Gluten Free Stuffed Crust Pizza!

It snowed today.  I am not a person who loves the snow.  Since my knees make skiing, sledding, and really any activity which might include slipping (walking, getting into the car) a really bad plan, I have never learned to enjoy snow.  I see it coming down and I want to retreat into my cave and hibernate until spring.

So much for raking the leaves (yeah I'm really heart broken about that).  There will be no bike rides.  After braving the weather for grocery shopping the kids and I decided to return to our cave and watch movies and eat pizza.  My little guy requested stuffed crust, and I said what the heck.

Stuffed crust pizza is really not a lot trickier than regular pizza.  Since I feel that we all have to eat all our crusts when it's gluten free pizza (this stuff is too expensive to throw away) stuffed crust makes that more enjoyable.  Today, I had some fresh mozzarella curds, and I have to say they tasted even better than the string cheese I normally use.

So here goes, this is the same crust/focaccia bread recipe I've posted before, but I re-sized it.  It will make two 14 inch pizzas.  If you don't want to make that much, you can cut it in half, though I recommend making up extra crusts, par baking them and freezing them.  Then you have an easy work night dinner.

Make the biga:

540 g warm water

9g dry active yeast

225 g sorghum flour

375 g brown rice flour

150 g tapioca flour

75 g potato flour

75 g corn flour

15 g xanthan gum

Dissolve the yeast in the water and set aside.  Measure the dry ingredients into a bowl and blend well.  Stir about one third of the flour blend into the water/yeast mixture, until it has the consistency of a thick cake batter.  Cover the bowl with a damp towel and set in a warm place to proof for at least 3 hours.  Add 15 g baking powder to the flour mix.  Cover the remaining flour and set aside.  You can do this step in the morning and leave it in a warm moist place all day, just make sure it's in a really big bowl so it can rise without overflowing.

 

Make the dough:

420 G Water

120 g oil

15 g psyllium husk

15 g salt

Stir together and let rest for at least 10 minutes.   The psyllium will absorb a great deal of the moisture and will look like a thin jelly.

 

Pour the biga, the water and psyllium mixture and the remaining flour into the bowl of your mixer.  Blend the dough on low speed until combined then turn the speed up to high and mix for 3-4 minutes.

Divide out the dough into the pans and spread it out like you do for a normal pizza.  This is easiest if you get your hands damp.  If the dough starts to stick, simply rinse your hands again.  Once the dough is spread, use either small fresh mozzarella curds or string cheese sticks cut in half lengthwise and press the cheese into the dough all the way around the outside edge.  Now gently roll the edges of the dough over the cheese to the inside of the crust.  Then press the dough outward again until it covers the pan.  Press down the edges of the dough to seal the cheese in.

Pre-heat oven to 425

 

Let it rise for about 30-45 minutes until soft and puffy looking.

If you are going to be freezing a crust, par cook it for 10-12 minutes, cool and freeze.  When you are ready to use it, thaw it, top it, and bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned on top.

If you are eating it today, top with your favorite sauce and toppings and cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes.  If your oven browns things too quickly (like mine)  you can loosely cover the pizza with aluminum foil that has been generously sprayed with Pam.  Bake it covered for 10-15 minutes and then remove the foil to lightly brown the cheese and toppings.

Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

Pan Pizza like you remember it, But now it's gluten free

I know, I know, you thought I was dead!  Between knee injury, move, injure the other knee, major knee surgery and recovery, I have not been doing much baking.  But now I'm back!

Every time a new pizza place comes out with gluten free crusts, I rush out to try it, hoping that it will be pizza like I wanted it to be.  Remember going out to Pizza Hut and getting that thick, chewy crust pan pizza?  That's what I'm looking for.  Time and time again, I go to a restaurant with hope and expectation, and every time I get served pizza sauce and toppings on a thin sliver of something made to hold the toppings, but never what I crave.

The other day (okay it was 3 am and I couldn't sleep) I was obsessing about the crust I remember, what I wanted, and I remembered the Focaccia Bread recipe that I created for the Ratio Rally.  It hit me that the focaccia bread was the same texture I wanted for a pizza crust!

Follow the directions for the focaccia bread.  I know that this recipe requires planning ahead, but it is so worth it.  I knew I was going to make the pizza today, so last night, I measured out the dry ingredients before I went to bed.  This morning before work, I made the biga and put it in the oven with the light on and a damp towel on top (it took about 5 minutes).  Then when I got home, I put together the rest of the wet ingredients with the psyllium and finished the dough.

When I first started making bread by weight, I thought it was cumbersome, but I learned the trick is to zero out the scale after each ingredient, and I can just sprinkle the ingredient in on top.  It's actually faster and I don't have to wash the measuring cups and spoons.  If you don't have a kitchen scale, there are online conversion tools to convert from grams to traditional measuring, though I recommend getting a scale, there are inexpensive ($15-25) at most stores.

When the dough is done mixing, spread it in oiled pizza pan.  I used a pan with small holes in the bottom because the dough does tend to sweat.  You can roughly spread the dough with damp hands, then drizzle a small amount of olive oil (I use an oil infused with garlic and herbs) on the dough and spread it around.  Use it to finish spreading the dough and smooth it out.  I like the dough thick, so I use a smaller pan and spread it out about 1/2 inch thick.  One recipe made a 12" crust.  If you like a thinner crust, you can make a bigger pizza.  Sprinkle garlic salt on the crust. 

Place the crust in a warm place to rise for about 30 minutes.  If you let it rise too long it will shrink when baking.  It will look soft and puffy.

Pre-heat the oven to 375 Degrees  I normally cook pizza at 425 but I found that with the thick crust, the toppings burn before the pizza is ready.

Spread the crust with your favorite sauce.  I'm lazy and I use a good pasta sauce.  Top with your favorite toppings and sprinkle with cheese.  Be careful while topping the pizza, the dough is very tender.  Sprinkle an Italian seasoning lightly on top of the cheese.



Bake for 15-20 minutes until the cheese is bubbly and just starting to brown.  Remove from the oven and let rest for 4-5 minutes before slicing.


Enjoy pizza like you remember it!

P.S.  I decided to try par baking a small crust and freezing it to see how it held up.  I was very happy with the result. I bake the crust the same as above  for 8 minutes without any toppings or sauce. then I let it cool, wrapped it, and put it in the freezer. Today I thawed it, topped, it and baked it for another 8 to 10 minutes. It turned out great, so in the future when I make this I will make a large batch and freeze small individual crusts so that we can have quick pizzas on a busy day.