Pizza Crust recipe (wheat/corn/gluten-free)

Today's post will enable you to make PIZZA without wheat or corn! Both of the following recipes are from Bette Hagman's book, The Gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread. The first recipe is for French Bread/Pizza Mix; once you have this mixed up, it's a snap to prepare delicious pizza at home. As always, I've made a few modifications to the recipes to suit our family's needs as follows:

• use guar gum in place of xanthan gum (xanthan gum is produced using corn products, not OK for us)
• omit egg replacer in dry mix, substitute with an extra egg in the wet ingredients

French Bread/Pizza Mix, p. 190, The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread, Bette Hagman

makes 12 cups of mix

• 7 cups white rice flour
• 5 cups tapioca flour
• ¼ cup guar gum (I found the best price on this at Barry Farms)
• 1 ounce unflavored gelatin (I buy gelatin in big cans at Cash & Carry, you can also use 4 7-gram packets)
• ¼ cup egg replacer (you can delete this ingredient and add an extra egg per single crust to the wet ingredients)
• ½ cup sugar

Stir together well or place in a plastic bag and tumble. (I use a plastic 1 gallon juice container.) Store on your pantry shelf, no need to refrigerate.

Seasoned Pizza Crust, p. 191, The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread, Bette Hagman

To freeze for later use, bake for the first 10 minutes, coo, then wrap and freeze. To use, thaw completely, then top and bake.

CH Note: We use stoneware pizza pans for the best results – otherwise, the crust turns out soggy and limp. I got our stoneware from The Pampered Chef.

For 1 crust:

Dry Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups French Bread/Pizza M
• 3 tbsp. dry milk powder
• ¾ tsp. Italian seasoning
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2-1/2 tsp. dry yeast granules

Wet Ingredients

• 1 egg (2 eggs if you omitted the egg replacer in the dry mix)
• 1-1/2 tbsp. olive or vegetable oil
• ½ tsp. apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup + 1 tbsp. warm water

Preheat oven to 400°F (375°F if using stoneware pan). Lightly grease baking sheet.

Blend dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Place wet ingredients in bowl of heavy-duty mixer and blend. Turn the mixer to low and add the flour mix. Beat on high for 3-1/2 minutes.

Spoon dough onto prepared pan, and spread to within ½ inch of pan edges. Dough is really sticky and will be a challenge to work with initially.

Let crust rise about 10 minutes, then bake for 10-15 minutes while you prepare pizza toppings. Top crust with sauce, cheese, and additional toppings. Bake again for about 25 minutes. Lift crust with a spatula to see if it’s golden and done.