Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

UPDATE: Ok...so since originally posting this a couple of years ago, I have changed my mind.:) Sorry, but Bette Hagman's Seasoned Pizza Crust in "The Gluten Free Gourmet Bakes Bread" blows everything else out of the water. Think normal tasting pizza (not take out pizza...normal homemade pizza...). Delish. If you don't have that book yet...it's a must. Just a couple of changes to her recipe:

*The first couple times were sooooooooo frustrating as I tried to figure out how to spread the dough. Here's what I do now. Grease and dust with cornmeal a small cookie sheet. Grease the back side of a plastic spatula (the pancake flippy kind...not the rubber, scrape the sides kind). Put all the dough in the center of the pan. Use the greased back side of the spatula to pull the dough to the edges of the cookie sheet. When you hit the side, leave the extra that naturally accumulates for a raised edge crust. Mmm. Don't get frustrated. A few times in, you'll be a pro!

*I bake for 15 minutes without toppings, and another 13 with.

*And I highly recommend brushing the crust with a mix of melted real butter, parmasean and minced garlic 3 minutes before it comes out. YUM. Even my hubby eats it with me.

I'll leave the post underneath, but compared to the stuff I'm now making....eh. :) I'm telling you GET THAT COOK BOOK!



It's been awhile since I posted. Life has been...crazy life! I'll try to do better. Starting right now...


Ever since I've been eating gluten-free (almost a year now), I've been making homemade pizza here and there, hoping to land on something that tastes close to a normal pizza. (I'm lucky enough to live close to a Z Pizza that serves gluten-free crust, which is actually really good, but it's a chickpea crust, so I'd still like a yeasty, doughy option!) It's a lot of work to make homemade crust every time I want a pizza, especially since gluten-free crust tends to be sticky and hard to spread. The majority of the crusts I've tried (quite a few different recipes, believe me) haven't been anything special, and definitely aren't worth all the work. Most don't get poofy like a normal crust, and ALL of them have turned kinda mushy and dense under all the cheese and toppings.

Finally, on Friday I might have found a winner. Instead of going completely from scratch, I decided to try Blue Chip Group's French/White Bread mix. I made it as instructed for bread, adding some sugar and honey in an attempt to yummy-up the flavor. When I pulled the pizza stone out of the oven, I was pleasantly surprised at how NORMAL the crust looked. After eating it, I was still impressed--and so was the husband, which is saying something! Great texture...I almost could've believed I was eating Dominos. :) The flavor still needs a little tweaking...I'm thinking about adding some Italian seasoning next time, or maybe brushing the crust with butter and parmesan the last bit. But all in all. Success!!


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