Gluten-free Pizza and Bread Recipe

February 2, 2010 in Allgemein

Gluten-free pizza topped with jerusalem artichokes, garlic, and olive oil

What started out as a small pantry challenge, ended in a very delicious, moist, and fluffy gluten-free pizza and bread dough. Whith the help of my grain mill I was able to turn lots of untouched grains into flour, which ended up in a gluten-free pizza dough.

As a frequent bread baker I am quite fond of gluten and would never have thought that a gluten-free pizza could be equally good. (Yes, I know, the usual tiresome prejudices.) But this was. And the crispy crust paired up so well with the toppings: olive oil, garlic, and thinly sliced jerusalem articokes.  Because made I way too much dough for our two person household, I used the remaining dough for a gluten-free loaf, which also came out pretty well:

gluten-free bread

When I searched online for gluten-free bread and pizza recipes, I realized that many recipes call for three or four eggs to replace the missing gluten. Usually, when a recipe calls for four eggs, I turn around and look somewhere else. But researching gluten-free baked goods made me aware of a completely awesome egg replacer which I have never used before: psyllium husk. It works similar to flax, but has stronger binding abilities. I was able to find a box at an Indian market. (German health stores only sell whole psyllium seeds and not husks.) The husks look like this. Usually they are used as a laxative, but these little seeds also have miraculous binding qualities. To repalce four eggs, I whipped up one tablespoon of psyllium husk powder with one cup of hot water and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Slimy, but working:

Psyllium egg replacer

Gluten-free pizza crust and bread recipe

(makes one large pizza crust and one loaf of bread, loosely based on this recipe.)

Update: A reader suggested to add some sugar to the dough to avoid bitter undertones in the finished pizza crust. If you feel like it, you can add a tablespoon or two of your favourite sweetener.

110 g Milchreis, ground into flour. Yield: 2/3 c *
45 g amaranth, ground into flour. Yield: 1/3 c**
117 g millet, ground into flour. Yield: 3/4 c
157 g Harina P.A.N. (1 c)***
70 g cornstarch (1/2 c)
70 g gluten-free flour mix (1/2 c)****
1 T ground psyllium husk ++
1 c hot water
2 T olive oil
2 2/3 c lukewarm water
10 g salt
42 fresh yeast (or 14 g [0.5 oz] instant yeast = 2 envelopes)

* Milchreis (“milk rice”) is a rice used for rice pudding. In Germany it’s a staple in most households. It’s a short grain rice. You can use glutinous rice, arborio, or any other sticky short grain rice instead. Use regular white or sweet rice flour, if you don’t have a grain-mill.
**Quinoa works, too.
*** Use masa harina instead.
**** I used the gluten-free flour mix which I have previously used for muffins. Fell free to use a store-bought gf all purpose flour mix.
++ ground from 2 T whole husks, in a coffee grinder

In a large bowl, combine all flours and mix well. Pour the psyllium husk powder into your food processor. Add hot water and olive oil. Pulse until everything is well combined and has thickened up (see picture above).

In a large bowl combine remaining 2 2/3 cups of water and yeast. Stir and pour into flour mixture. Add egg-repalcer mixture and salt. Use a hand-held mixer to blend the mixture properly. The dough will be more like cake batter than like bread dough. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place, for about 30 minutes.

Grease a round pizza pan (28 cm [11inch] in diameter) with olive oil and scoop out  1 1/2 cups dough into the pan. Spread evenly and set aside.

For the bread, pour the remaining dough into a loaf pan (make sure to grease it very well) and sprikle with sesame seed. Set aside the loaf pan and let the dough rise for 1 hour.

Spreading the dough.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and prepare your pizza topping. We used three jerusalem artichokes, sliced very thinly. The wonderful flavour of those starchy vegetables goes very well with this kind of crust. But of course you can use any topping you like.

Spread the dough with olive oil. Slice 3 cloves garlic very thinly and sprinkle on top. Slice the jerusalem artichokes very thinly and place on the dough. Season with salt, pepper and more olive oil, if you like.

Preparing the pizza.

Bake for 25 minutes until the crust is golden brown. Serve immediately and don’t forget to bake your bread. 200°C (400°F), 45 minutes until golden brown. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, remove and let cool on a rack.

This stuff is good!

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