I am naming this one Authentic Pizza Crust because it is the closest thing I have ever tasted to the real thing and it is gluten free and vegan. Heck yes!
I can’t remember where I found this recipe, like usual, I was in a rush and just printed out a bunch of recipes a while back. So, if this is yours, don’t hate on me, just tell me and I’ll update the post to credit you!
Note (12/18/2011): Thanks to an attentive commenter, I now know where this recipe came from originally. Yay.
My experiment turned out so good this morning that I am making it again with all the fixings and vegan mozza that I found at the health food store for dinner tonight. A bit leery of the cheese as it’ll be my first time trying vegan cheese and I’ve heard lots of mixed things.
Authentic Pizza Crust
- 1 Tbsp dry yeast
- ⅔ c brown rice flour
- ½ c tapioca flour
- 2 tsp xanthan gum
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp Italian herb seasoning
- ⅔ cup warm non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened regular almond milk)
- ½ tsp sugar or honey (I used agave nectar)
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
- Preheat the oven to 425 F.
- Combine dry ingredients in your mixer, including yeast. Add liquid ingredients slowly and beat for 2 minutes. If the dough bounces around in the mixer more liquid a tiny bit at a time. (I had to do this, I probably added about 1-2 tsp. more almond milk.)
- Prepare pizza pan by oiling it with olive oil. Put a ziploc bag on your hand and spread the olive oil around the pan and grease up the bag.
- Take your mixed dough and throw it on the greased pizza pan. Use the greased up ziploc bag hand to spread the dough evenly on the pizza pan. Make a little crust edge. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven. Transfer to a pizza stone if you have. If not, just lift the crust up off the pan to ensure it isn't sticking. Then top with your favorite toppings. Return to the oven for about 7-10 minutes longer till your pizza is completely cooked thru and toppings are hot.
Seriously best pizza crust ever. The way I spread out the dough it was a bit of a thin crust at the bottom, which worked great – it wasn’t crunchy thin, just perfect. The crust edges were chewy like any good homemade pizza crust. This outshines the other recipe I posted earlier, which I will probably only use for “faux”caccia bread from now on.
Update Aug 12/09: Adding pics of what we made last night. We didn’t end up trying the cheese last night because the store was closed by the time I made my way over there. Next time though.
I made 1/2 the pizza with fresh cherry tomatoes, halved, from my patio planter, and the other 1/2 with sundried tomatoes. Thinly sliced red onion, freshly snipped basil (also from my patio garden), and whole black olives rounded the pizza out nicely. Levi loved the sundried tomato half best, as did I. More flavorful, he said. I was surprised because I didn’t think he was a huge fan of sundried tomatoes before. Learn something new everyday I guess. haha.
P.S. I realize that the crust doesn’t look the prettiest. It’s entirely my fault. I was tired and lazy and just wanted to get the pizza in the oven so I didn’t focus so much on the aesthetics of it all. Next time, I promise I’ll make it up to everyone.
Update Aug 28/09 – I made a double batch a while ago of this crust and it turned out nicely. I took pictures at that time, but kind of forgot about them. So here …
So how did you like the cheese? Which brand did you settle on? I’ve had lots of experience making pizza for my lactose intolerant wife and I have some nice pics of a dairy free pie here: http://insearchoftheperfectpie.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/dairy-free-pizza-my-favorite-cheese-alternative/
Thanks for the gluten free tips!
-Ryan
Hey Ryan,
Thanks for stopping by. I didn’t end up buying the cheese because a shopping trip with my girlfriends went overtime and the health food store was closed. 🙁
But…I did make the pizza with some different toppings, sans cheese. And it turned out ahmayzaing! I am updating my post today to include pics.
Thanks for the tip on the cheese option … unfortunately though after looking it up online it appears that the Lisanatti Almond Cheese you used in your recipe is NOT vegan and NOT safe for those with dairy allergies. It contains casein, a milk protein (which is likely why it melts so nicely!) and is not acceptable for vegans and my hubby can’t have it either. I guess it’d be ok for those who are just lactose intolerant, but not for vegans or those who must avoid all dairy products, including proteins like casein and lactalbumin. All the same, I appreciate the suggestion! 🙂
You should definitely try the gluten-free crust recipe tho … for when you open up your pizza place! 😉
~megan
Aha! Thanks for doing my homework for me 🙂 I guess my wife’s allergy isn’t as severe as some – this cheese does the trick without giving her the upset stomach 🙂
I’ll keep your gluten free recipe on hand for sure – I’ll let you know if it makes it up on the menu 🙂
Thanks!
-Ryan
I substituted the brown rice flour for teff flour since I didn’t have any rice flour on hand, and it came out just as yummy! I’m a gluten-free soy-free vegan (ironically I work in a pizza place and my old favorite kind of pizza to eat was just a cheese pizza x) ), and as far as cheeses go the only one I have an easy time with is Daiya cheese (it’s one of the few “alternative” cheeses in my town that are both soy and casein free). It’s a tapioca based cheese, and instead of melting it on top with the other ingredients, I just mixed a small amount of Daiya into the dough and it melted deliciously. 🙂
(P.s. ~ You may have gotten the recipe from here? http://www.bookofyum.com/blog/spring-mediterranean-gluten-free-potluck-allergy-free-pizza-recipe-1852.html)
Hey Nichole! Thanks for sharing. 🙂 And especially thank you for the link – I think you’re right … that is the original recipe. Now I can update my post and give credit where it’s due. Since the writing of this post I also discovered Daiya cheese shreds and I have to say I am in love … I love that it’s soy-free as well. I haven’t enjoyed any of the other vegan cheeses out there so Daiya is my go-to faux cheese now.
