PIZZA, BEST PIZZA CRUST (Thus Far)

    Delicious Pizza that stands the test of time... meaning that I just unearthed a package of this mix deep in the bottom of the freezer (cleaning day) and I whipped it up, pressed it out, baked it and we are again eating delicious pizza.

(Don't ask about college guy's samurai haircut and the pirate patch.  He's an enigma.)

Last posted 1-28-09

Pizza Flour Mix
3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour/starch
1/3 cup dry milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 T. dry egg solids
1 1/2 tsp. xanthun gum
1 Tbs. egg replacer (optional)
1 tsp. italian seasoning
1 T. corn starch or modified food starch (I used MaxiGel)
1 t. lecithin

TO MAKE PIZZA Recipe

2 cups of the pizza flour mix
2 egg whites
1/4 cup canola oil
2 1/2 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
3/4 cup warm water

Mix these ingredients together and then pat onto a pizza pan. If you want it thinner, pat onto a greased 13 x 17 jelly roll pan. Remember to bake half way (about 10 minutes) before you add the toppings.

My newest success! PIZZA!

I am so tired of trying every mix out there and being disappointed. I figure that I can mix up my own failures cheaper than using any mix.

But... But... I tried once more. Deep in the furthest depths of the pantry, I stumbled on a long-forgotten mix that I purchased while I was traveling through Utah. AND THIS IS IT!

I love this mix. It has a strange consistency when mixed up. Kinda like a flubber, but the crust was crusty, not flat, browned nicely and not soggy! This is pizza crust that can be picked up and tastes so close that the boys agreed, "It's the best yet!"

Unfortunately, when it is gone, it is gone,

and while I wait for the order to arrive, (Blue Chip Foods http://www.glutenfreebcg.com/) I took the ingredient list and tried to make my own from the amounts listed and this is what I came up with. It's slightly different dough texture, but it really is delicious.

The key might be the baking method. I bake it by setting the pizza pan on top of a heated pizza stone on the top shelf of my oven (top shelf might not work in yours--unless you too have an old, crusty oven). Heat the oven to 500 then reduce the heat to 400 to bake.

But try it! And once again test the Celiac Creed: "One fabulous success is worth yet another potential failure."

Pizza Flour Mix
3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour/starch
1/3 cup dry milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 T. dry egg solids (or an egg I guess)
1 1/2 tsp. xanthun gum
1 Tbs. egg replacer
1 tsp. italian seasoning
1 T. corn starch or modified food starch (I used MaxiGel)
1 t. lecithin

TO MAKE PIZZA Recipe

2 cups of the pizza flour mix
2 egg whites
1/4 cup canola oil
2 1/2 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
3/4 cup warm water

Mix these ingredients together and then pat onto a pizza pan. If you want it thinner, pat onto a greased 13 x 17 jelly roll pan. Remember to bake half way (about 10 minutes) before you add the toppings.

NEW Addition! Then slide the pizza off onto your preheated pizza stone! That makes a delightful crusty on top and bottom pizza!

GF Empanadas

Gluten-free Empanadas, chewy crusts with delicious filling dipped in maranara sauce.  Great!

I began with my college boy GF Pizza Crust recipe--mixed it up and then pressed 1 1/2 inch balls of dough flat onto plastic wrap.  I filled them with a tablespoon of empanada filling, folded them over and forked the edges to seal.

Baked atop a hot pizza stone at 350 about 15-20 minutes.  

FILLING:  Saute
1 cup diced onion and
1/2 lb. ground beef until brown and stirred in
2 tsp. cumin,
1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.

 I spooned a scoop of beef mixture onto the center, used the plastic wrap to fold the dough in half and then crimped the edges with a fork to seal. I coated each with cooking spray, poked with a fork, then lifted each onto a heated pizza stone at 350 degrees F. It took about 20 minutes to bake and brown nicely.

 Can be served with a marinara dipping sauce.

