Who doesn't love pizza?
Well, maybe if you can’t eat gluten pizza isn’t your fave. Lucky for you, my favorite pizza recipe is actually gluten-free. This recipe is a little different for some people, as we’re using dry active yeast. If we’re being honest here I was so afraid to use yeast that I didn’t make anything with yeast for YEARS. No cinnamon rolls, no bread, no joy.
Then I started using yeast in recipes and I realized how easy it is. My tip for you is to (1) not be intimidated by yeast and (2) get yourself a reliable kitchen scale. I have this one from amazon. It is not expensive and has problem to be reliable.
Another thing to note with this pizza dough is that we’re not going to be rolling it out. There is no gluten in this flour. Please do not have dreams of throwing your pizza up in the air – that won’t happen with this dough.
Instead of we’re going to portion out our dough and then sort of smush it with a good amount of olive oil on our hands. We will use this technique to “roll out” the dough and get it ready for sauce and toppings.
Combine room temp water and yeast. Give it a few minutes to get happy and frothy. It should look could like this with a few bubbles around the edge.
After your yeast is ready, add the flour, salt, and olive oil. Use a mixer for this part. Mixing by hand is exhausting!
Gluten-Free Pizza Crust
15
minutes15
minutes2.5
HoursThe trick to this recipe, or any Italian carb-related recipe is the FLOUR! I order gluten-free Caputo flour from Italy for this recipe (available on Amazon). Don't even come at me with your Bob's red mill flour. I know it's good and gluten-free, but it's BOB's red mill. Not Roberto's red mill. Trust the flour from Italy.
This recipe makes one large sheet pan plus one-half pan of pizza. If you’re just making a small pizza, feel free to freeze this dough. Then let it thaw in the fridge for a few hours when you’re ready for pizza again.
Ingredients
400g Warm water
1.5 tsp dry active yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil
- Topping Ideas
Mozzarella cheese
pepperoni
prosciutto
Italian sausage (cook first before adding to the pizza)
veggies
tomato and bail
Directions
- Using a kitchen scale, mix the water and yeast. Make sure that the water is room temp or at least 75 degrees.
- After about 15 minutes, the yeast should start activating. The water should look cloudy and have some tiny bubbles forming.
- Add the flour, salt, and olive oil. Mix well with a mixer. (Note: you CAN mix by hand with a wooden spoon but the dough is sticky and it’s more efficient using a mixer.)
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise (about 2-3 hours). I also add a towel on top so the dough gets warm and happy.
- After 3 hours it should have risen substantially.
- Remove roughly 30% of the dough from the bowl. (I think of the bowl as a pie chart and I’ll scoop out 30% of the dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.)
- DO NOT roll out the dough. We’re going to smush the dough into a rectangle by using our hands.
- Cover the palms of your hands in olive oil first. Then start to gently smush the dough. Keep smashing until the dough is spread evenly.
- Add mozzarella cheese and your favorite toppings.
- Cook at 425 degrees until the cheese starts to brown. (About 13 to 15 minutes)
Once your dough is ready, it’s ready to rise. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel (to keep it warm). Let it rise for 2 to 3 hours.
This will make about a full sheet pan and a half of pizza (more than enough for my family of 4). Parse out about 30% of the dough onto a half of a sheet pan. Use the rest for the full sheet pan.
Smush the dough with well oiled hands. Gently push the dough over the sheet pan until it’s a consistent thickness and covers the entire pan. (And remember it doesn’t need to look super pretty.)
Now your pizza is ready for sauce and toppings. This is a summer pizza. For the sauce I used ricotta cheese and pecorino Romano cheese and topped it with prosciutto and parmesan cheese.
Bake at 425 for about 13 to 15 minutes or until the crust looks golden and the cheese is melted.
Top with more parmesan or just eat as is. I topped this pizza with fresh basil and balsamic glaze.
