When I went gluten free, I was living in Scottsdale, AZ. If you have never been to the Phoenix/Scottsdale area before, it is a great place to be gluten-free. I was working full-time there when I was pregnant with my first son and was suffering from unusually extreme morning sickness (if by morning sickness you mean inclined to be sick just about all the time). I think I cooked once the entire pregnancy. The hormones were so intense I would get sick just from the smell of cooking something. I was literally starving when I got off work and had to be rushed to the nearest restaurant. I was new at the gluten free diet when I got pregnant and it made for a long pregnancy. One of my most vivid memories of the pregnancy is crying when a Papa John’s commercial came on because I couldn’t order any pizza. My husband tried to come to my rescue and made several decent pizzas from gluten free mixes- he made both the Namaste Foods mix and the Arrowhead Mills Pizza mixes. The sweet man struggled with the sticky gluten free pizza dough just so I could have my pizza craving. Then one day, I heard about a pizza restaurant in town that supposedly had the best gluten free pizza. (If my husband swore, he probably would have done so then after making those pizzas with take out just down the road). Gluten free pizza that came in a box? Sign me up. The first time I ordered from Picazzo’s I ordered my pizza ‘to go’ just so it would come in a box. This pizza lived up to the reviews. It is still the best gluten free pizza I have ever tasted. And I think the fact that it comes in a box is only about 15% of the reason it is so good. tee hee. If you are ever in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, you must have this gluten free pizza. If you are looking for the best gluten-free buffalo wings ever, they can provide that also! I loved Picazzo’s and was very sad to have to leave it behind when we moved to Raleigh. Apparently, the availability of take-out gluten-free pizza can not rank in the top ten reasons to stay in a particular city. I thought that it was a good reason to stay in Phoenix at the time, but maybe it was just the hormones.
Anyway, having been spoiled in Scottsdale, I have been reluctant to make gluten-free pizza at home. However, those stupid Papa John’s ads in my mailbox kept taunting me so a couple months back I decided to give it a go. I made gluten free pizza several, several times and never came up with anything special until tonight. I really like this gluten free pizza crust recipe; it is by far the best one I have made to date. It is different than Pizza Picazzo’s recipe (it doesn’t come in a box!), but it is delicious and has the texture of gluten pizza just like Picazzo’s pizza did. I hope you enjoy it!
GLUTEN FREE PIZZA CRUST RECIPE
1/4 cup millet flour
3/4 cup white rice flour (or use a mixture of brown rice and white rice flour)
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup arrowroot starch (or use cornstarch or more tapioca starch)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 teaspoons xanthan gum
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon sugar for proofing yeast
2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water, (heated to 115 -120 degrees)
2 Tablespoons ricotta cheese (for casein free try almond meal)
2 eggs
2 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon Honey
Note: If you like your pizza dough seasoned, try adding some Italian seasoning to the dough. I like to keep mine plain.
DIRECTIONS:
Place your pizza stone (or pan) in the oven and heat the oven to 170 degrees to get the stone warm. Prepare your liquid ingredients. Mix the olive oil, ricotta cheese (if using almond meal, save and add to the dry ingredients), honey, and vinegar in a med. measuring cup or bowl and set aside so the mixture comes to room temperature. This mixture should not be cold when mixed with the dry ingredients. Next, combine all the dry ingredients and sift together in the bowl of your stand mixer. I used my paddle (not the dough hook) for this recipe. Heat 3/4 cup of water until it reaches 115 -120 degrees. In a separate small bowl, place your yeast and the teaspoon of sugar. Mix with about 1/4 cup of the heated water, stir, and let it sit for a few minutes. Once you know the yeast is active, proceed with the recipe. At this point, you want to double check and make sure all your ingredients have come to room temperature. Turn the stand mixer (fitted with paddle) on and give the dry ingredients a few twirls. Add the egg, ricotta mixture to the dry ingredients and give it another few twirls. Add the yeast mixture. At this point, gauge the liquid level. You want the dough to look like stiff cake batter. The dough should still hold the swirls of the mixer, but it should be shiny and not dull. Add the rest of the water slowly until the right consistency is achieved. I used another 1/2 cup – making 3/4 cup of warm water total. Since different brands of flour and measuring techniques vary, it is best to eyeball this and add the water slowly to get the texture you want. You will get good at knowing what gluten free pizza dough is supposed to look like.