Stromboli:

If you fill them with a chicken/brocolli/cheese filling, they are called stromboli. I wonder what these would be called in China (With the daughter having served a mission there, the query is never too far from the edges of my brain.)

Deliciolista! I do love food superlatives!

Domino's GF Crust?

Wait, Domino's now has a GLUTEN-FREE** pizza crust?!

Domino's Pizza retains all rights to this image, and has no affiliation
with Gluten-free Reality

**sorta.

Here is Domino's FAQ page about their new "GF" pizza--which is made in the same part of the kitchen, on the same counter, as the non-GF kind. Phooey.

However, their hand-thrown crusts are thrown with cornmeal, so there may still be hope for us to be able to eat a pizza there! 

As usual, your saintly, hungry college lab rats Brian and Dia are here to test it out for you. Brian has almost been GF for five months now and Dia's a veteran of almost five years (am I 23 or 23?) unless you don't count her mission (which she doesn't, because she ate ... everything... on accident).

Send hopeful thoughts our way! 

PAESAN PIZZA CRUST!!!!!

The happiness of that day in Orem, Utah at Paesan Pizza still haunts me and I am determined to repeat it! Today I am recipe testing the Goddesses' Crust and it's heavenly of course.

This is the thought progression: If the restaurant can prepare these crusts--have them available to be grilled (for sandwiches) or slathered in olive oil and baked in a pizza oven, then why can't I?

So I mixed up the Goddesses' crust recipe and oiled two pieces of plastic wrap. I dropped about a half-cup of the dough into the center of one piece of greased plastic, then placed the other piece, oil side down) on top. I used an 8" cake pan as a pizza press and then peeled the top piece of plastic off. I turned the pressed dough into the oiled (olive) cake pan, then peeled back the second piece of plastic and set it to rest (raise) on the top of the warm stove for about five minutes.

I may have overdone it with the olive oil in the cake pan, but my judgement with olive oil has always been slightly skewed. The restaurant used about a quarter cup, but that was at the reheat/pizza oven stage not the prebake.

The dough did not raise discernibly atop the stove, but when I flipped it out onto the 590 degree pizza stone that had been heating in my oven for about a half hour. (Can I just tell you that the fire alarm does not like kitchen ovens heated to 590 degrees,) It (and the excess olive oil) sizzled wildly and within three minutes had raised into shockingly high pizza sized bubbles- I hurriedly flipped the dough and the other side was toasty within minutes. It was not done in the inside, nor did I expect it to be as the crusts at Paesan looked only prebaked.

My next thought: A little oil goes a long way, and probably was not necessary at all at this stage-neither was the 590 degree oven. Reducing the setting to 450 also was too much of a burn, but it makes a very nice pizza in the final phase. (I jumped ahead and cooked the first sample 10 minutes longer at 450 covered with the toppings.)

It was nice and crispy on the bottom, although next time I would bake it closer to the top of the oven, (but who in their right mind tries to move a pizza stone heated to superhot and is unsuccessful, and then suitably chastened?)

That is why I am now nursing a burn on my wrist, but a deliciously, delectable, savory pizza in my mouth.

P.S. The flattened piece of dough that I grilled on my pancake griddle cooked nicely and is awaiting sandwich fixings and the arrival of an appetite of someone who has not been bread safari sampling all day long.

Gluten Free Mommy's Pizza Review

http://glutenfreemommy.com/homemade-pizza/

Delicious! Yum! Do use her suggestions, sliding it off onto a pizza stone to finish crisping up the crust.

I thought it was delicious. The homebound College Kids did too. Is there a better homecoming than...

A PIZZA PARTY AT MIDNIGHT ????

(I'm too old for these. Once again, not smart enough to take a picture prior to consuming.)

College Boy GF Pizza

Here!  A gluten-free pizza crust that is tasty, chewy, crunchy on the edges and not gummy.  Yes, I can pick it up to eat it. 

This adaptable recipe also works with as crust for baked Pigs in a Blanket, and pizza empanadas(pizza rolls). 

