Friday night in our house is a date night of sorts. We often put the babe to bed and then make homemade gluten free pizza while sipping on a cold gluten free beer. When the pizzas are done, we top them with Parmesan and red pepper flakes and head to the den to watch a movie together.
If you’d like more easy, fun recipes like this one, I’ve included all of my favorites in my ebook, The Gluten Free Survival Guide. I know you’ll enjoy cooking them as much as we do!
I usually save my longer gluten free recipes for Friday or Saturday nights because I find it very relaxing to putter around in the kitchen making yummy food. Although, now that I’ve made this particular recipe…hmmm, it must be around five times now, it’s getting a lot easier, and I could probably make it on a weeknight. But, then what would I look forward to all day on Friday while I’m at work?
Instructions
Our goal is to be very full. This may be enough for three or four if you’re serving salad as well.
- 1 Tbsp. yeast
- 1 1/3 c. milk (soy, cow, or rice)
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 1/3 c. brown rice flour
(I use Bob’s Red Mill)
- 1 c. corn starch
- 2 tsp. xanthum gum
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp. fennel seed
- 1/2 tsp. rosemary (dried)
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 2 tsp. olive oil
- 2 tsp. cider vinegar
Pizza Sauce
- 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (w/ Italian seasonings)
- 1/2 of a 6 oz. can of tomato paste
- 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp. fennel seed
- 1/2 tsp. rosemary
- 6 fresh basil leaves, minced
- Start by putting all of the ingredients for the pizza sauce, except for the basil, into a saucepan and heat over medium low. The sauce should simmer while you make the crust and prepare the toppings. We’ll come back to it when later after the spices have had time to get happy.
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Heat the milk in the microwave so that it is warm (not so hot that it would burn your finger, just warm). Combine the milk with the sugar and yeast in a small mixing bowl. If you stir the mixture while you slowly pour the milk, then it should all dissolve very nicely. Let this sit while you proceed to the next step – it needs to have time to get bubbly.
- Combine the brown rice flour, corn starch, xanthum gum and spices in a larger mixing bowl. If the rosemary is not crushed, then I usually chop it up a bit with a knife before I put it in the bowl.
- Add the oil and vinegar to the yeast mixture, which should have some air bubbles by now. Then pour all of that into the flour mixture and stir well. Once you’ve done this, the dough will be somewhat sticky, and now is a good time to sprinkle some extra rice flour on it. Now that the rice flour is cutting down on the stickiness, form the dough into a ball and let it sit while you get your pans ready.
- If you’re using pans or a cookie sheet to cook the crusts, you will need to grease them, so that the pizza crust does not stick. Spread butter, olive oil, shortening, or cooking spray on the pan and then sprinkle a bit of rice flour on top of that. ( I use one round and one square cake pan for the pizzas. To me, it’s easier than rolling it out so that I can use my pizza stone. But if you have a pizza stone, feel free to use that, or a cookie sheet.)
- Split the ball of dough into two pieces – one for each pan. Starting from the middle of the dough, use your fingers to press down on the dough and spread it out towards the edges of the pan. I usually work my way from the center to the edges in a circular pattern. When you get the dough to the edges, continue to push the dough up onto the side of the pan, so that you will have a nice crust. Here are some pictures of me making the crust last weekend.
8. Pop the crusts into the hot oven for 8 minutes. While they are cooking, add the basil to the sauce and prep your pizza toppings. Tonight we used diced onion, diced bell pepper, mushrooms, and black olives.
9. Take the crusts out of the oven. While they cool for a second, use your stick blender to puree the pizza sauce if you do not want it to be chunky.
10. Drizzle some olive oil onto your crusts and spread it over them evenly. (This will keep the pizza sauce from making your crust soggy.). Now add the toppings starting with the pizza sauce and ending with the cheese.
11. Pop the pizza back into the oven for 10 – 15 minutes. The time is not specific, you just want the pizzas to stay in the oven until the cheese starts to brown a bit. Pull the pizzas out, cut, and serve.
P.S. After I put the crusts into the oven tonight, I realized that I had left out the oil and the vinegar!!! Everything turned out fine though, so if you want to reduce the fat in this recipe, feel free to leave out the oil.