Once you have the pizza dough made, take the pizza stone out of the oven. You can turn the oven off at this point and leave the light on in the oven. Fit the pizza stone with parchment paper (do not use waxed paper) and lightly brush olive oil over the parchment paper. With a cake scraper, slowly spread the pizza dough batter in a 12-13 inch circle. You want the batter to be evenly distributed. At this point, you want to create a beautiful crust edge to your pizza. This can be tricky with such sticky dough. Cover your hands in olive oil and shape the edges like you want them. If you find your hands getting too sticky get a little more olive oil on your hands. You don’t want your dough to be too wet, so be careful. At this point, I put my stone back in the oven for a 40 minute rise. Once it has risen for 40 minutes, turn the oven to 375 degrees for 10 minutes to prebake crust.
Then add toppings. Hormel has gluten-free pepperonis! Turn the heat up to 400 degrees and cook for about 7 minutes maybe more. If you want your cheese to brown, turn the broiler on for about 2 minutes before taking the pizza out. Be careful though because the pizza will burn if left too long- I recommend watching this process carefully!!
Update: I have also made this pizza without letting it rise with excellent results! I was impatient, I confess, and it came out with an even thicker, fluffier, crust. So no matter which way you roll, it will come out great.
Makes 1 12-13 inch pizza crust.
Check out Gluten Free Guide’s Pizza Party for more gluten free pizza recipes.
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Posted on February 29th, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: Pizza Crust Recipes
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Aww Honey, I’ll buy you a pizza box. (Although I’m skeptical that it could make your pizza 15% better)
The crust was soft and chewy and had a mild flavor that really showcased the ingredients – like a good crust should. I’m glad your fifth pizza this week was finally blog worthy. We were going to have to certify you otherwise. /wink
Hubs- Thanks for commenting. tee hee. Glad you liked the pizza. Oh, and my random percentage. I really should stop blogging at midnight. And I think we should go back to you dealing with the sticky dough now.
hey nat!
this looks delicious! I don’t know if you ever tried Karen’s GF pizza crust, but it is very good too! I will definitely try this though!! Yum!
Carrie- I am glad you found a pizza you enjoy! That is great!
Hey Nat~
Is ricotta cheeese supposed to be listed twice in the recipe. If so that would make it 41/2 TLB ricotta for the recipe right.? Does that all get mixed with the olive oil? Please clarify for me. Thanks!
Dillygirl- Thanks for watching out for me! It is only 2 Tablespoons of ricotta and 2 1/2 Tablespoons of olive oil. i accidentally wrote ‘ricotta’ instead of ‘olive oil.’ I really have been bad with this lately!
Yum- your recipe (and photos) have inspired an official pizza craving. (Love your new blog design!)
This looks like it’s worth a try! All my pizza attempts have been disasters
Thanks for the great tips about pre-baking the crust and almond meal for a CF ricotta cheese substitute!
That looks yummy and that gluten free pizza place was awesome! I miss you!
Nat,
We tried the crust last night! We sprinkled oregano and garlic on the crust when it was rising (oh boy did it smell heavenly)! This is a fabulous crust! Good job!! Michael loved it! I didn’t have ricotta cheese, but the cottage cheese I used worked perfectly! Excellent recipe!
The pizza looks absolutely fabulous! Nothing like having to look at such a tempting food picture at 9pm when I could easily still bake a “snack” for the evening
Your web site is looking really good by the way! nice job.
Natalie, you have me drooling. We’ve been eating a thin-crust pizza, which is fine, but this looks divine. I wonder if it could work with an egg sub?
[...] Wednesday: Pizza [...]
[...] Friday: Homemade Pizza [...]
My grandson must eat only gluten-free food, so I’m interested in your blog–I’ll make the pizza this weekend. Thanks for making it available.
Can you make this pizza dough in a bread maker on dough setting? Thanks
Gisele- I am not sure! This recipe really is extremely easy now that I have made it several times- I don’t even let it rise now before I bake. It is much easier than making a gluten crust, so I wouldn’t even bother putting it in the bread machine.
I finally made your pizza! We went with a Hawaiian pizza…I crave this about every month…
IT WAS SO GOOD!
and it was not hard at all.
