Thursday, January 11, 2007

Gluten-Free Traditional Thick Pizza Crust Recipe

Gluten-Free Pizza Crust Recipes

Gluten-Free Traditional / Thick-Crust Pizza Dough

Traditional Thick-Crust Pizza, now Celiac-safe

One of the all time most-missed foods for Celiacs and persons that must adhere to a gluten-free diet is pizza. I know that I personally suffered withdrawal symptoms and anxiety when I was told I would not be able to eat my favorite Chicago deep-dish pizza, or my favorite Denver thick-crust pizza from Beau Jo's, or even my local favorite Donte's Pizza here in Cleveland, Ohio. Pizza was a large part of my life back in the pre-Celiac and pre-gluten-free days, and I have longed for a wonderful replacement pizza that fits into the GF diet.

I have tried a few different purchased glutenfree pizza crusts and pizza dough mixes over the years, and none really made me think I was eating real pizza. My wife has worked on various pizza-crust replacements, and came up with some decent ones that used a batter approach for quick and easy iron-skillet pizza crusts, and more of a dough-type thin-crust sheet-pizza type recipe. These were fine, but admittedly not nearly the same as the "real" thing.

The new Yeast-Raised Gluten-Free Pizza-Crust Dough Recipe

Enter the latest pizza crust from Laura: a traditional yeast-raised gluten-free and dairy-free pizza dough recipe that produces a wonderfully convincing pizza crust that has excellent taste and texture, including a nice crusty crust with a soft bread-like interior. It holds together wonderfully, just as a pizza crust should. Some of its wonderful flavor comes from Teff and Millet flours, along with rice flour.

I can not do this recipe justice with just words, so check out the pictures here and on the dairyfree and glutenfree traditional thick-crust pizza recipe page, and then make it for yourself. Being a yeast-based GF pizza crust, you will need to be patient and allow the crust to rise, and ideally you will have a candy-thermometer or similar device handy to get the warm-water temperature right for best yeast-development results.

And a Homemade Gluten-Free Pizza Sauce Recipe

Laura also included her homemade gluten-free pizza sauce recipe on our website in case you need or want one. It's really simple to make, and has a good flavor on pizzas, as you would expect of a pizza sauce.

Normally, my wife and daughter give in and order their pizzas from a nearby pizza shop instead of sticking to a gluten-free diet with me (thankfully, they do not need to adhere to a Celiac or GF diet as I do), but this pizza crust recipe is close enough to the real thing that my daughter will actually accept it as "pizza". And, that is saying a lot! I too can accept it as pizza. It is not as good as my old favorites from Chicago and other places, but it has reached a level of desirable taste and texture where I can actually be satisfied that my pizza dinner satisfies my craving for a pizza.

Comparing this Gluten-Free Pizza-Crust to "Normal" Pizza

I give it a 7 out of 10 rating, compared to the 10/10 rating my all-time real pizza crusts would get - so, this "7" is a very strong rating considering it is a gluten free pizza crust. This is by far the best gluten-free pizza crust I have ever had, and if Laura ever creates a 9/10+ rated crust, she will have accomplished the "impossible" in my opinion. In fact, I already tell her she's more or less done it with this one. Who knows, maybe she will find a way to tweak this thing up to an 8/10 yet (I want to try making a Chicago deep-dish with it yet and see if that does the trick, though I need a deep-dish pizza pan to try it in).

Slice of Gluten-Free Thick-Crust Pizza
That is a picture of the interior of the crust, showing how it raised nicely and how the bottom and outside exposed dough browned and crusted beautifully, while the inside rose well to deliver a thick-crust / traditional style pizza. I am rather sure you enjoy the Recipe as this has been quite popular with everyone who has tried it!

Continue to read this Gluten-Free Blog for all sorts of gluten-free recipes, product-reviews, and related information. In addition, visit my Gluten-Free Recipes Site where many of the recipes I have featured on this blog are available, including some other pizza-crust variations.

19 comments:

  1. Talk about gorgeous. Once again, the picture is so fantastic I want to grab that pizza and run with it.
    Forget selling the cookbooks, open up a pizza shop in your house, with gourmet desserts...don't thank me. The idea is a winner! Are you still feeding the wildlife out back? Just wondered.
    Take care...do you deliver?

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  2. Thanks for pointing this link out to me! The crust looks gorgeous. I will definitely try it and let you know.
    The waffles you have blogged about also sound fantastic.
    Cheers!

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  3. Lynn, sorry but you are just a BIT out of our delivery range. In all seriousness, we have had quite a few people asking whether we sell baked goods in addition to the book. You know, if I just had the drive to do such a thing (and the time) I would, but that is unlikely to happen any time soon. Maybe as a "retirement job" some day :)

    The wildlife has been in hiding for the most part lately. I see the deer tracks in the morning when it snows, along with other random creature prints, but none have been by for snacks in at least a couple weeks. We did spot a cute red fox out back nibbling something on the compost pile about a month ago. So, maybe it will become a "regular". :)

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  4. Nat, you are welcome! And, I hope you enjoy the recipes. I am very very interested in hearing how this latest gluten-free pizza crust Laura makes compares with that one you get at Risotteria restaurant in New York City. Given Lynn's comment about opening a pizzeria, I now feel the pressure of competition.

