World’s BEST Gluten Free Pizza Crust

• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons gluten free flour blend
• Finely ground cornmeal – 2 tablespoons
• 2 tablespoons powdered milk
• Xanthan gum – 2 teaspoons
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 2/3 cup water (110 degrees F)
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  In a mix master, blend all ingredients together on low speed until well blended.  Mix for about 3 minutes.

Lightly grease a pizza pan or tray with a good drizzle of olive oil.  Then sprinkle pan with an additional tablespoon of cornmeal.  This will give the base of your pizza with a nice crunch!

Press dough into pan, continuing to sprinkle with gluten free flour to prevent sticking to hands.

Make edges slightly thicker to hold toppings. Bake pizza crust for about 10 minutes or until light brown.

Remove from oven.  At this point, you can cool and freeze for a future day, or continue with your toppings.

Spread pizza crust with your favorite sauce and toppings in the following order:  Start with sauce, then followed by cheese and then toppings.

If you place toppings underneath the cheese, they won’t cook properly and the moisture will sweat into your crust, likely causing it to become mushy.

Bake another 20 to 25 minutes or until top is nicely browned and the crust is cooked through.  Finally, finish with a good sprinkle of parmesan cheese and a drizzle of good quality olive oil for taste.

Leslie’s Million Dollar Pizza Sauce:

• San Marzano Tomatoes (de-seeded through a food mill) – 1 can
• 1 tube good quality tomato paste
• One small finely chopped onion
• 4-5 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 anchovies finely chopped
• 3-5 softened sundried tomatoes finely chopped
• 2 TSP Oregano
• 1 TSP thyme
• Fresh Basil (6-8 leaves)
• Salt to taste
• Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup cold water if needed

On medium to low heat, saute onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil until transparent. Add sun dried tomatoes, anchovies and tomato paste and cook for another couple minutes. Add San Marzano tomatoes, oregano, thyme and salt to taste.

The key to the sauce is to cook it on low heat for a long time until the sauce reduces to a flavourful, thick sauce packed with flavour (minimum 1 hour).  Keep an eye on the sauce and add more water if needed.  Once the sauce is almost done, add ripped basil leaves and finish with a swig of olive oil.  Your finished sauce should not be runny and have a wonderful, intense flavour.

Guidelines for Pizza Assembly:

• Avoid putting too much sauce in the middle of the crust.  This may prevent it from cooking through. Don’t worry, the sauce will make it’s way to the middle during the cooking process.
• Ensure all your veggies are thinly cut and uniform in size.
• Start assembling your pizza with the crust, sauce, cheese and then veggies.  This allows for the veggies to caramelize, cook and release their moisture into the oven, not into your pizza crust!
• When using mushrooms, make sure they are thinly sliced. Mushrooms release a ton of water when cooking.  These always need to be put on last!!!
• Use the correct type of mozzarella cheese.  Yes, there is a difference and it’s important that you use stretchy mozzarella not pressed mozzarella. Stretchy mozzarella is mild in flavour and will give you that nice smooth, stretchy consistency you’ve come to love from your local pizzeria.  If you use pressed mozzarella which is usually really high in fat, the cheese will release a ton of oil and become hard quickly.
• Place any meat slices on pizza the last ten minutes of cooking.  This prevents the meat from overcooking and releasing excessive oil into your pizza.
• Place any complimentary cheeses such as Parmesan, goats cheese or any other specialty cheeses on pizza the last five minutes of cooking.
• Once done, let sit for five minutes – dig in and enjoy!!!

Ingredients used on pizza shown above:

A lovely flour for this recipes is Nextjen Gluten Free flour mix.  I think it’s only available in Canada at the moment but can be purchased on amazon via my affiliate link below. xx