FINALLY it’s PIZZA NIGHT!!
The hubby has been buggin’ for pizza lately, and since he’s put the idea in my head, I’ve been buggin’ too! I couldn’t get it out of my head. Real PIZZA! Not any of my weird using-pumpkin-puree-as-the-sauce kind of pizza’s, but real pizza with tomato sauce, sausage, and mozzarella. Well, that’s what he defines as “real” anyway. I’m a pepperoni gal, myself. I couldn’t just leave it at that though… I mean, c’mon. Noooowwwwww for the switch-up! Gluten-free crust!
Everybody seems to be on a gluten-free kick lately. Whether you’ve got a prescribed medical allergy to it, or just want to cut it out of your diet due to its undesirable immune system responses, I’ve got just the recipe for you!
Personally, I don’t have an allergic reaction to gluten – I can eat wheat breads, pastas and pizza crusts with no problem at all. My thing is that I just like to experiment with different things. I trust Kimberly Snyder when she says that gluten can damage intestinal villi that help absorb the nutrients we eat. *nerd alert!!* I figured that I could get away with making a different type of crust – a crust that would slip under the hubby’s radar. He was getting the toppings he likes, and I got to experiment!
So, we’re starting with brown rice flour, potato starch, xanthan gum, yeast, flax meal, water, salt, sugar and rosemary.
Make sure your water is lukewarm, pour it into your mixer bowl.
Add in a teaspoon of sugar and your yeast, and let it work it’s magic….
… while you combine the dry ingredients.
Look at that! The yeast is all nice, and foamy, and ready for some ACTION!!
Mmmmm rosemary.. I LOVE rosemary! So does the hubby… he puts it in everything he cooks.
What’s even more great, is that we got this plant from some friends of ours as payment for helping them out with some stuff. SO COOL! It’s beautiful and healthy, and I just love it!
Ok… now ya get a cookie sheet, or pizza tray, and massage the pizza dough to the form of the pan, making a lip at the edges. It’s not really “rollable” dough, so just use your fingertips, and get to massaging. Cover with a light coating of good olive oil, and let it rest/rise for about 15-20 minutes in a warm-ish spot. Put a damp towel over top if you really feel the need to.
Now for the pizza toppings. To my dismay, I did not have any tomato paste. Cat Cora has a GREAT pizza sauce recipe that involves tomato paste, chicken stock, and Italian seasonings. It’s out of this world. Alas, I had to improvise, and used a combo of my homemade ketchup and BBQ sauce.
Olive oil goes in the pan, making hospitable conditions for the Italian sausage.
Bell pepper cutting procedure…
Condiments, ready for that crust.
After browning the sausages, save the bottom-of-the-pan goodness, and mix in the bbq and ketchup with the Italian seasoning. Once you get all the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan, and the sauce all heated, reserve until ready to use.
Once the oven is heated up, and the dough has rested for 15-20 minutes, do a little naked crust pre-bake action, for 10 minutes. This will give the crust a head start, and will help it stand up to all the lovely ingredients that will inevitably get piled on.
Then, we get to BUILD THAT SUCKAH!
Resist putting the cheese on… at first anyway. Let it get that goodness working again for another 10 minutes in the oven. THEN put the cheese on, and put it in for another 3-4 minutes.
Glorious!!
Uh huuuh!
Cannnnn Youuuuu diiiiiiigiiiiit!!??? Goes great with a nice IPA. I used Firestone Pale 31, but you can use any pale ale… Really, you can use any beer you want. I don’t think the pizza will mind.
So, you know I’m already a pepperoni gal, what are your favorite pizza toppings?! I wanna know!! How about fav. beer??
Pizza w/ Gluten Free Crust
By
Published: April 19, 2012
A gluten free pizza crust that fools the nay-sayers!
Ingredients
Crust:
2 ½ Cups Brown Rice Flour
¾ Cup Potato Starch
3 Teaspoons Xanthan Gum
1 ½ Teaspoons Sea Salt
2 Tablespoons Flax, ground
1 Package Active Dry Yeast
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 ¼ Cups Water, lukewarm
1 Teaspoon Rosemary, fresh, chopped
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
Pizza:
2 Links Hot Italian Chicken Sausage
½ Cup Mozzarella Cheese, grated
½ Cup Ketchup
½ Cup Barbecue Sauce
1 Teaspoon Italian Seasoning
2/3 Cup Onion, julienned
2/3 Cup Yellow Bell Pepper, julienned
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
Instructions
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine lukewarm water, sugar and yeast. Let sit for about 5 minutes, until the yeast activates and appears foamy. Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl, whisking to combine. Pour the dry ingredients in with the wet, and mix until just combined. Divide, and save the other half for another time. The dough won’t be very elastic. Press into a pizza pan or cookie sheet, shaping a raised lip around the edges. Lightly coat with Olive Oil. Let rest in a warm spot for about 15-30 minutes. While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 475°F, and heat a skillet over medium-high heat with a teaspoon of olive oil. Remove the sausages from their casings, using a wooden spoon to break them up in the pan. Cook until browned, and reserve to a plate.Pour ketchup and barbeque sauce in the same skillet, and add the Italian seasoning, mixing until heated through. Reserve to a small bowl and set aside.