I’ve been looking for recipes for gluten-free baked goods that don’t contain xanthan gum, which is a migraine trigger for me. Any idea if it is possible to make bread, cakes or cookies without both gluten and xanthan gum?
Thanks for your comments on my blog. I’m enjoying poking around on your blog. Looks like some great recipes.
Hi Kerrie,
I have seen recipes that use guar gum and/or unflavored gelatin as a subsitute for xanthum gum. I haven’t used either, but if you want to give it a try replace the xanthum gum with twice the amount of unflavored gelatin powder, or 1.5 times the amount of guar gum. Please let me know how it works out if you give it a try =)
Mary Frances
Thanks! I’ve just found a gingersnap recipe without any sort of gums or gelatin, so I’ll try that next. I’ve also just discovered a polenta cake recipe that sounds fabulous.
BEST PIZZA CRUST !!! Thank you for making my Christmas complete. Every year I have a big pizza blast for my extended family (20+ people) — a great time of pizza making and eating and catching up. How to do it when I must now be gluten free ?? .. and my 8 year old and my Mom as well??? I have tried 5 other pizza recipes in 2 months — all very compicated and not user friendly. Yours is great and fast to make. Thank you so much.
PianaMom…that is awesome! I’m so glad that you were able to continue your pizza tradition! I’ve actually been playing around with the recipe recently and am now rolling it out and cooking one large crust on our pizza stone. We’ve found that when we go back for seconds the crust has gotten super crispy from sitting on the stone. Once I’ve figured out how to get the first slices that crispy, I’ll update the recipe or post a new one.
Yes — bakeware makes a big difference. For this recipe, metal…not so good; glass…great. I used a glass 10×14 (?) on New Years Eve — one big pizza, and it was great.
I am still looking for a great bread recipe. I tried MANY and found a few that are okay…any suggestions? My top priority right now is finding a good sandwich bread for my 9 year old son for school lunches. Cookies, brownies, muffins — all easy. Bread — still searching for that really great recipe…can you help?
I get very consistent results from my recipe for “Finally, Really Good Sandwich Bread”. We make it at least once a week for sandwiches and find that it holds up well in a lunch bag.
Mary Frances — I made wonderfully crispy thin crust pizza last night!! I substituted about 1/2 cup quinoa flour for the other flours (don’t know if that made a difference or not). I pressed it into a very heavy metal pizza pan (17-18″diameter) quite thin –let raise for 20 min, baked at 450 degrees for 10 min, put toppings on, then another 10 min. The edges were brown, and so was the bottom — out of the pan right away so it would not steam…..so beautifully crunchy and crispy!! High temp, heavy pan, and press it thin! My gluten-eating family members said it was fabulous (they do not sugar coat their reviews) and my celiac son said he wished he could bottle the taste because it was so good.
And your bread recipe is a staple in my house now — superior result, and the easiest recipe I’ve tried — rises beautifully and does not collapse in the middle when removed from oven! THANK YOU
Can someone please tell me if a recipe calls for gluten, can you just leave it out or do you have to substitute or change other ingredients in the recipe with something else?
I know that gluten is often used in low carb recipes. It basically boosts the yeast, and kind of binds the bread together so you get a higher volume. It is helpful when dealing with heavier, whole grains, which may crumble. However, (in my pre celiac days) when I have used it in 100% whole wheat bread recipes, I did not think it made that much of a difference – maybe a bit , but not really. I really think you can just replace it with whatever flour you are using and get a pretty good result.
I’ve been looking for a good and easy gf recipe for Swiss Steak, I tried using the soy flour and it was horrible.
Also, any recipes out there for gf fried chicken or fish?
Roylene,
I often use brown rice flour for breading foods that I’m going to fry. You could also use an all-purpose gluten free flour mix, if you find you don’t like the texture of the brown rice flour by itself. It’s been a while since I’ve made fried chicken, but I think I just used my gluten free flour mix (there’s a link in the sidebar) and added the seasonings that were called for in the recipe. It fried up just like my Grandmother’s and we couldn’t tell that it was gluten free.