Thanks! I cannot tell you how happy I am. =)
Picazzos is my favorite.I ‘m in Temepe, AZ and go there at least twice a month. I’m new to your site and am looking forward tomaking some of these wonderful recipies. Do you know where in Az you can buy some of the flours
Cristin,
I used to buy mine at Whole Foods or online at Amazon. Thanks for commenting!
[...] those who eat gluten-free don’t have to go without pizza, as deliciously demonstrated by Natalia the Gluten Free Mommy and Karina the Gluten Free Goddess. Photo by Susan [...]
Why did you take down my comment ??
PS,
It was yesterday- I said I made this crust and I had some comments about it being too soft and too sweet and that the underneath stayed raw when I pre-baked it.
Nat
I think I am going to have to thank you every time I make this crust. It makes me soooo happy. Not only am I have pizza, i’m having great pizza, homemade great pizza! I’ve decided I prefer to use the almond meal in it to the ricotta because then i can mix bags of the dry ingredients to keep in my freezer and only have the egg/honey/oil/vinegar combo plus yeast to toss in with it. It ends up being a quick dinner to prepare!
TD- I am sorry you had a bad experience. I have had good luck with this recipe or I would not have posted it. I don’t have any suggestions for you.
Do you know if this can be made ahead and frozen? I have just recently started glutten free diet and love your site, but I miss pizza. I was told I could have spelt crust although I would love to make my own.
i love this website! i just discovered it the other day and i feel like i’ve hit the jackpot.
i have so much pamelas mix so i was wondering…can that be used to make this pizza? or is it better to use the individual flours?
if using a mix is it better to use the pancake/baking mix or the bread mix?
thanks so much for what you are doing on this site!!!!!
do you know if any flour mixes can be used to make this? i have a large supply of pamelas and would love to use it but i don’t want to compromise flavor or texture. i am so excited to have a piece of pizza soon!!!!
thanks!
try using Pamela’s bread mix with yeast, it’s a lot quicker than mixing all the dry ingredients and my family loved it and we live where they “invented” pizza.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe!! My son (who is 5, has Celiac, and had been begging for pizza for two weeks) loved it so much, he said I should make it and sell it to people!! LOL!! He said the crust was really good. Thanks for helping a mom fulfill her promise to make pizza for her boy!
Dear Author of this Recipe,
Yes, Recipe gets to be capitalized. I’ve been making my own regular (gluten) pizza for about 2 years now, and always thought it was the best thing ever.
A good friend of mine was recently diagnosed with celiac’s, so I have been (attempting to) make breads, and miserably failing. I did cookies and cakes, since they require so little flour it is much easier to replace than breads.
I found this site after several months of looking for a good bread recipe, I stumbled across this one, and I liked the personalized touch you give to describing the steps, so I went ahead and made some.
Without a doubt, this is THE BEST PIZZA I have ever made, even compared to the regular wheat-flour ones, it is poofier, softer, tastier than anything I have managed to conjure up in the past couple years.
Although I am not gluten-intolerant or have celiac’s, this recipe really wants to make me go gluten-free just so I have an excuse to buy the expensive flours!
Great homemade recipe! I have yet to venture out this far and make it from scratch. I’ve started obsessing with gluten free pizza on my blog http://www.switch2glutenfree.com
Hi; it looks like a good recipe and sure I will try it. I did want to point out however that there is a new company which sells gluten free pizza crusts of their website at http://www.stillridingpizza.com- – you buy them and top them and it tastes like the real thing. MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY you can go to your favorite pizza restaurant and order gluten free pizza right off the menu. The founder of http://www.stillridingpizza.com started the company so her two sons could eat out. WOW- I almost cried for my daughter when we tasted this stuff. Give it a try; I went to Mary’s Pizza Shack which is all over northern California.
Um….’dragonfly’….NO, you cannot have spelt. Spelt is wheat. Spelt is NOT gluten free. This is what happens when people start eating gluten free as a fad diet. They eat spelt and what they think are “gluten free” foods and claim to feel better. This is because they really don’t have Celiac Disease, or a wheat allergy (wheat allergies, like peanut allergies but to wheat, are relatively rare. Wheat allergy is not the same as Celiac). I actually HAVE Celiac AND a wheat allergy (anaphylaxis) diagnosed by an MD. I would fall over dead if I ate spelt. Those with just Celiac would (typically) get very ill. Spelt is NOT gluten free.
P.S. That pizza looks delish.
