Gluten free Pizza!
Back when I first started eating gluten free, Pizza was a distant dream. It's one of the #1 things people say they miss when they give up gluten. At first every brand I tried tasted like cardboard and I got super discouraged. Thankfully times had changed.
I think in the beginning most of my fiascoes with gluten free baking revolved around pizza, or what was supposed to be pizza. It was not pretty and for a while I gave up.
It's been a roller coaster of learning but I've finally found some places with good gluten free take out pizza. The gluten free pizza in the freezer section of most grocery stores have also upped their game and no longer taste like cardboard (well most of them don't). So I've got some options.
But there is nothing better than homemade, right out of the oven, gluten free pizza.
After playing around with pizza crust recipes I found and absolutely fell in love with this pizza crust. It's been modified fromt the Pizza crust recipe in 'Gluten free bread in 5 minutes a day'. It's a great book if your looking into making gluten free breads at home. But I love using my Bob's Red Mill Gluten free 1 to 1 flour mix in everything. So I always have to play around with recipes.
This recipe makes about 4 portions of dough and I highly recommend freezing some for later use. It's easy to put the dough in the fridge to thaw the night before pizza night. Making a batch of dough and frezzing it like this is a great short cut and makes for less work when you want a pizza night.
Meal planning at it's finest
I now have the habit of making big batches of dough and freezing it in portions for later use. I put the dough in the fridge the night before to thaw. When it's time to make pizza I preheat the oven and prepare the toppings and sauce. Then I get the dough out, shape it, apply sauce and toppings, and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. It's as easy as that.
The crust is crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. This recipe is for classic pepperoni and cheese but you can get creative with the sauce and toppings. Just be careful not to pile too many in the center or it could get doughy.
To achive the best crust you want to heat the pizza stone in the oven and then transfer the pizza onto it to cook. This can take some skill. Using a pizza peel can make the job eaiser. I've gotten away with using a plastic cutting board with lots of cornmeal when in a pinch. If you're not comfortable sliding the pizza onto the stone you can also make the pizza on a silpat and just transfer it all onto the pizza stone. If I'm not feeling cordinated that day I use the silpat.
A few words about the sauce
The tomato sauce recipe features Essential oils instead of using dried Herbs. Along with getting some of the benifits of the essential oils, I also like how their are no herbs to get stuck in my teeth. Cooking the oils this way damages some of their properties so if you are using this recipe but want the full strength of the basil and oregano I suggest combining one drop each with a cup of olive oil and drizzling it over the pizza once it's done. If you're not familiar with Essential oils or the guidelines for ingesting them please see my Essential oils page for more information and opt for using the dried herbs instead for now.
PrintGluten free Pizza with Essential oils
- Prep Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
Ingredients
The Pizza Dough
- 5 cups Bob's Red Mill Gluten free 1 to 1 Flour
- 1 ½ cups Cornmeal
- 1 cup Potato starch
- 2 teaspoon Xanthan gum
- 1 TBS Granulated Yeast
- 1 TBS Salt
- ¼ cup Sugar
- 3 ¾ cup Warm Water
- ½ cup Avocado oil
- 4 Egg whites
The Sauce
- 1 oz Can Tomato sauce
- 1 Drop Basil Essential oil (Or 2 tsp dried basil)
- 1 Drop Oregano Essential oil (or 2 tsp dried oregano)
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1 tsp Onion powder
- 1 tsp Brown sugar
The Toppings
- 2 cups Mozzarella Cheese (Grated)
- ¼ cup Cup Parmesan Cheese (Finely grated)
- Pepperoni
Instructions
The dough
- In a large container or mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. Then add the liquid ingredients and thoroughly combine. Loosely cover with a towel and let rise for 2 hours.
- After two hours divide into fourths, You'll be using 1 and freezing the other 3 for later use (or double of triple the sauce and toppings and have 2-4 pizzas). Place what you are using in the fridge until ready to assemble.
The sauce
- While the dough is rising combine all the sauce ingredients in a small pot and simmer for 30 or so minutes until it cooks down and thickens a bit, almost into a paste. If you leave the sauce thin it could make the pizza soggy.
Making the Pizza
- Place your pizza stone into the bottom rack of the oven and preheat to 500F. Allow this to preheat for 30 minutes or more, you want it nice and hot.
- Spread a generous amount of cornmeal on your pizza peel or working surface (I use my silpat in case I can't slide the pizza onto the pizza stone. I can place the silpat on the stone and cook the pizza). Put some cornmeal on your hands and the top of the dough, then gently push and shape the dough. You can use a scraper to lift the dough and put more cornmeal under if needed.
- Once your dough is shaped, spread out enough sauce to cover all but the outer edges. Add the cheese and optional toppings.
- Open the oven and slide the pizza onto the pizza stone, it's easier to do with a pizza peel (which I don't have at the moment), so I use my silpat as a back up in case it wont slide onto the stone.
- Bake the pizza for 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the crust is becoming golden brown.
- Allow to cool slightly before serving.
Notes
I highly recommend the following products to make the recipe a bit easier. I always try to recommend a product I love and use, otherwise I'll list things with great reviews that are on my own to buy list.
A Baking Stone is a great investment for not only pizza but many other baked goods. I love my old pampered chef baking stones and use them all the time.
A Pizza Peel. This one is on my wish list. Every time I make pizza I kick myself for not have bought one yet.
A Silpat. I love my silpat and use it whenever possible. Its a wonderful addition to any kitchen.
A Scraper... I call it a bench scraper because of my time working at a bakery. These little guys come in super handy especially when you don't want to get your fingers dirty.
Geri Juen
Do you know of a replacement for xanthum gum?
Alycia Louise
Hi Geri,
Guar gum can usually be swapped out with xanthum gum with the same results. If you can't use Guar gum you might be able to experiment with adding glutinous rice flour (which does not actually contain any gluten)to the dough. It's very sticky and can work as a binder similar to the gums.