my new quest--a killer gluten-free pizza recipe

[canadave]

Hi all,

Some of you might remember me from a while back...haven't posted in a while, was too busy making delicious NY pizza

However, my mission has now changed quite drastically.  I've just been diagnosed with celiac disease, which for those who don't know, means that I cannot ever again eat even the slightest amount of food containing gluten--which, for the purposes of our discussion, means no more normal pizza.  Ever.  Lombardi's, Grimaldi's, Totonno's....oh well, too bad so sad, I'm done forever.

This is quite a blow, as my life has pretty much revolved around pizza forever.  I'm now in search of a recipe for gluten-free pizza crust (I can still use regular tomato sauce and cheese).  I don't just mean any old crust that I can put sauce and cheese on it and call it pizza--I mean something that will taste, if not indistinguishable from the real article, then at least good enough to eat on a regular basis without saying, "gosh, I hate my life."

I'm going to try to find out all I can over the next few weeks about what recipes are available.  In the meantime, does anyone know of any *good* gluten-free pizza recipes?  i.e. not just something you found on the Internet, but something that you or someone you know has directly tasted and can vouch for?  Is there anyone willing to help me on this quest?

Thanks for listening,
Dave

[2stone]

Canadave,
Sorry to hear that.

My wife has been told to cut down on
gluten, so I will be watching your thread
with great interest.

willard

[Pete-zza]

Dave,

I'm sorry to hear of the diagnosis. From what I have read, celiac disease is more common than generally recognized.

By posting in the NY section, I take it that you are interested in a NY style gluten-free pizza. From what reading I have done on gluten-free doughs, they tend not to be limited to any style. They are more or less generic in nature, although there is no reason not to make a NY style--which I know from your past NYC connections is your most beloved pizza style.

Toward the end of last year, PMQ published an article on celiac disease and efforts of the industry to meet the needs of those who have celiac disease. The article is at http://www.pmq.com/mag/200703/celiacs.php. You will note that there is a recipe for a gluten-free dough given in the article.

As you might expect, there is not a great deal on the forum about gluten-free/wheat-free pizza doughs. However, there are a few threads that might get you started on your quest: http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,1815.msg16050.html#msg16050,  http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,2084.msg18346.html#msg18346, and http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,6288.msg53962.html#msg53962.

I don't know if Bob's Red Mill sells its products in Canada, but they carry a line of gluten-free products: http://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten.php. I have generally found their products to be of high quality.

There is also a fairly new pizza place in the U.S., Pizza Fusion, that offers a gluten-free option, but that may not help you where you are in Canada. But it does indicate a trend to offer such options to people who can't tolerate gluten or wheat products in general.

Good luck. I will keep your request in mind as I come across gluten-free dough recipes in the course of my research.

Peter

[canadave]

Thanks everybody.

Willard--your wife should get tested for celiac, if she hasn't already.  My diagnosis came via a simple blood test, known as an anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTG) test.  It's 98% specific and accurate for celiac disease, and mine came back positive.  As Pete said, celiac is much more common than most people realize, and can manifest itself either asymptomatically or with very mild symptoms.

If the tTG test comes back negative, a person can still have celiac, or not; but a positive is pretty much "game over, you've got it."  Since the test is just a simple blood workup, anyone with any gluten issues at all should have the tTG test done at least, if not the additional blood work that constitutes a full-scale celiac investigative panel.

Pete--thanks very much for the links, and I'd definitely appreciate it if you'd keep my quest in mind if you run across some good gluten-free crust recipes.  Yes, sorry, I probably should've posted this in the General Pizza Making forum....I guess I figured that if I can figure out a decent dough recipe, I'll make it into a NY style crust somehow

Thanks again,
Dave

[Pizza_Not_War]

I second Pete's recommendation of Bob's Redmill. I have had many of their products, including the gluten free Chocolate brownie. Not bad! I have in the past gone on diets that eliminated gluten, trying to work out some issues and you get used to eating gluten free pretty quick.

I am sure you were told this, but just in case - many prepared foods and other supermarket stocked items contain Gluten that you would not expect. Check carefully.

Good luck - hope you adjust quickly and stay healthy!

[deb415611]

Canadave,

I will help you out in your quest.  I have started doing some research & some testing (not pizza yet but it's on my list) of gluten-free baking.  My friend has a 3 1/2 year old who tested negative for Celiac but she thinks he does have a problem with gluten.   She hates to cook and experimenting is not her thing.  For her getting dinner on the table is a chore .  I told her that I would help her out. 

Definately check out Bob's Red Mill website.  I have tasted the bread from their sandwich bread mix and it was good (I'll get the exact name later).  It is what they are using for day to day sandwiches. 

From the reading that I have done it seems that the key is to use a blend of gluten-free flours. 

Somewhat off-topic but my first challenge for him was a cake.  His brother's birthday was a few weeks ago and he was very sad  :(that he was not going to be able to have cake.  I tested a few recipes that didn't work as written (there is hope for one).  I started thinking about different types of cake and a lightbulb went off.... Angel food cake - I have a killer chocolate angel food cake recipe and there is only 1 cup of flour to 14 or 16 egg whites.   I ended up using 1/2 cornstarch & 1/2 potato flour - it was dense but really good.  I'm going to experiment with other flours to see if I can lighten it up a little - I think the cornstarch is good but the other flour needs to be something else.  Here is a link to the recipe I experimented with  http://joyofbaking.com/ChocolateAngelFoodCake.html

I'll try to do some experimenting this week.  I have a few recipes and general flour mixes. 