Originally posted 6-10-10
Now that Isabella's pizza is no longer available at my Sams Club, the college boy is back to having to create his own. Today, only minutes it seems, from him leaving for college, he's making pizza. Braces are off, pizza on and with those successes... who needs Mamma? 

Boo. Hoo.

Here is the easy mix and recipe

TO MAKE PIZZA Recipe

2 cups of the pizza flour mix

Mix wet ingredients then add to dry:

2 egg whites
1/4 cup canola oil (there is a reason for two types of oil--one makes it crustier!)
2 1/2 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 TBS olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup warm water (start with 1/2 cup--see if you need the rest)

Hand mix these ingredients together and keep mixing for two or three minutes until the feel is a lot like pizza dough.  Pat onto a greased pizza pan. Let the dough raise while the oven preheats to 425. If you want it thinner, pat onto a greased 13 x 17 jelly roll pan.

Extra crispy?   Remember to bake half way (about 10 minutes) before you add the toppings.

Add toppings, a scoop of spaghetti sauce from a can, cheese and pepperoni, or add your own. 

NEW Idea! After the pizza has baked part way, slide the pizza off onto your preheated pizza stone! That makes it delightful crusty on top and bottom!

Pizza Flour Mix  I usually make a quadruple batch of this mix so I have lots
3/4 cup rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca flour/starch
1/3 cup dry milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 T. dry egg solids (or an extra egg in the wet ingredients, I guess)
1 1/2 tsp. xanthun gum
1 Tbs. egg replacer  ( I didn't use this today and it turned out great)
1 tsp. italian seasoning
1 T. corn starch or modified food starch (I use MaxiGel brand sometimes)
1 t. lecithin   (I didn't use this either and it turned out fine)

GF Betty's Pizza Crust

Note: I've adopted GF Betty as my Adopt A GF Blogger this month from Book of Yum's site.

GF Pizza Crust Batting 1.000

I'm always up for another great game of GF Pizza Ball. So here we go to see if this Pizza recipe I found on GF Betty's site is a hit or a foul for me.

I like her idea of pressing out the crust on the stone, then baking the stone and using the paddle to move the stone rather than trying to move the crust onto the stone (I've struck out on that one). I also like the standard idea of baking first before adding the toppings (a hit!). And her photograph looks fabulous (home run!)

So I'm pitch hitting it tonight for the boys, while I'm planning a night out with the traditional new year Hoppin-John, Triple berry cobbler and adult conversation. Here goes!

It is totally delicious! The crust is perfect, bottom is crusty. In the future I will add more salt or italian seasonings into the dough for added flavor. YUM!

Ah HA! Perfect GF Pizza

I've struggled and fought to achieve a perfect GF pizza crust and this time Hazel, I think I've finally done it! (Or come as close as I remember it to be.)

I have wanted to bake the crusts on a pizza stone, but our GF dough is too thin to transfer crusts to the stone, so now I've hit on something so simple that I musta been an idiot to have missed it.

When the crust is half done, slide it off onto the stone! It was delicious, delightful, crusty on the bottom, crusty on the top. Perfect!!!

Remember to bake the crust before adding the toppings and heat up the oven to 500.

The boys sleep-over party couldn't leave it alone! It was fabulous and NOBODY KNEW IT WAS GF!

Here is the original recipe: PIZZA

Amy's Pizza Preview

Today I ate Amy's GF frozen pizza for the first time ever (I know, I'm sheltered) and was pleasantly surprised by the taste. It was baked directly on the oven shelf and was ready in 15 minutes. If it weren't for the price tag, $6.95, it could become a family staple. With four of us eating GF, (one of us a pizza monster who once won the prize by downing 17 pieces), I can't afford 50 bucks for pizza very often.

It's still devoid of nutrients... but do we really expect pizza to be good for us?