    I'll await the verdict on the pizza, and yes those waffles are wonderful too if you get the chance to make them. My favorite is the blueberry infused version -- mmmmm... blueberries!

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  5. Mike thanks for commenting on my blog -- it led me to your wonderful gluten-free page. I miss pizza badly! I'm excited to give this recipe a try.

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  6. bengali chick,
    I sure hope this pizza crust recipe takes care of those pizza cravings! It did the job for me, and I have been looking for a really good GF pizza crust since going gluten-free over 3 years ago. Best wishes, and let me know what you think of it. Thanks.

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  7. Mike, have you tried baking and then freezing this crust (no toppings, of course)to see how it handles as a "quick" dinner on a busy night? I still plan to make this but hate to throw away food and I am sure I will end up trying to freeze it at some point.

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  8. Sheri,
    No I have not tried freezing the crust yet. Since the recipe makes 2 of the gluten-free pizza crusts, I did keep leftovers (an entire finished pizza) in the fridge for a couple days and it held up pretty well. As with even "real" pizza, it was best fresh. I may have one next week, and if I do, I'll try to remember to put half in the freezer (crust only) just to see how it holds up. Sorry I didn't think to do it earlier -- I forget that not everyone eats piles of food, like whole pizzas, at once like I do :)

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  9. Mike, You will have to let us know how a Chicago style version holds up. I have been DYING for pizza lately. The only place nearby that make is GF is only ok. I need a deep dish pizza with artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, spinache, and mushroom (my regular toppings pre-Celiac). Hmmm....I think I need to start hounding D'Agostino's to make a GF crust.

    This recipe witll be tried in the near future!

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  10. Shannon, I surely let everyone know if we can pull off a Chicago-style deep-dish. We are researching how a normal one is made, and making sure we take the right approach.

    It may take a few tries to get right, as many recipes do, but I think that if we remain persistent we will prevail. (it's always good to remain positive)

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  11. Hi Mike

    Just a few quick words about Leeds College. Leeds is the London of the North with loads going on, good restaurants, good facilities etc. Its in the county of Yorkshire ... also known as 'Gods Country', by a few of us, lucky enogh to come from Yorkshire! Yup, my home county, although I live 250 miles south of there now. I'm actually going home to Yorkshire this coming weekend

    Pizza looks gorgeous by the way, any chance of deliveries to the UK?

    :)

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  12. Dianne,
    The UK is just a BIT out of my delivery range. Now, if you had still lived up near Leeds, my daughter could rent from you and we could work pizza-baking into the rent agreement :)

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  13. Thank you for your blog! and for looking at mine as well.

    I will be looking at your awesome blog often.

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  14. WOW...a pizza dough that WORKS!

    And your wife isn't GF and yet she does all this experimentation for you? INCREDIBLE!!!

    Pizza is one of those things I miss most. I've tried a variety of recipes, most of them too wet to stay on the pan, or the stone. I gave up on the idea.

    I can't wait to try Laura's!

    ML

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  15. Oh yeah...I love the photography, too. One of you has a great eye!

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  16. Does anyone know of anything that I can use to replace Xanthan Gum (?) This looks fab and I would love to try it but I am also allergic to xanthan and so many gluten free recipes have it. Help.

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  17. Jennifer,
    So, I see I am not the ONLY one that has issues with gums - Xanthan being perhaps the worst for me. This is why our Gluten-Free Dessert Recipes book uses ZERO gums... I can't tolerate them well to say the least. This pizza crust recipe we posted is one of those "once in a great while" treats for me, as I realize my stomach will pay a bit of a price for consuming the gums.

    So, I have been hard at work at replacing gums for a long time. My latest experiments - which I anticipate applying to pizza crust - involve Chia Seed (this link searches my blog here for Gluten-Free Chia Seed discussion), and also Isolated Whey Protein(this links to my blog here for Whey Protein in Gluten-Free baking).

    Those two ingredients are AMAZING for gluten and/or gum-replacement. I just posted a discussion about the Chia (Chia Slurry in Recipes) last week. And, I have more to come. I hope this helps, and stay tuned as I start bringing the Chia and whey protein together in more gluten-free gum-free recipes.

    Thanks for the feedback, and I am intrigued now that I find someone else with gum allergies... wonder how many more out there have the same issue?

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  18. OH GEEZ. you know, garlic jim's has gluten free pizza? the store in renton highlands does. they deliver too! and some other locations do too! but yeahh, they're starting it on dec. 8th!! andd its pretty freakin deliciousss. haha.

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  19. I don't know if you guys are aware, but pizzeria UNO has a gluten free pizza you can get at the restaurant.

    http://www.unos.com/newmenu/flatbread_pizza.html

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