Good luck! 
Deb

Peter - thanks for the links, I hadn't done any searching here yet. 

[stymie]

I posted this few months back. It's the recipe they gave out at this years NAPICS. You can find it here. They made them on the first day of the show but I didn't try the pizza so I have no idea on how the crust taste.
Good Luck

John

[November]

I've never had any reason to make a gluten-free pizza crust, but the challenge is an interesting one, so I will be entering the fray soon.  I see this mainly as a chemical engineering problem since eliminating gluten means eliminating the primary macromolecular chemical responsible for the structure of the dough.  You can see this reengineering reflected in the number and type of replacement ingredients contained in gluten-free dough premixes.  When I get around to making my version of a gluten-free dough (which could be within the next day or two) I will report what I have.

- red.november

[November]

The easiest way to gluten-free pizza dough is probably through the use of Orgran Gluten Substitute.  It adds about $1.50 to the cost of a 14" pizza.

http://www.celiac.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=797

[Pete-zza]

Adding to the growing list of gluten-free pizza dough recipes, I stumbled across a gluten-free pizza dough recipe today at http://glutenfreemommy.com/homemade-pizza/.

Peter

[November]

Peter,

I think the cross-section of that crust illustrates the uphill battle of engineering a crust without gluten.  Moreover I would add that the flavor will probably never be quite right without wheat flour or special additives to simulate the flavor of wheat.

All,

I wanted to withhold my opinion of the flavor of the crust I made on Friday until I could compare it to a crust made using a gluten-free flour premix.  I have had such a premix in my pantry for a while now.  The product is Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free All-purpose Baking Flour: http://www.bobsredmill.com/catalog/index.php?action=showdetails&product_ID=199  I have an assortment of gums on hand due to my involvement in past chemical engineering projects, however, I think I'm going to order the Orgran Gluten Substitute to work in conjunction with the aforementioned flour.  Perhaps someone else can try Bob's Red Mill Gluten-free Pizza Crust Mix: https://www.bobsredmill.com/catalog/index.php?action=showdetails&product_ID=703

As for the structure of the dough I made on Friday, it became exponentially more difficult to maintain protein-based strength with each linear increase in batch size.  Through the use of thermally induced protein denaturation and coagulation, in addition to methylsulfonylmethane (can be found as a supplement) based sulfur bridging, I was able to keep a very small batch of dough (~100 g) stable and elastic.  Larger batches were too much trouble.  My goal was to process gluten-free flour in such a way that adding viscosity modifiers (e.g. gums) would become unnecessary.  My conclusion thus far is that it may be possible, but it wouldn't be easy in an average home setting.  At this point I would recommend using premixes, especially since as I pointed out earlier, I don't think achieving a wheat flavor without the use of wheat flour is accessible to the average home baker.

- red.november

[alconnell]

This recipe was in our paper this morning and it seems to have quite a following:

http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/recipe.cgi?r=45387

[kiwipete]

Some time ago I came across this article about a person who was diagnosed with celiac disease, but was still able to eat bread made with (very) long fermentation and that used a natural starter (sourdough) rather than bakers yeast. http://www.westonaprice.org/foodfeatures/ourdailybread.html.

This may be of use in terms of making pizza dough as well.

[derbow]

Canadave,

Just the other day I was watching an episode of Good Eats on YouTube called "Sub-Standards."  On the show, Alton Brown discusses some common substitutions for ordinary ingredients.  One of the things he makes is gluten free chocolate chip cookies.  In his normal recipe he uses bread flour.  In the gluten free recipe he substitutes 2 1/4 cups of bread flour with the following combination:

11 ounces brown rice flour, approximately 2 cups
1 1/4 ounces cornstarch, approximately 1/4 cup
1/2-ounce tapioca flour, approximately 2 tablespoons
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

In the show he explains what each ingredient does, and he claims that the combination mimics the structure of gluten.  Here is a link to the episodes:

Part 1 -
Part 2 - [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlNVKWdKyxk&feature=related[url]

Hope that helps.

Derrick

[November]

Derrick,

I'm waiting for the day he, or anyone else, demonstrates gluten substitution with bread or pizza crust.  Cakes and cookies are not a great measure of success as they rarely require much, if any, gluten.  The ingredients you listed are fairly common in the gluten-free baking world.  You can find them in all kinds of gluten-free premixes.  As much as I like Alton Brown, I don't see him pulling off something as classic as pizza dough with gluten-free ingredients.  He can just barely pull off pizza dough with wheat flour.

The show certainly has its entertainment and instructional value though, even if the food doesn't always live up to expectations.  Coincidentally, the cookies made using his recipes are the only ones that I recall enjoying to the point of recipe retention.  Most of the time I just enjoy the show and move on.

- red.november

[carl333]

Hi canadave,

I just posted today on your dough recipe from years back and was wondering if you had tweaked it since then b4 I give it a go. Peter chimed in and said probably not and sent me to your link about your plight and in search for a gluten free recipe. Sorry to hear...

I have your recipe aging in the fridge and from what I have read, well I just can't wait to try. I will post and picture my results. Due to my poor understanding of the science and chemistry of making dough, I have failed miserably for so long.

I haven't done much reading, but was wondering how successful you have been with your search for a GF recipe.

rgds