You should see about convincing your pizza place bosses to offer a vegan/gf version of pizza. 😉
Cheers!
Megan
HI! Can you tell me if you can use almond or coconut flour on this instead of what the recipe calls for?
Hi Georgiana, Are you wanting to substitute both the brown rice flour and tapioca starch with either almond or coconut flour? I don’t think that would yield a great crust. Almond and coconut flours can tend to make a dough a bit more dense and coconut flour especially has quite a sweet flavor to it. You could try to substitute maybe half the brown rice flour for one of these alternatives but I’d keep the tapioca starch for some of the lightness needed in the dough texture. Are there other gluten-free flours you’re willing to use other than almond or coconut flour? I think perhaps sorghum or millet might work in combination with tapioca starch. I’ve never tried it personally. I have tried chickpea flour and cornstarch as an alternative before and it worked to make a crust, but the chickpea flour has a strong flavor on it’s own and you could taste it in the crust. I hope that helps.
I was wondering if anyone has tried preparing the dough the night before and leaving it in the refrigerator to use the next night. I am hoping to make a hectic weeknight a little easier. Thanks!
Hey Bridget, I’ve never tried making the dough in advance and then refrigerating it. The next time I plan on making pizza I’ll give that a try and let you know. If you beat me to trying it, I’d love to hear how it worked for you? I bet if you let it come back to room temp before spreading it out and baking it, it would probably work just fine.
Hi from New Zealand! This is my first visit to your site 🙂 I’m vegan, gluten free & a few other allergies and I can’t thank you enough for posting this recipe (I wouldn’t have found it otherwise as I was checking out your site for some other goodies). I’ve just made it, and it was DELICIOUS! I struggle with finding really good tried and true recipes, and now I have one. Just a question, my base was quite sticky, and after baking it was stuck badly to the bottom – removed, put on paper, and cooked the toppings and it got so stuck I had to scrap and salvage what I could. Any tips for next time to avoid this?
Thank you for this website. I hope you continue to fill it with info & recipes 🙂
Hi Rachel, I’m so sorry I somehow missed this comment! I hate when I do that. Did you oil your pizza pan really liberally? Even a non-stick pizza pan needs to be oiled when using this gluten-free pizza dough. It’s just the nature of the sticky dough. Nothing worse than making something and having it stick, so I hope making sure to really oil your pan(s) helps for next time.
Thanks for your kind words and again, sorry for not replying sooner, I wasn’t ignoring you intentionally! 😉
Cheers!
Megan
I’m so thankful that you posted this! I substituted the almond milk for veggie broth because I didn’t have any on hand (it added more flavor too!) and this is hands down the best pizza crust I’ve ever had, gluten-free or not. I use it at least once a week and make modifications so that I can make everything from buns to cinnamon rolls with it. I love how quick and easy it is. Thank you for sharing!!
Thanks for commenting!! Love hearing positive stuff like this. Your substitutions sound lovely and I may just have to give that a try next time we make up some pizzas.
Would love to know what kind of substitutions are used to be able to use it for cinnamon rolls……. (if you see this post and are willing to share, would be very much appreciated!)
I have a cinnamon roll recipe posted here: http://thesethingsilove.com/2014/02/new-improved-gluten-free-vegan-cinnamon-buns/
You’ll probably do better trying that recipe than trying to adjust the pizza crust dough to make cinnamon buns with it. Enjoy!
Hi there!
I just wanted to confirm on the yeast for this recipe. This is regular active yeast and not nutritional yeast, correct?
Thanks!
Nicole
Absolutely right Nicole. You’ll want regular dry active yeast. I’ll make sure the recipe is clearer now. 🙂
It tried this recipe this weekend..
It was just so good!! Xantham gum and tapioca made the difference!!!
You are my best website now on!!! Thnx!
My pizza is in the oven!!!!! I made my own pizza sauce (had some frozen) made my cashew cheese (raw) to top the pizza with when it comes out. Also topping with fresh basil. It smell wonderful. Like the pizza places I used to eat at. I used fresh mushrooms, sundries tomatoes and olives!!!
Thank you. I will let you know how I like it.
I pizza came out so yummy! I think I ate almost half….. I love how the crust around the topping was so light, airy and crunchy. I think maybe my sauce, even though I didn’t use a lot made the crust a bit chewy. Maybe next time will add the cooked sauce bake 5 minutes. Add the topping and bake 5-10 more. I did end up baking this first one 10/15.
Thank you.
I tried this recipe today and it was awesome! We didn’t have any tapioca flour and the store was sold out so we substituted white rice flour. My fiancee has wheat and egg allergies and he was happy to be able to eat pizza again! Definitely going to be making this again.
I really liked your Pizza recipe very much, but was unable to find the magic “print” button. If you happen to have one available, my appreciation is given. Thank you,
Hi Brice, Sorry this old post is giving you some troubles with being able to print it. I have updated it slightly to include an easy print out option. The photos are still not showing up and I’ll have to work on figuring that problem out too. Thanks for being patient.