Fantastic Gluten-Free Pizza
A fantastic gluten-free pizza dough recipe, which not only works on its own but can be easily adapted, adding herbs, infused oil or even ground nuts to the dough and of course topped with any ingredient raw or cooked.
Pizza has to be one of the worlds most versatile dishes and whilst I love experimenting with different textures and flavours I often just like to eat it simply, using a good mozzarella and well seasoned.
I however am not the pizza maker in our house.  My husband has a long standing reputation for his delicious home-made pizzas. So I couldn’t wait to see if he could perform his pizza magic with gluten-free flour?!
If you’re not a pizza lover I’d recommend his tomato sauce (see below) is worth making on its own, Â as it’s really rich, vibrant and I’m sure would sit proudly on any Italian’s table.
This pizza dough recipe is his adaptation of Jamie Oliver’s Return of the Naked Chef originally published in March 2000, a good year before I first meet him,  Mr Alpha that is not Jamie O!
What now feel like a life time ago I bought Mr Oliver’s second book and Mr Alpha has been happily making his version of delicious pizzas from it for the past 10+ years.
After leaving city living some 8 years ago we have come to really appreciate and rely on these delicious home made pizza’s and freeze up a big batch, ready to go with sauce and cheese on. A life saver when you don’t live near any decent take away restaurants that deliver or want delicious gluten-free pizza!
I hadn’t heard great things about  gluten-free pizza so I waited to see what would happen,  expecting a lot of banging and swearing from the kitchen.  There was some in the dough making stage where it  looked and felt like play dough and I started to wonder if what finally came out of the oven would in any way be edible.
I should have had more faith.  And on this occasion the GF pizzas ended up tasting better than the regular batch he made as there was some miss judgment with the white to brown regular flour ratio or something. …oops.
Before I list the ingredients and cooking instructions, Â there are a few things to consider when making GF pizza.
-Firstly the dough will look and feel a little like play dough so don’t panic!
-Crusts don’t work with GF pizza dough
– You’ll need quite a bit extra GF flour to work with the play like dough (for rolling etc)
– The base needs to be cooked (or frozen uncooked) on lightly oiled baking sheets.
I’d love to know how you find it and of course any variations toppings that you particularly enjoy?
INGREDIENTS
Pizza Base:
1 x 30 grams of gluten-free yeast or 3 x packets dried gluten-free yeast
30 grams (approx. 2 tablespoons) of honey or sugar
Just over 1 pint (625 millilitres) tepid water
Just over 2 pounds (1 kilogram) of gluten-free bread flour
30 grams of salt
Extra flour, for dusting
TOMATO SAUCE:
1 x small chopped red onion
100g passata
1 x clove of garlic crushed or grated
1 x good pinch of sea salt
1 x good pinch of dried oregano
5 x table spoons of olive oil
S&P to taste
This may leave you with a little extra sauce you can use with pasta etc or freeze.
Â
 TO COOK
Makes 6 generous pizzas
1. Dissolve the yeast and honey (or sugar) in half the tepid water.
2. Use the dough hook or equivalent and add the flour, salt, yeast and honey.
3. Mix well and if needed add more water with the motor running until you have a soft but not sticky dough
4. Your dough is now ready for you to knead, simply roll, push, and fold the dough over and over for 5 minutes. If any of the dough sticks to your hands, just rub them together with a little extra flour.
6. Flour both your hands well, and lightly flour the top of the dough. Make it into a roundish shape and place on a baking tray.
7. Deeply score the dough with a knife – this allows it to relax and proof with ease. Leave it to proof until it’s doubled in size. Ideally you want a warm, moist, draft-free place for the quickest proof, for example near a warm stove, or just in a warm room, and you can even cover it with plastic wrap if you want to speed things up. This proofing process improves the flavor and texture of the dough and should take around 40 minutes, depending on the conditions.
8. Pre-heat your oven to 200c, gas mark 6, 200f
9. Once it has  doubled in size, you need to knock the air out of it by bashing it around for a minute.
10. Â Lightly flour your dough and rolling pin, and gently break off a good fist full or so and roll it out on to lightly oiled baking sheets as thin as you can.
11. Add the tomato sauce, mozzarella and any additional toppings you want.
12. Cut off as much of the pizza rim as you can that is not covered by sauce and add knead the dough back into the large ball
13. Place in the oven for approx. 10-15 mins
TO COOK
Tomato Sauce
1. Dice the red onions
2. Heat a little olive oil in a shallow pan
3. Add onions and very gently fry until the onions are translucent (approx. 5 mins)
4. Add the passata, pinch of oregano, salt, olive oil and garlic
5. Bring to a gentle boil
6. Turn the heat down add the olive oil, cover with a lid but leave a gap for so the moisture can escape
7. Regularly stir the sauce whilst simmering until there is no liquid left on the top of the sauce and it is fully integrated and thick, approx. 30 mins
TO COOK
Dough without a food mixer
1. Dissolve the yeast and honey (or sugar) in half the tepid water
2. On a clean surface or in a large bowl, make a pile of the flour and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in all the dissolved yeast mixture.
3. With 4 fingers of 1 hand, make circular movements from the center moving outwards, slowly bringing in more and more of the flour until all of the yeast mixture is soaked up.
4. Pour the other half of the tepid water into the center and gradually incorporate all the flour to make moist dough. (Certain flours may need a little more water, so don’t be afraid to adjust the quantities.)
5. Knead you dough, simply roll, push, and fold the dough over and over for 5 minutes. If any of the dough sticks to your hands, just rub them together with a little extra flour.
6. Flour both your hands well, and lightly flour the top of the dough. Make it into a roundish shape and place in back in the mixing bowl or baking tray.
7. Deeply score the dough with a knife – this allows it to relax and proof with ease. Leave it to proof until it’s doubled in size. Ideally you want a warm, moist, draft-free place for the quickest proof, for example near a warm stove, or just in a warm room, and you can even cover it with plastic wrap if you want to speed things up. This proofing process improves the flavor and texture of the dough and should take around 40 minutes, depending on the conditions.
8. Pre-heat your oven to 200c, gas mark 6, 200f
9. Once it has  doubled in size, you need to knock the air out of it by bashing it around for a minute.
10. Â Lightly flour your dough and rolling pin, and break off a generous fist full of the dough, Â gently roll on to lightly oiled baking sheets as thin as you can.
11. Add the tomato sauce, mozzarella and any additional toppings you want
12. Cut off as much of the pizza rim as you can that is not covered by sauce and add knead the dough back into the large ball
13. Place in the oven for approx. 10-15 mins
MAN AT WORK!!
Tabitha’s Edit 
8 Responses to “Fantastic Gluten-Free Pizza”
Love how your mixer looks a lot like my mixer, meaning the flour dust. 😉
ha! ha! you should of seen the rest of the kitchen, or what was left under the cover of flour… not that I’m complaining the means justified the result!
Thanks for sharing Tabs,
This looks like a really good simple recipe – I’ll be trying this one v soon.
Vx
Excellent. Let me know any top, topping tips or variations. Enjoy!
Reblogged this on Tabitha's Gluten Free Dishes.
Will put this on my try list, we always make pizza at home but I have been opting out for the hubby and buying him gluten free pizza bases.
Excellent.I’ve tried a couple of good shop bought GF bases and pizza’s but nothing beats fresh baked, no nasty preservative or additives and just delicious real pizza. Enjoy!
[…] hindsight is a wonderful thing! When I first went gluten-free my husband made delicious gf pizzas- find it here. Â But since going grain free we haven’t experimented with different flours. I have to admit […]