Gluten Free Friday: Pizza Dough II and Focacia

Ever since we started this gluten free journey, I’ve been tweaking recipes I find online and finally got into working out my own recipes.  My original GF pizza dough isn’t bad at all, but it wasn’t what WE like in our pizza, so I’ve been tweaking it, and I think I’ve finally settled on one that tastes as close to my regular wheat pizza dough as possible.  And as it happens, it makes MARVELOUS focacia, so this week it’s a twofer.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/4 cup soy flour
  • 1/2 cup tapioca starch
  • 1/2 cup masa flour
  • 1 cup corn starch
  • 1/4 cup ground flax
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon yeast
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 1 tablespoon xanthan gum
  • 1 1/4 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon cider vinegar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/3 cup olive oil

Directions:

  1. Fix the paddle attachment to your mixer.
  2. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the water and allow to proof.
  3. Meanwhile, add your eggs, olive oil, honey, and vinegar to your mixer bowl and mix.
  4. In another bowl, mix the flours, starches, flax, salt, and xanthan gum.  Set aside.
  5. Add the proofed yeast and honey to the mixer and mix until kind of frothy.
  6. Add the dry mix and mix for 3-4 minutes.
  7. Scrape into a large plastic container and cover (but don’t seal).
  8. Allow to rise at room temperature for 2 hours.
  9. You can use the dough immediately or put into the fridge for later.
  10. If you refrigerate the dough, let it rest for 30-60 minutes at room temp before baking.

For pizza:

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Dust the surface of the dough with rice flour and cut off a soft-ball size piece of dough.
  3. Dust the piece with more rice flour and form it into a ball.  You won’t be stretching this since there’s no gluten.  You’ll just press it into shape with your hands.  You’ll be using lots of rice flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface, but try not to work any big lumps of flour into the dough.
  4. Flatten the ball with your hands and a rolling pin, straight on a wooden pizza peel, aiming to produce a THIN crust (this is one of the keys to good GF crust)–around 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick.  Remember, lots of rice flour to keep the dough from sticking.  You may wanna use a metal dough scraper to help get the dough up when it sticks.
  5. Before you add the toppings, be SURE that the dough is still movable before you top it.  If it’s not, sprinkle more rice flour under the dough.
  6. Top as you wish.
  7. Slide the pizza directly onto the stone (you might have to shake back and forth carefully to dislodge it).
  8. Bake 10-12 minutes, turning halfway if one side is browning faster than the other.  It might need up to 5 more minutes, but ours was done in 10.
  9. Let the pizza cool slightly on a rack before serving so the cheese will set.

For focacia:

  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
  2. Spray a 9×9 baking pan with cooking spray.
  3. Dust the dough with rice flour and take a soft ball size ball.
  4. Press it into the baking pan until flattened and even.
  5. Paint the top with olive oil.
  6. Sprinkle with a pinch of dried oregano, rosemary, basil, and kosher salt.
  7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

Printable version.

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