Has anyone tried freezing these? How does it work and how would you reccomend doing it?
Great pizza crust recipe! I subbed potato starch for the cornstarch and doubled the recipe for two giant pizzas. We will definitely be using this recipe from now one!
MagickMomma, I froze one a few weeks ago and it came out fine when I thawed it. I wrapped it up in many layers of saran wrap to freeze, then thawed it by putting in the refrigerator for a day. I crisped it up on my pizza stone, and no one realized it had been frozen.
Liz,
I’m so glad that you liked the pizza crust. What toppings do you use on yours?
Hi everyone,
The Dr’s are testing my husband for CD, he has suffered with pshyrasis (ap) for years. They did find a med when he went to Mass General which cleared it up, but totally messed up his insides, severe anemia, bad chills etc. So they took him off it a few months ago, but will not give him anything else until they get his blood back to where it should be. He takes iron pills 4x’s a day and it is still not coming back to normal fast enough. So this is the next step. If it comes back posative on Fri I will be looking for recipes. I love to cook so making things homemade for him is not a problem for me. Any suggestions will help. (sorry for the spelling errors, I do math not spelling)
Debbie
Hi,
Does anyone have a recipe for pizza dough that is gluten free, yeast free, dairy free. Can’t seem to find a recipe.
Mich
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I love how quick it is to make this pizza dough. My 3 year old was sad all morning, because Daddy ordered a pizza while we were gone yesterday, and was eating leftovers this morning. Sometimes he doesn’t think things through very well (my husband, I mean). So I hopped on your website to save the day. Its just finishing up in the oven now, so the rest of us will have gluten, dairy, and egg free pizza for lunch 🙂 So far, my husband has been the only one to not like the recipes I’ve tried. He’s spoiled and picky, and knows he doesn’t “have” to be gluten free, as long as he hides the evidence.
guar gum – a product from a bean plant – I have used this gum for years because it is so much less expensive than xanathan gum – and I have had no problems with it no matter what I am baking
Pizza for an even faster version, use instant yeast or bread machine yeast, same quantity as in your recipe. I have only used metal pans and have successfully frozen unbaked crusts, thawed, topped and baked without problems. These quicker acting yeasts also work very well in bread recipes – there is only one rising – just mix the yeast with the flours.
I was diagnosed in 1965, living in a small hamlet in northern Saskatchewan – no gluten-free products were available then and there were no doctors locally who were familiar with celiac disease. So, life was indeed a lot more complicated then! I was given gluten free bread in the hospital and was not able to find gluten free bread for several years, yes, years later. No gluten free pasta products were available either so you can just imagine how very simple my dietary choices were!
I’m just wondering if this is freezable- or rather I think I’ll make a double batch, try freezing half, and post the results back here! My housemate is gluten free and I like the idea of being able to cook as quickly for her as for the rest of us, which means doing the preparation in advance and having portions in the freezer ready to go. My only concern is that the yeast won’t respond well, but we’re pretty comfortable with thin, flat pizzas, so we’ll see how that goes!
Pizza is something I really miss — I have to walk by the Pizza stands all the time — a million varieties staring back at me. The closest I’ve come to making my own pizza was to take gluten free white bread, top it with sauce, seasonings and cheese and bake it in the oven. I can’t wait to try this!
Karen, I hope you like it. We have pizza almost every weekend now and our non gluten free guests have like it too.
I just tried this recipe last night and although it took me quite awhile, it was delicious! I was so proud of myself (I rolled it out and used my pizza stone) and just pleased overall with how yummy it turned out. I’m 6 months pregnant and my cravings have thus far consisted of pizza and burgers, probably since I can’t have them. Thanks for helping satisfy one of my cravings and for helping me to forget for a night that I am gluten intolerant.
@Crystal: If you have any trouble rolling it out, just add a bit more flour. I’ve been meaning to post a recipe that’s intended to be rolled out, but keep forgetting to write it down =) Also, you’ll get faster the more often you make it, so don’t be discouraged by that either.
Congratulations on the babe. I hope all goes well as you head into the final trimester.
Hi Mary Frances!
I’m teaching a GF baking class this week and would love to use this pizza crust recipe. Are you okay with that if I give you major credit for it and give everyone your website address? Anything else you’d like me to promote?