Picazzos uses Tom Sawyer (sp) gluten free flour. I ate there on the way to Sedona and found out that Tom’s is made in Sedona. You can order at gluten free flour. com. I have not tried it for pizza but is good for other stuff to. It makes pretty good bread.
My little guy has to be Gluten and Egg Free. Do you think it will work if I used Ener-G egg sub?
Thanks for making the recipe available. The crust does look delicious!
To whom it may concern;
I am writing to inform you of our new Gluten free menu. About 4 yrs ago my sister Christine and I opened nebo restaurant at 90 N. Washington St. in Boston’s North End. Nebo is a traditional Italian restaurant offering dishes based on recipes that were passed down from our mother and grandmother. After being open for about a year, two of our closest friends were told they had Celiac disease. We then realized just how many people this disease has affected and the need for an alternative for their dining restrictions. Determined to serve our friends their favorites, we set upon making our menu available in a gluten free form. We are thrilled to say that we have now produced 90% of our menu with the same great taste as our regular menu. We don’t think there has been an accomplishment that has brought us more pleasure. If you would like us to forward a copy of our Gluten free menu please send a menu request to nebofunctions@gmail.com .
I am not sure if anyone will see this. I hope so. I tried emailing you but it says your box is full. Do you know if this recipe can be doubled successfully? We are a family of 5 and instead of having gluten stuff and gluten free stuff I am just trying to have everyone eat pretty much the same. The children do get regular bread during the day while my husband is at work. My husband is the reason why I am having to relearn how to cook all over again. Lol Thanks!
Hi GFM,
I will be visiting my best friend who recently moved to Durham later this sumemr (she’s not from NC either). Do you have any recommendations for gf-friendly restaurants, stores/markets, or even just sites.
Thanks so much!
~M
My gf sister is more familiar with that area so let me chat with her about it. I think she likes eating at The Loop restaurant. I will try and get a few more recommendations.
Thanks so much, Natalie. I’m sure my friend will also be cooking; she makes the most delicious crockpot pot roast. She also made gf brownies in a new pan for her chemistry lab students after finding 3 out of 13 avoided gluten. Isn’t that sweet?!
[...] This Pizza Crust- Who needs wheat? Seriously. Love it. Now we just need to find a good sauce or sauce recipe. [...]
I just came across your gluten-free pizza crust recipe. I would like to use your recipe. However, my son has multiple food allergies (eg. milk, gluten, soy, nuts, etc). Is there anything else I could substitute the ricotta/almond meal with? What function does the ricotta/almond meal take (e.g., binding, etc.). Thank you.
I am newly gluten free (just 6 weeks) and my family has been asking me when I’m going to try to make gluten free homemade pizza. I finally mustered up the courage to try it after reading your recipe. It was so fabulous!! I really appreciate your detailed instructions, since gluten free baking is so different. It helped to know exactly what to do and how everything should look. Thanks a million!!
thanks for sharing this recipe. I bet I have gone through a rice field of rice flour to try to find a good pizza recipe over the last 15 years for my daughter who is a celiac. This one is the best. I make ithe dough in the bread machine and roll it out on a pizza pan. I cover the dough in plastic wrap as the dough is pretty sticky. I usually end up making 2 batches of dough. I make one to eat that day and I make the other for the freezer (dough only after it is baked).
Again, thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe.
We just got finished eating this for dinner tonight. This was the best GFCF pizza I have ever made. It had a wonderful flavor. The almond meal worked perfect. We do the diet for my son who is seven. My 9 yr. and 5 yr. old daughters were fighting over the last piece. When I asked all of the kids if they liked it they told me they LOVED it. Thank you for sharing your recipe with us. The dough reminded me a little bit of Aunt Annies pretzels. We are going to make pretzels with this dough recipe.
we eat at picasso’s and piezano’s all the time, and know how good GF crust should taste. This crust finally is one we can make at home and has satisfied our son’s taste buds! thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for posting this recipe, I am excited to try it! My questions are–do you leave the oven on at 170 for the rising process, and do you take the crust out of the oven while it is preheating for the prebake? I’m a little new to this and want my first try to be my best (hoping to impress my gluten free boyfriend with culinary magic–he really misses pizza) Thanks!
I just love your site and thank God for people like you who help so many of us…Thank You!!! Mary
My mom is eating GF and also has a sensativity to potato, so your recipe is really exciting! Thanks for sharing!