tbs
• For the toppings-
• 1/2 cup romanesco florets
• 1/2 cup purple cauliflower florets
• 1/4 cup red pepper strips
• 1/4 cup orange pepper strips
• 1 Tbs Olive Oil
• 1 tsp each salt pepper, garlic salt
• 1 green onion (optional
• 1/2 cup- 3/4 cup pizza sauce
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese shredded, low moisture part skim

Instructions

• For the crust- In a small bowl pour packet of yeast and 1/4 cup warm water. Stir it once, then let it rest for 5 minutes until it gets foamy at the top.
• Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer add the 2 cups plus 2 Tbs whole wheat flour and 1 tsp salt. After 5 minutes add the yeast mixture to the bowl, and add 3/4 cups warm water and 1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil, stir it until loosely combined with a wooden spoon. Then, with the dough hook attachment set it on speed 2 and let the dough 'knead' for 5 minutes (you can knead it by hand if you don't have a stand mixer.)
• After 5 minutes of kneading, stop the mixer and form the dough into two balls - 1 bigger ball and 1 smaller ball and place in an oiled bowl for 15 minutes (it will rise after 15 minutes). Now sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and on a floured surface or with floured hands stretch the dough into desired shapes, then place on the prepared baking sheet and stretch a little more, then bake pizza crusts (minus toppings) for 5 minutes, remove from oven, and then add toppings.
• For the toppings- clean and chop the veggies. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and section the sheet into 3s with the aluminum foil, then add cleaned and cut veggies each to one section of the tray. Drizzle olive oil over the veggies, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic salt. Preheat oven to 400 and roast veggies for 15 minutes, then remove from oven and set aside.
• To assemble the pizza- spread pizza sauce in a thin layer across the pizza dough. Then sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the sauce, and then arrange veggies as desired (I added romanesco and green onion slices to the 'trees' section and used the purple cauliflower and orange and red peppers for the 'balloon'. On the basket part of the balloon I spread pizza sauce and did not use any toppings on that part.) Bake at 450 for 15 minutes or until the edges start getting brown. Remove from oven, slice, and enjoy!