Pizza belongs in the category of one of the most eaten and favorite fast foods across the world. Initially introduced by Italians, today, a significant percentage of people love pizza. Whether you're throwing a friend a party or just craving something delicious, who can say no to pizza?
However, the problem arises for gluten-free dieters since store-bought pizza crust and popular pizza chains have gluten-containing ingredients. Before you cut out pizza from your diet and give way to a pizza-deprived life, we have the perfect gluten-free recipe. Try this out today, serve it to your friends and family, and they'll be asking for more!
Making Gluten-Free Pizza
The main gluten-containing ingredient to pizza is the pizza crust. The toppings are mostly naturally gluten-free on their own. Commonly, you'll find pizza crust made from wheat or whole-wheat flour. Without a doubt, that's a significant NO for anyone following a gluten-free diet.
Hence, the simple solution is to switch the ingredients in the pizza dough for gluten-free flours. Guess what? Making a gluten-free pizza crust has become incredibly easy with gluten-free flour blends that you can grab at any grocery store.
Flavors to Try with Gluten-Free Pizza Crust
You can have your creative juices run wild with your pizza as long as the ingredients are free from gluten. You can go for the classic flavors that won't disappoint, such as cheese, pepperoni, meat lovers, or vegetarian. No pizza is complete without a sauce bringing the flavors together. If you're not going for the classic marinara sauce, try teriyaki, barbeque, olive tapenade, pesto, and more.
Depending on what your tastebuds are in the mood for, you can't overlook the traditional mozzarella for cheese options. Although, options including blue cheese, gouda, feta, and goat cheese also exist.
Recent trends in pizza flavors also include seafood pizza. You can add fish, shrimp, and other sea delicacies to the topping. Of course, if you have a bit of a sweet tooth, try adding pineapple to the pizza. Whether pineapple should be on pizza is debatable for another day.
Measure the Ingredients Beforehand
One of the most common recipes for disaster is not measuring the ingredients correctly. With recipes such as this, you need the dough to be perfect before putting it in the oven. Moving on to another crucial point- it's best to read the entire recipe before starting. You'll get an idea of where you should go instead of mishaps in-between.
Another tip by professionals is to keep the ingredients measured and in place before you start. This tip saves trouble and makes the entire process significantly straightforward. And once again, there'll be fewer chances of you adding too much or too little of any ingredient.
The Crust You're Looking For
We can help you with a few tricks here and there that make a world of difference in the crust. One of them is to let the dough sit for a few minutes before popping it in the oven. It not only makes the dough rise successfully, but it hydrates the crust as well.
Why should you let the dough hydrate? If you hydrate the dough, you'll get a crispy crust and a soft texture in the middle. In other words, just the finish everyone is aiming for when making a pizza crust. The trick works on both thick and thin crusts, so make sure your dough sits for 30-40 minutes before popping it in the oven.
Don't Forget to Preheat the Pizza Stone
Heat your stone pizza ahead of time. If you're using a pizza stone, you must preheat it before putting the pizza in the oven. Always check to make sure you are able to use your stone on the grill, some stones will break!
It takes at least 20 minutes for the pizza stone to heat to the right temperature. Although, the ideal duration is to let the pizza stone preheat for is 50-60 minutes. While you can always cut back on time, it will result in a light-colored pizza crust. Secondly, this is another trick to a crispy golden pizza crust.
Pressed, Not Rolled
Traditional pizza dough contains gluten, which is what makes the dough stretch and expands when rolling. Gluten-free pizza dough is devoid of all gluten, which is why it won't stretch.
A solution to this is to press the pizza dough on the pizza stone or baking pan. Use your hands and add a little gluten-free flour on top of the dough. Make sure you press out the dough evenly before baking it, or you'll end up with an unevenly cooked pizza.
DON'T Ruin the Yeast
If you've read the recipe, you would've seen ‘warm water' added to the yeast. The question is- how warm should it be? First things first, if the water is too cold, the yeast won't activate; too hot, and it'll ruin the yeast.
For this reason, ensuring an optimal temperature is integral to letting the yeast activate. The ideal temperature for the water to activate the yeast is 110°F. You may want to get a digital thermometer for convenience.
Store the Dough for Later
Another glorious thing about making pizza crust, you can always store the dough for later. If you don't want to make a large pizza, you can get a smaller one ready. Save the remaining dough in the refrigerator in an airtight container or plastic wrapping. The dough lasts a few days and will be all ready when you are to enjoy pizza again.
Thick or Thin Crust?
Are you confused about whether the pizza crust should be thick or thin? Go any way you want! As long as you press out the dough evenly, you can make either a thick or a thin crust. Many recipes say that a pizza crust should be ideally less than ¼”. Although, you can also follow the recipe for any crust size, whatever suits your preference.
Dough Too Sticky
A common problem amongst pizza makers is that sometimes the dough turns out too sticky. While the easiest solution to this is to add more flour to the dough, it might be too late. You might not realize the stickiness of the dough until you've started rolling it out. Therefore, press the dough and sprinkle gluten-free flour blend on the dough. This simple hack will let you press the dough without it sticking all over your hands.
Conclusion
There's nothing yummier than making homemade pizza. If you haven't tried making a homemade pizza crust yet, you definitely should ASAP! Have you ever gone to a gluten-free pizza chain and couldn't find your favorite toppings? Therefore, you should be making your own. Your pizza will be completely gluten-free, and you can add all your favorite toppings.
Eating a gluten-free diet doesn't mean you have to give up on your favorite foods.
Homemade Gluten-Free Pizza
8 servings
Prep Time- 15 minutes
Cooking time- 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon dry active yeast
- 1 ¼ cup warm water
- 2-3 tablespoons sugar
- 3 cups gluten-free flour blend
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ½ tablespoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- Your favorite toppings
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Combine the yeast and ¾ cup of warm water in a small bowl. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Then add 1 tbsp of the sugar.
- Combine gluten-free flour mix, salt, baking powder, and remaining 1-2 tbsp sugar in a separate bowl. Whisk until blended well.
- In the dry mixture, make a hole in the middle and add the yeast mixture to it. Add the olive oil and an additional ½ cup of warm water. Stir it all together until thoroughly mixed.
- Spreading your pizza dough out on a greased baking sheet or a pizza stone, start working from the center and press the dough towards the edges while flattening it.
- Add pizza sauce and your toppings.
- Cook for approximately 30 minutes. Cooking times may vary.
- Enjoy!
Yummy Homemade Gluten-Free Pizza Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Tbsp. Dry Active Yeast
- 1 1/4 Cup Warm Water
- 2-3 Tbsp. Sugar
- 3 Cups Gluten-free flour blend
- 1 Tbsp. Salt
- 1/2 Tbsp. GF Baking Powder
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil
- Toppings of your choice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Combine the yeast and ¾ cup of warm water in a small bowl. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Then add 1 tbsp of the sugar.
- Combine gluten-free flour mix, salt, baking powder, and remaining 1-2 tbsp sugar in a separate bowl.
- Whisk until blended well.
- In the dry mixture, make a hole in the middle and add the yeast mixture to it.
- Add the olive oil and an additional ½ cup of warm water. Stir it all together until thoroughly mixed.
- Spreading your pizza dough out on a greased baking sheet or a pizza stone, start working from the center and press the dough towards the edges while flattening it.
- Add pizza sauce and your toppings.
- Cook for approximately 30 minutes. Cooking times may vary.
- Enjoy!
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