Emeril's Gluten-Free Pizza

Just received this great link for PIZZA
http://www.beyondri%20cecakes.com/%20blog/2008/%2010/gluten-%20free-on-emeril-%20green-video.%20html

Recipes from Emeril GF Episode

Emeril's Gluten-Free Pizza
Yield: 2 16 to 18-inch pizza crusts

1 cup water (105 – 115 degrees F)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
1 1/2cups white rice flour
1/2 cup soy flour
1/2 cup rice flour
2 cups tapioca flour
2/3 cup instant non-fat dry milk powder
3 teaspoons xantham gum
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup hot water
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 egg whites at room temperature
Vegetable oil spray

Method:Preheat the oven to 400º F.
Combine 1 cup of water (105 – 115 degrees F), 2 tablespoons active dry yeast and sugar. Let the yeast "bloom" in the water. Liberally spray two large baking pans with vegetable oil and set aside. Combine the white rice flour, soy flour, rice flour, milk powder, tapioca flour, xantham gum and salt in a bowl of a standing mixer with a paddle and set on low. Mix the flour well and then add the olive oil with the remaining 1/2 cup of water, slowly pouring into the bowl. Add the egg whites slowly until the mixture is well incorporated. Add the yeast mixture and increase the speed to high and continue to mix for 4 minutes.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and evenly divide into two balls. Place one of the dough balls onto each pan. Place a plastic glove or a plastic sandwich bag onto one of your hands and spray some of the vegetable oil onto the gloved hand. Using that hand, gently press each dough ball into a 13-inch circle about 1/4 inch thick, leaving the edges a bit thicker to prevent sauce from dripping onto the pan. Set aside for 10 minutes to rise.

Place the dough into the oven and let cook for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with your favorite sauce (recipes below) and ingredients. Place back into the oven and continue to cook until the crust is golden brown and crispy, 10 to 12 minutes longer. (Note: if the baking pan is not liberally greased, the dough will stick. If this happens, use a flat metal spatula to separate the dough from the baking pan.)

For the White Sauce Pizza:Top the Gluten Free Pizza Dough with:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups part skim ricotta
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 cup crumbled ricotta salata

For the Red Sauce Pizza:Top the Gluten Free Pizza Dough with:
1 cup your favorite marinara sauce
1 cup grated mozzarella
1/2 cup basil leaves, torn
1/2 cup cubed fontina
****************************************************

Quest for Perfect Pizza

Pizza, the best friend, counselor, constant companion of the teenage boy. But he's newly diagnosed with CD. What now? First he sets aside the diagnosis and suffers the repercussions, and finally, he asks Mom to experiment!!!

The Frozen GF Crust: We can pretend a trip to Italy was included with the price of the mediocre frozen crust, and hope it isn't freezer burnt, then we ignore the sell-by date--two years hence, and the nutritional label (but was original pizza that good for you anyway?)

AND Then VOILA, we can eat pizza, albeit a tiny one, sparce and rather lackluster.

BUT for a boy who could down 15 slices at the CiCi's free-for-all, we demand better!

One of the latest success? Bette Hagman's (praise be her name) Perfect Pizza made from her French Bread Mix, in her book The Gluten-Free Gourmet Bakes Bread.

Another really good alternative from the net, (my apologies, I know not where to give credit):

GF Pan Pizza

1 1/2 c. flour (GF)
1 tsp. xanthan gum
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 envelopes Fleischmann' s Rapid Rise yeast
3/4 c. very warm water
1/4 c. olive or vegetable oil
Italian herb seasoning,

Sauce:
8-15 oz. of pizza sauce, depending upon size of pan used

Toppings:
12-18 slices pepperoni or
8-12 oz. ground beef and/or Italian sausage, cooked
1 c. shredded mozzarella or Italian-blend cheese
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

• Do NOT preheat oven!•

Mix batter ingredients together in a bowl. Spread evenly into a greased baking pan. Use 9 x 13 for thick crust, or 12 x 20 for thinner crust.•

Spread sauce evenly over the dough.
• Distribute toppings and sprinkle with cheeses, and additional seasonings, if desired.

• Place in a COLD oven. Set temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for 30 minutes, until cooked through. Serves 6-8.

Thank you whomever.