THanks!
Liz
@Liz:
I’d love for you to use it. Thanks!
I am trying to make pizza crust (gluten free) so I purchased all purpose gluten free flour. All of the recipes, including those on the website of the flour I just purchased tell you all different types of flour to use. The flour I have has a mixture of bean, tapioca and rice. Does anyone out there have a recipe that will guide me to use the flour that I have?
Thanks!
@Windy: Try using my recipe for a rolled out pizza crust and substitute the all-purpose flour that you have purchased for my all-purpose flour mix. Check the ingredients on your bag to see if the flour already contains xanthan gum or rising agents. If it does, you’ll need to take those out of my recipe.
That mixture should work fine for you– you could either use 2 1/3 cups of your flour mix to replace both the rice flour and corn starch, or you could use 1 /13 cup your flour mix, and 1 cup of corn starch. I have used all different combinations of flours, and there is not much of a difference in the outcome. My personal favorite mixture is equal parts of brown rice, tapioca and sorghum (I use this mixture for everything — cakes, cookies, bread, pizza). This pizza recipe is a very forgiving recipe — it really should work pretty well not matter what combination of gluten free flours you use. The key for me is to press it fairly thin, and I bake it at a higher temperature — 400 degrees. 10 minutes crust only, then add toppings, and then bake for another 12 or so minutes till all is bubbly and wonderful!!!!! One batch makes one really big pizza (15 in round)
Rice Flour for fried anything and Gluten Free Pantry’s favorite sandwich bread mix. That has been the best for me so far.
I have found that using parchment paper helps to make a nice crisp crust. It also is especially helpful to prevent contact with possible gluten from a previous use!
Hi I was wondering if this pizza dough could freeze well or if anyone knew. I have a great-nephew with autism and my nephew and his wife are exhausted taking care of hm and his two brothers who all must go gluten free for the most part. My nephew’s biggest complaint is that food is no longer good and my poor exhausted niece just hasn’t the time to make all manner of things for him. I thought if I could make some ahead of time and give it to them frozen they could go from there.
Thanks.
Hi Charm,
I haven’t frozen the pizza dough before, but it should work well. I would suggest baking the crust in the oven for 5 minutes or so, and then letting it cool before freezing. Another alternative that might work is to mix up all of the dry ingredients in a ziploc bag and then write the wet ingredients and brief cooking instructions on the bag, so that it’s easy for your niece to mix up. I do that alot with my sandwich bread mix and it makes the baking so much easier.
Freezing Gluten-Free Pizza – no problem at all! You can make the crust in your usual pan, place in the freezer – when it is frozen solid, remove from freezer and pan – wrap completely with plastic wrap or heavy tin foil and return to freezer.
Alternatively, make the crust, add tomato sauce, cheese, cooked meats, sauteed mushrooms and onions. Place in freezer until frozen solid. Remove from freezer, wrap completely in plastic wrap and return to freezer. Do not wrap this pizza in tin foil – there is some sort of reaction between the tomato sauce and the foil.
One hour before you want to start baking or finishing the toppings, remove pizza from freezer, remove plastic wrap from the bottom of the pizza only, allow to thaw, add any additional toppings, and bake as per the original recipe.
Do not add uncooked meats or vegetables to any pizza you are planning to freeze – they become watery and the texture is awful.
Frozen pizzas can be kept in the freezer for at least two months.
Hi, I just tried to copy the pizza recipe and found it would take 18 pages of paper! Anyway to just print the recipe? Thank you. Joan
The best suggestion that I can offer is to highlight the part that you want to print, and then use the copy and paste functions to put the text into a Word document. Then you can print the Word document.
I LOVE this recipe!!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve been gluten free since 2005, and haven’t had a true pizza since then, until now. I tried all sorts of store-bought gluten-free “pizza crusts”, and while some of them were tasty, they just weren’t REAL pizza.
Since I moved out to go to university in 2005, I haven’t done much baking at all…in fact, it would probably be accurate to say I’d done NO baking until this semester, when I’ve finally gotten fed up with staying away from any kind of bread or pastry, and decided to start baking.
