Today we are preparing gluten-free pizza with a homemade mix, without worrying about finding a costly pre-made mix. This is one of the many versions I’ve tried, using a predetermined combination of the most commercially available gluten-free flours.
I used 6 parts of fine rice flour, type impalpable make sure, 2 parts potato starch, 1 part of corn starch and finally 1 part of chosen flour to give character to the dough. In this case, I chose chestnut flour, which can be replaced with another gluten-free flour like soy flour, teff or buckwheat flour, or millet flour, etc.
All these flours are gluten-free so, to achieve a fake gluten network, necessary to give some elasticity to the dough, I add Guar gum powder or Xanthan gum, in the amount of 1-2 grams per 100 grams of flour. It is easily found in supermarkets in the organic or vegan sections, in sachets.
Moreover, the hydration of gluten-free pizzas is always high, so I recommend using at least 80% water or other liquid, in this dough it’s over 90%. Finally, being a gluten-free dough, the yeast finds little food to feed on, so I don’t think of doing a long rising, the honey I add and the guar gum give their little contribution to releasing gas and sufficiently aerating the pizza.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: for a 15.5×12.6 inch baking tray.
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups rice flour (fine, impalpable)
- 1/2 cup potato starch
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 1/4 cup chestnut flour
- 1 tsp guar gum (in powder)
- 1 1/4 cups water (lukewarm)
- 1/2 oz fresh yeast
- 1 tsp honey
- 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3/4 tsp fine salt
- 7 oz tomato sauce
- 7 oz mozzarella (or vegetable mozzarella)
- to taste oil, salt, basil
Steps
Mix the flours well together, rice, potato starch, corn starch, chestnut flour, along with the guar gum powder and set aside.
In a large bowl, put the lukewarm water and honey, add the crumbled fresh yeast, and let it dissolve for 5 minutes.
Add the flour mix to the water with the yeast and knead everything with a fork inside the bowl, gathering all the powders well. Finally, add the oil with the salt and knead the mixture with your hands until you get a compact and homogeneous dough.
Cover the bowl and let it rise until doubled, it will take about 1 hour.
After the rising time, grease a baking tray of about 15.5×12.6 inches with oil and pour the dough at the center. With oiled hands, gently spread it to the edges of the tray.
Put the tray in the turned-off oven and let it rise for another 30 minutes or so.
Meanwhile, prepare the tomato with oil, salt, and basil, and after the second rise in the turned-off oven, pour it over the pizza and spread it well to the edges.
Preheat the oven to 392°F and bake the pizza for 10 minutes on the lowest rack.
Remove the tray from the oven, sprinkle everything with mozzarella or vegetable cheese, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, and finish baking the pizza for another 5 minutes on the top rack of the oven.
