Outstanding GF Pizzas Consistently

[wvmatt]

Hello All,
 I am very new to the forum ... but have been making pizzas at home for over 10 years now.  The last four have been spent trying to get the GF pizzas for my wife (a celiac) on the same level as the regular ones.  Most of you that are in this same situation have no doubt felt this pain ... but after three weeks of consistently producing a beautiful GF pie, I am ready to share!

We experienced a much improved pizza upon switching to the Caputo Fiore Glut, and I can see on this forum that many others have as well.  I also began to 'weigh' my ingredients recently, and have seen a marked improvement in the final product as well. 

I relieved the Kitchen Aid mixer from gluten free duty, and began to just mix it all with a flat plastic spatula ... big help. I usually finish mixing it up with one well-oiled hand ... trying to knead it a few times.

I also started to heat my water up a little bit upon beginning, and I dissolve the yeast in there (about 100 degrees F ... and I just began using the Caputo A.D.Y ... love it!  Can use it for both of our pizzas)

Once the dough is mixed, I also follow the Caputo directions and wrap it in plastic and refrigerate until ready to press it out.  I should note, that I also began using a small amount of baking soda (same amount as the yeast) in the mix recently ... I believe that this was the 'magic' ingredient that finally made this dough literally 'pop'.  Other than the baking soda ... we pretty much follow the recipe on the bag of Caputo!

I am sharing a few pics of last evening's GF process.  I am cooking on a 6 burner propane grill, which has been loaded up with firebrick.  I struggled to get it to 600 degrees last night, but it still turned out great. 

I always pre-bake the GF pizzas, since the 80% hydration level screams out for that ... always on parchment paper too, during the pre-bake.

[Jon in Albany]

Thanks for sharing. Definitely a few tips here for me to try.

[pgpizza]

My daughter-in-law has celiac disease so I had tried a couple of GF flours (Namaste) and had poor results until I tried Caputo Fiore Glut (the one that uses GF wheat starch).  I've been making dough with 80% HR, IDY, salt, and EVOO.  I mix everything together and let it ferment at room temp for 3-4 hours then shape the dough on floured parchment.  I par bake at 500 F on a pizza stone for 4-5 mins then top and back in the oven for another 3-4 mins.  It doesn't brown much unless I turn on the broiler, but she says it's great so I'm happy about that.  I thought I had a pic but I guess I didn't take one.

Scott

[creggers]

why the baking soda ?

[TXCraig1]

Very nice!

[wvmatt]

why the baking soda ?

I add the baking soda to help the rise ... usually when I do a thicker crust, like in focaccia or Detroit style.

I also started adding lard to the GF tavern style, thin crispy crusts.  The lard really made the GF doughs much easier to work with!

[squabblebear]

I add the baking soda to help the rise ... usually when I do a thicker crust, like in focaccia or Detroit style.

baking soda also lowers the temp at which the maillard reaction happens, do you think you've gotten a better color from using the soda?

[wvmatt]

baking soda also lowers the temp at which the maillard reaction happens, do you think you've gotten a better color from using the soda?

I haven't noticed it doing too much extra to the color, but those GF pies definitely bake long enough to get them fairly dark.  I have also added honey to them many times when I bloom the yeast ... I'm sure those natural sugars would help that as well

[creggers]

add the honey with the yeast or at the end ?

I haven't noticed it doing too much extra to the color, but those GF pies definitely bake long enough to get them fairly dark.  I have also added honey to them many times when I bloom the yeast ... I'm sure those natural sugars would help that as well

[FatBoySlim]

Can I ask how much baking soda did you add to the standard Fioreglut recipe? This is definitely the best GF pizza flour, but so hard to work with. I am going to try the parchment paper next time..

[gtinseth]

I just made four 250g pizzas tonight. The dough was kind of awful to make in the mixer, but once it was in saran wrap and in the frig, things went very well. The wrapped balls rested for 5 hours in the frig and did not stick to the wrap. I added the same amount of baking soda as yeast. I shaped the dough on parchment paper before launching in an Ooni Koda 12 clone at around 800F. The edges of the paper burned but no big deal. The pizzas were great and baked in under 2 minutes. One celiac guest and three not. Everyone raved about the crust, knowing that it was gluten free. I am very pleased with this recipe and method. It makes great pizza. Thank you all for your teachings and experiments.