I whipped some of this dough up the other night, and was THRILLED with the result!!! Thanks so much! I love this dough so much I might just start baking plain dough sticks to snack on…
Oh, and I forgot to mention, I used potato starch instead of corn starch, and I used a tad bit less milk than the recipe called for (just a quirk of mine, I hate it when dough is sticky!) The reason for the potato starch was that I just couldn’t remember where I stored my corn starch, plus I love baking with my potato starch.
Hi,
Thank you! Thank you! Thank You! I can’t wait till I try this recipe & looking forward to many more 🙂
Does any of you know a web site that has many gluten less pizza recipes?I need some recipes that I can make in less time and also taste good
Thanks,
Dan
I am not able to have the yeast either… what can be used to substitute it? I was told baking soda and lemon juice… is this correct?
@ Ashley, that should work.
Thanks Mary, I did try it tonight and it was a big hit. Everyone was amazed at just how good the pizza was.
Can I use potato flour when the recipe calls for potato starch? I am new to this so still learning. I love this site! The info is REALLY helpful! Thanks!
@Robin, There is a difference. Here’s a good article on the difference between potato starch and potato flour and how each should be used.
I just made this pizza for my husband and I. It was wonderful! I used my pizza stone and it came out very crispy and not at all crumbly. I used half brown rice flour, and half a GF flour mixture with various flours. I used all of the dough for one large crust. I was surprised the the dough was so pliable, but glad because I had to roll it out twice. I rolled it out on a board, but then could not transfer it, so I rolled it out again on cornmeal coated parchment paper. Then I cooked it on my preheated stone, and it was even firm enough that I set it directly on the over rack for the last few minutes. This is going to become a staple at my house! Thanks for recipe!
I made this recipe Friday night. My husband was very skeptical because of how terrible the other GF pizzas I’ve tried making in the past. I was really excited about trying it after how well your flour tortillas turned out for me last week. Well, needless to say, it was fantastic. The crust had a great flavor and the texture wasn’t too dense like others I’ve tried. The sauce was great as well! It even warmed up great in the oven. Thank you for all of your recipes. You have truely helped my family eat happier! 🙂
This recipe is awesome! I haven’t had pizza in a long time. Thank you!
Thanks so much for this recipe. My incredibly picky autistic son chowed down on it! I tried it myself and it was quite good. I’m guessing I will be making this about 1,000 times in the future. Thanks again. :]
Hi Mary Frances!
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I look forward to trying it out. I have another question to find an answer for. I was given a recipe for making my own flour mixture. I am wondering if you know if it’s as good as the ones you’ve posted or not. Please be honest. All I’d need to do is buy some other flours if this recipe doesn’t quite cut it. It is as follows: 2 parts rice flour, 1 part tapioca starch/flour, 1 part potato starch/ flour and 1 1/2 tsp xanthum gum. What do you think of it? I was hoping it was a universal mix for bread, cookies, cakes, etc. I’m thinking I’m wrong. Help please!
Thanks!!!
Dear Martini Lady-
I use my flour mix for everything — cookies, bread, cakes, waffles, brownies, bread and this pizza recipe. So easy — I mix it up in a big zip lock. It is EQUAL parts of brown rice flour, sweet white sorghum flour, and tapioca flour. For every 2 cups I use, I add 1 teaspoon xanthan gum. I am telling you — I use my regular old recipes for cakes and cookies, that call for gluten flour, and just substitute this mix cup for cup, plus the xanthan gum — and everything turns out great. For bread, pizza, and pie crust I have to use special gluten free recipes, but I still always use this flour mixture. I have 3 kids who are gluten free, as well as myself — my husband, a gluten eater, is my taster and he loves stuff made with this mix. GOOD LUCK.
I LOVE this pizza!!!!! The BEST pizza I’ve ever tasted, gluten free or gluten full! My husband is gluten intolerant and I prefer the pizza over any other pizza I CAN eat!
Thank you thank you!!!
Thanks so much for a great recipe! I was out of tapioca flour and looking for a good dough that was a little healthier than what we had been using. We tried it today and both of my GF kids LOVED it! I am so thankful!