Once the crust has rested, put into the 475°F oven for 10 minutes. This will allow the thick crust to firm up a little bit to stand up to the abundance of toppings. Remove after the 10 minutes, and then build the pizza starting with the sauce, sausage, onions, and peppers. Cook for another 10 minutes, then add the cheese and finish for 3-4 minutes longer. Enjoy! Serves 4
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 13 min
Total time: 28 minutes
Yield: 8 pieces
Serving size: 2 pieces
Calories per serving: 504
Fat per serving: 11.8g
Saturated Fat per serving: 1.9g
Cholesterol per serving: 10.6mg
Sodium per serving: 1484.7mg
Carbohydrates per serving: 82.9g
Fiber per serving: 3.1g
Sugars per serving: 22.5g
Protein per serving: 18.8g
Looks SO delicious! My favorite toppings usually include chicken or ham and many, many vegetables. As for beer, I am still a huge fan of the New Belgium Brewery Company. I <3 their Rangers and Trippels.
Ohhhhhh Michelle, I am un-familiar with the New Belgium Brewery Company!!! I will definitely check them out! I’ve joined the “hip” craft-beer movement… though mostly I’m pretending… I just like beer. All kinds.
I too am a pepperoni gal! But that pizza looks so delicious!!! Too bad you can’t send some through the mail!! 😉
Erica… I think overnighting with a cold pack/dry ice might work!! LOL
Looks yummy even this early in the morning!
Thanks, Mom!!!
Mmmmmmmmmmm… Pizza! Never a bad time for pizza!!!
Around here my sis does the pizza making. We don’t quite yet put the effort into making the dough, but we do get ours fresh from Whole Foods 😉 What she does is chops some garlic, adds some olive oil, grinds that together, spreads that on the pizza dough as our sauce then adds mozz cheese, pepperoni and salami. Yummy delish!!! 🙂
As for the beer, when we do drink it around here, we drink a local brew called Blue Moon. We have found our local stuff to be better than the same ol’ same ol’!
Thanks for the recipe – I believe we may have to give that a shot around here in the next couple of weeks, especially since I will be on “break” from classes 😉
P.S. Glad you are loving the rosemary plant – I figured you would appreciate it and put it to good use!!!
Okay, wait. We really like Blue Moon, which we THOUGHT (see what we get for thinking! lol) was brewed here, but is actually brewed in Colorado, which isn’t far from here…
The one that we also really like and that IS local 🙂 is:
Haystack Hefeweizen by Snoqualmie Falls Brewing
I’ll have to try out that Haystack Hef!! Sounds good, mang! Also… love your pizza idea too… MMMMmmmmm
Yay! I have all those ingredients!!!!
Isn’t it awesome to have all the stuff for a recipe without having to go shopping!? Love it! Hope you enjoy!
great pics, great writing! and loving the white on black. the whole thing makes me hungry
Thanks, man! Gooooo team white&black!
Wow I’m excited for this recipe! My husband is a die hard pizza lover. He really adores sausage but I don’t. My son and I are allergic to gluten/wheat, so I look forward to a recipe to make us all happy.
I like pepperoni, ham and bacon but I’ve had fancy pizza with spinach, eggplant and the sort that’s amazing. I’ve been craving BBQ chicken pizza! Lol.
That’s awesome RE!!! I’m a total pepperoni fan-girl, but I will have pizza any way, really! I hope you and your family enjoy it!
FYI, for those of us who eat a gluten-free diet because we have no choice, many are also sensitive to xanthan gum, particularly at the high level you are using in this recipe. I can tolerate only about 1/4 teaspoon of it per cup of flour. A “gluten-free” pizza I ate while in a faraway city where my dining options were limited resulted in a desperate emergency rest stop 12 hours later, not from gluten, but from xanthan gum. Just something to keep in mind.
Delicious pizza! Except, most beer contains GLUTEN, so Kim Snyder would not approve… And neither does my gluten-hating tummy