Gluten free pizza crust

I avoided pizza for the first year of baking gluten-free, but I finally gave up and started trying various crust mixes and recipes.  So far, none of them was anything I wanted to eat -- even adding garlic and herbs to the dough resulted in sort of disappointing crusts.  But this crust can be rolled very thin, bake up crisp on a pizza stone, and be chewy and satisfying.  I think it can still be improved on upon, but it's good enough to serve to guests.

This dough seems to taste a lot better if you give it a long rise in the fridge.  I make this dough on Thursday night to make pizza for dinner on Saturday.

This recipe makes four 12 ~ 14 inch thin crusts or three 16~17 inch thin crusts.  I make a big batch of dough every 3-4 weeks and freeze 2 or 3 extra pizza crusts.  You can halve the recipe if you don't want to have extra crusts in the freezer.

600 grams 40/60 Gluten Free All Purpose flour

300 grams chickpea flour (aka besan) or garfava flour

3 T whole psyllium husk

2 t sugar

2 t yeast 

1 t kosher salt

1 1 T flax meal

3 T boiling water

6 T extra virgin olive oil

2 1/2 ~ 3 cups warm water

Parchment paper for rolling

Cooking oil spray

Measure the 3 Tbsp of water into a microwave safe container, and boil.  Stir in the flax meal, and allow to rest.

Place the dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, and mix on low speed to combine. With the mixer running, drizzle in the olive oil and the flax mixture.  Then drizzle in the water.

Use at least 2 1/2 c. of water... the dough will be more of a batter, but it will dry out a lot in the fridge.  Scrape the dough into an oiled 3 quart bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24 ~ 48 hours.

1 1/2 ~ 2 1/2 hours before you want pizza, remove the dough from the fridge and let it rest on the counter to warm up.  It's also a good idea to preheat your oven and pizza stone now, so the stone is really hot when the pizza goes in.  I have a convection oven, and find that the crust burns a little by the time the cheese is browned if I heat it above 450.

After the dough has had at least an hour to warm up up, tear off 5 pieces of parchment paper.  Place one piece of parchment on the counter and give it a light spray of cooking oil.  Form 1/4 of the dough into a flat disk and set it in the center of the parchment.  Spray one side of another piece of parchment and lay it oiled side down over the dough.  Roll the dough into a 12 ~ 14 inch circle with a rolling pin.  Peel off the top sheet of parchment.  The edges may be crackly and split -- press them in with your fingers to form a smooth, round edge. You want to roll the dough about as thin as you'd roll a pie crust.

Set aside the first crust on a cookie sheet and let it rise.  Place the top parchment paper, oiled side up on the counter, and repeat, adding another sheet of oiled parchment on top.

To freeze the crusts : slide the crust and parchment paper on the pizza stone and bake for 5- 8 minutes, until set, and lightly browned on the bottom.  Cool completely.  Store the crusts, with the parchment in between, in a large plastic bag and freeze.   I usually thaw the crusts and bake them on a pizza stone, but you could probably top the frozen crust and bake it directly on the rack.

To eat the pizza now :  top the crust with sauce, cheese and toppings to the edge.  Trim the excess parchment paper away from the corners so it doesn't burn in the oven.  Slide the pizza and the parchment paper on to the pizza stone and bake for 18 ~ 25 minutes, until the crust and cheese are as brown as you like them.