Best Gluten Free Pizza Dough and Focaccia Bread
One of the things I crave the most is pizza. This isn’t to say there aren’t some ok gluten free pizza crusts out there. There are a couple that will do if you’re really desperate for pizza. For example, Amy’s makes a cheese pizza that’s not terrible. Also, Boston Pizza has gf pizza crusts and I believe they use Kinnikinnick crusts for it (a Canadian gluten free company).
However, none of these pizzas
come close to the nice, doughy crusts I used to love when I could eat normal
pizza. I’ve tinkered and played around
with a few recipes, ended up with some hardened stones, and finally came up with
this recipe. This recipe rises
fantastically, and gives a beautiful, doughy crust. I’ve even made this and used it on its own as
focaccia bread and served it to dinner guests who gobbled it up and had no idea
it was originally a gluten free pizza crust. Just sprinkle it with salt before you bake it and serve with a plate of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping in.
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| Before rising |
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| After rising, double the size in 20 minutes |
I won’t lie, it’s a bit of work because it requires having a couple of bowls of things going at once, but I recommend doubling the recipe and making 2 -3 of these babies (as you can see from my photos). You can freeze them for later use, so the work is totally worth it. I have one sitting in my freezer right now, fully loaded and ready to just be popped in the oven for 20 minutes to cook. One great thing about this, I got to use my coffee grinder to grind all my own brown and white rice flour. I’ve also added my pizza sauce recipe below.
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| You may prefer to double the recipe and make 3 pizzas to freeze |
Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten and brought to
room temperature
(alternatively, I have made this
successfully with 1 egg and a chia substitute for the other egg – mix 1 Tbsp
chia with 3 Tbsp water and let rest for 15 minutes until the chia becomes a
goopy paste)
Wet stuff
2 ½ Tbsp olive oil
½ tsp apple cider vinegar
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp yogurt (or sour cream, ricotta or
cottage cheese)
Other wet stuff
1 tsp sugar
2 ½ tsp active dry yeast
¾ c warm water
Dry Ingredients
1 c white rice flour or mixture
of brown and white rice flour
½ c tapioca flour
¼ c millet flour
¼ c tapioca flour, potato starch, or cornstarch (I've tried all three and they're interchangeable)
1 Tbsp sugar of your choice (brown,
white or stevia substitute)
¾ tsp salt
¾ tsp salt
Herbs for flavouring – I use 1
Tbsp rosemary, 1 Tbsp onion flakes, 1 tsp basil and 1 tsp parsley*
Method:
1.
Preheat oven to 200
degrees. Prepare a pizza pan by spraying
with oil and covering with parchment paper. Lightly oil the parchment paper. The parchment paper is important as the dough
will be very sticky.
2. Beat the eggs and set aside
to warm to room temperature. If using
the chia as an egg substitute, mix the chia and water and set aside until it
gels – this will look a bit slimy and goopy, so don’t be afraid! This is normal.
3.
Mix the Wet Stuff together
and set aside to warm to room temperature.
4.
Mix the Other wet stuff and
set aside for yeast to proof. This means
that the yeast will start to bubble and foam after a few minutes. If it doesn’t after 10 minutes, you may need
new yeast.
5.
Sift all the dry
ingredients together and blend well.
Create a well in the centre and add the eggs and/or chia mix. Add the olive oil and yogurt mix and blend
until incorporated. Add the rest of the
wet ingredients and mix until smooth.
The dough should be quite sticky.
6.
Turn the oven off to cool
slightly. With a spatula (damp with
water to prevent sticking) spread the dough onto the pizza pan.* Place the pizza in the warm oven to rise until
desired height. Depending on your yeast,
this could take between 20-40 minutes.
7.
Remove the pizza crust and
preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake
for 10 minutes to prebake the crust.
From here, you can freeze the crust as is, or add toppings to it and
then freeze for later use.
8.
Take crust out and add
toppings. Put back in oven and cook for
about 7-10 minutes, until crust is browned.
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| Stir fried veggies |
For my toppings, I stir-fried
some green and red peppers, chopped zucchini, and celeriac (a celery-flavoured root-like
vegetable that I recently discovered). While stir frying, I added some salt and pepper,
oregano, basil and parsley to the veggies. I also added some spinach, cheese and tomato
slices and sprinkled with salt and pepper.
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| Celeriac |
Pizza Sauce Recipe
½ can of tomato paste
An equal amount of water + 2 Tbsp
water
1 Tbsp ketchup
1 tsp oregano
¼ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp basil
*OAS Info: (updated Dec 23, 2013) Other than the parsley, the dough is free of all the common OAS allergens I'm aware of. The vegetable toppings, however, are common OAS foods, but for most the sauteing then baking process *should* destroy the allergen proteins in them, making them safer for most to eat.