Product Review: Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix

Many years ago there was a pizza place in town that had the best “fun food” ever. It was called a Scooby Snack. Basically, it was a giant calzone - family size. I don’t know what they did to make it so tasty, but I promise that I ordered enough of them that I can’t imagine why the restaurant went out of business.

Inspired by the memories of this deliciousness, I surprised my husband this week by stating (loudly and at random), “We’re going to have Scooby Snacks for dinner for family movie night!” He said, “Hmmm, how do you plan to pull that off?” I said, “Well, I have a box of pizza crust mix. Let’s see.” I called my lovely daughter in to assist.

I have never really attempted anything like this with gluten free pizza dough. In fact, I have attempted very little with gluten free pizza dough. I find it easier to buy my crust ready made or use bagels. For the sake of adventure, my girl and I headed to the kitchen.

Mixing the dough was very easy. Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix called for minimal ingredients and no heavy machinery. We filled the time waiting for the yeast to bubble with a very educational discussion on how yeast works - and what the yeast is thinking, how it lives and whether yeast is like sea monkeys.

After mixing the dough, the directions said to turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it. I don’t know how much experience you have with gluten free pizza dough, but every kind I’ve tried has been a sticky mess. This really called the whole giant calzone plan into question. We pulled it off, though. With a little added flour we soon had a ball of dough that we could pick up AND put back down without it sticking to our fingers.

Once the dough was mixed and kneaded we had 30 minutes to wait for it to rise. We did a pre-emptive strike on the pizza calories by dancing during this time.

Now for the fun part. The directions say to punch the dough down and separate it into two parts. Each part should be pressed into an oiled pizza pan and topped. That would be too easy, though! We took each part and spread it on oiled waxed paper instead.

I was amazed at how easy the dough was to manipulate. It had the consistency of warm sugar cookie dough - no elasticity but very easy to mash into place. After spreading the dough it was simple to add cheese and pepperoni and fold it using the wax paper. It practically sealed itself. We did an olive oil high five to celebrate.

I put dinner in the oven for 25 minutes. I wanted to allow a little extra baking time for the pocket-like shape. They came out of the oven perfect! Still white on top, golden brown on the bottom.

I suppose that no matter how fun things are to cook the success of any dish comes down to taste. Our pizza pocket calzone things were pretty good! The dough was solid enough to cut easily and be held in the hand. It had a bit of a grainy texture to it, but nothing to really complain about. I have decided that next time I will brush the crust with garlic butter after baking because it was a bit bland.

Overall, I have to pronounce this a tasty and successful experiment. One that I am looking forward to repeating.