Homemade Pizza Crust

Ingredients

1 tsp sugar for proofing yeast
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water (heated to 115 120 degrees)
2 tbsp ricotta cheese (for casein free try almond meal)
2 eggs
2 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup millet flour
3/4 cup white rice flour (or use a mixture of brown rice and white rice flour)
1/4 cup sweet rice flour
1/4 cup arrowroot starch (or use corn starch or more tapioca starch)
1/2 cup tapioca flour
2 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp sugar

Note: If you like your pizza dough seasoned, try adding some Italian seasoning to the dough.

Instructions

1 – Place your pizza stone (or pan) in the oven and heat the oven to 170 degrees to get the stone warm.

2 – Prepare your liquid ingredients. Mix the olive oil, ricotta cheese (if using almond meal, save and add to the dry ingredients), honey, and vinegar in a medium measuring cup or bowl and set aside so the mixture comes to room temperature. This mixture should not be cold when mixed with the dry ingredients.

3 – Combine all the dry ingredients and sift together in the bowl of your stand mixer. The recipe author uses the paddle (not the dough hook) for this recipe.

4 – Heat 3/4 cup of water until it reaches 115-120 degrees.

5 – In a separate small bowl, place your yeast and the teaspoon of sugar. Mix with about 1/4 cup of the heated water, stir, and let it sit for a few minutes. Once you know the yeast is active, proceed with the recipe.

6 – Double check to make sure all your ingredients have come to room temperature. Turn the stand mixer (fitted with paddle) on and give the dry ingredients a few twirls. Add the egg, ricotta mixture to the dry ingredients and give it another few twirls. Add the yeast mixture. At this point, gauge the liquid level. You want the dough to look like stiff cake batter. The dough should still hold the swirls of the mixer, but it should be shiny and not dull.

7 – Add the rest of the water slowly until the right consistency is achieved. The recipe author used another 1/2 cup – making 3/4 cup of warm water total. Since different brands of flour and measuring techniques vary, it is best to eyeball this and add the water slowly to get the texture you want. You will get good at knowing what gluten free pizza dough is supposed to look like.

8 – Once you have the pizza dough made, take the pizza stone out of the oven. You can turn the oven off at this point and leave the light on in the oven. Fit the pizza stone with parchment paper (do not use waxed paper) and lightly brush olive oil over the parchment paper. With a cake scraper, slowly spread the pizza dough batter in a 12-13 inch circle. You want the batter to be evenly distributed.

9 – At this point, you want to create a beautiful crust edge to your pizza. This can be tricky with such sticky dough. Cover your hands in olive oil and shape the edges like you want them. If you find your hands getting too sticky get a little more olive oil on your hands. You don’t want your dough to be too wet, so be careful. At this point, the recipe author puts the stone back in the oven for a 40 minute rise. Once it has risen for 40 minutes, turn the oven to 375 degrees for 10 minutes to prebake crust.

10 – Then add toppings. Turn the heat up to 400 degrees and cook for about 7 minutes, maybe more. If you want your cheese to brown, turn the broiler on for about 2 minutes before taking the pizza out. Be careful though because the pizza will burn if left too long.