Finally, a good gluten-free pizza crust

Until recently, I have had a resigned attitude toward making gluten-free pizza crust at home. The only really good gluten-free pizza’s I had eaten had been made in a wood-fire oven or on a grill and I don’t own either of those! But for the last few months I have been on a very involved bread baking kick that has led me to a really good pizza dough recipe that can be made in a regular oven! I make it in a 12 inch cast iron skillet and cannot speak to whether it would work just as well in a baking dish. Give it a try and let me know!

This crust is a thicker variety and it does not get soggy under toppings. It has a slightly sweet, nutty flavour. I have used this crust to make my favourite elegant pizza (caramelized onion, potato, rosemary, fennel and goat cheese). I have used it to make my favourite low brow pizza (pineapple and portuguese sausage). I am pretty sure that it would even work for butternut squash and sage pizza, which I had declared so fancy that it deserved a better pizza crust than I could possibly muster.

This dough is deeply adapted from a Country Batard recipe from Gluten-Free and Vegan Bread by Jennifer Katzinger. Sadly, I cannot recommend this book since most of the recipes I have tried from it have been tragic failures. This is sad because although the recipes in the book are poorly tested, the flour mixes are really delicious and creative and the author offers some really interesting techniques for achieving a nice crust and using a high oven temperature to dispense with the need for long rising times. If you decide to purchase this book, I urge you to print out the errata sheet from the author’s website. I have to honest though, some of the recipes that failed for me are not even on that errata list and gluten-free flour is just WAY to expensive to waste on hinky recipes.

I use the same mix of flours for a Gluten Free Sourdough Boule as well, so I like to mix up a big batch of it.

LIGHT FLOUR MIX FOR YEASTED DOUGHS

2 cups brown rice flour
2 cups tapioca flour
1 cup garbanzo flour (also sold as chickpea flour and besan)
1 cup millet flour
1 cup almond flour
3 teaspoons sea salt (depending on how much salt you like)
2 teaspoon xanthan gum

Thoroughly combine the brown rice flour, tapioca flour garbanzo flour, millet flour, almond flour, sea salt and xanthan gum. This will make about 7 cups of this mix.

A GOOD GLUTEN-FREE PIZZA CRUST

Adapted from the Country Batard recipe in Gluten-Free and Vegan Bread by Jennifer Katzinger

2 Tablespoons Chia seeds
1/2 cup water
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup garbanzo flour (also sold as chickpea flour and besan) Garfava flour also works
1/2 cup millet flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
2 and 3/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup room temperature water
2 tablespoons maple syrup
3 Tablespoons olive oil for the dough
2 Tablespoons olive oil for the pan

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Place a baking dish of water on the bottom of the oven, so that the oven becomes steamy.
Combine the chia seeds 1/2 cup water in a small dish and set it aside while you prepare everything else.
Thouroughly combine the brown rice flour, tapioca flour, garbanzo flour, millet flour, almond flour, sea salt and xanthan gum (or measure out 3 and 1/2 cups of the light flour mix for yeasted doughs)
Add the yeast to 1 cup of room temperature water, along with the 2 tablespoons maple syrup and 3 Tablespoons olive oil. Whisk it with a fork to break up any lumps and let it sit for about 3 minutes.
Combine the flour mixture with the yeast mixture using a big spoon. It will be quite sticky.
By now the chia seeds should have soaked up the water and made a sort of pudding. Add the chia seed mixture to the dough and mix it completely. It will be even stickier!
Slather the bottom of a 9 inch cast iron pan with 2 Tablespoons of olive oil.
Dump the dough into the center of the cast iron pan. Using oiled hands, flatten the dough with a circular motion starting in the center, until it reaches the very edges of the pan. The dough is too loose to form a rolled edge on the crust, but you can use you circular motion to make the center as flat as possible without touching the edges, so that they remain a bit higher.
Bake the crust for 30 minutes, then remove it from the oven.
Add the toppings and bake for another 15-30 minutes (depending on your toppings).