This is a gluten free pizza dough recipe you'll love. Instead of passing over recipes that call for a few flours get organized to make that job easy. Then everyone will want to eat your pizza with this soft, chewy crust. Follow the step-by-step instructions and trust the process.
I regularly make two different gluten free pizza dough recipes. This thicker one and a California-style thin crust. I like them both and have favourite toppings for each one. I recommend you make them both for a head-to-head comparison, that's what we do in my virtual pizza cooking class.
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Ingredients for New York-style Pizza Crust
Once you have a good system for storing gluten free flours/starches the ingredient lists don't look so daunting. Invest your time in getting set-up to measure flour with a digital scale and you're on your way to delicious homemade pizza.
- White rice flour - Adds lightness to baking and is very common in gluten free flour blends as well as store bought baking.
- Quinoa flour - This high protein flour helps create the chewy texture we want in a pizza crust.
- Tapioca starch and potato starch - Combining two starches improves the smoothness and texture in gluten free baking.
- Potato flour has a high capacity to hold water and oil, helping with bulkiness and flavour. It is not the same as potato starch.
- Psyllium husks absorb liquid better than xanthan gum and are often preferred in yeasted recipes. The husks, or flakes, are preferred over psyllium husk powder.
- Active dry yeast is dissolved in warm water before use and creates the rise.
- Bench Flour - A combination of cornmeal & sweet rice flour that can be mixed up and kept in your pantry.
See recipe card for exact amount.
Instructions for Gluten Free Pizza Dough
Cooking gluten free means being open to new instructions, no matter how long you were cooking before you got to gluten free. If you're willing to try new steps, you can make gluten free pizza dough.
Substitutions
Gluten free flours/starch - This is a precise recipe that works. If you have to make substitutions there will be a period of trial and error. If you're accommodating other food restrictions consider my thin crust recipe that uses brown rice flour, cornstarch, tapioca starch and teff flour.
Psyllium husks - Do not substitute or omit.
Active Dry Yeast - I have not made this recipe with instant yeast, also called rapid-rise yeast. If you're familiar with mixing yeast into the dry ingredients I'm sure you could use it.
Variations
Top the dough with any of your favourite toppings. Some combinations seem more suited to a thin crust recipe and some work better with this thicker, chewier dough.
Get The Tools: Pizza Paraphernalia
If you're cooking gluten free the rest of your life you might want to buy all the tools. If you're just warming up to the idea of homemade dough you can slowly collect the right tools over time. Here's a list to work from.
- Parchment paper is used to transfer the raw dough to the hot pizza steel.
- Cut your pizza with a small pizza wheel or a fancy mezzaluna chopper or Epicurean pizza rocker.
- Inkbird Digital Thermometer, instant read, rechargeable and waterproof.
- Wooden or metal short-handled pizza peel.
- Large 37-inch detachable handle would be a fun gift!
- Basic 14-inch square pizza steel.
- Darebuilt 14 x 22-inch wide (measure your oven before you buy).
- This Fire & Slice steel pizza stone is 14 x 16-inches and available in three thicknesses. The ½-inch steel weighs 32 pounds!
- An Ooni oven for outdoor cooking!
Storage
Pizza is best eaten as soon as it's cool enough to pick up. Second best is leftovers!
Take it in your lunch the next day and eat it cold or gently reheat in a microwave. Cooked slices can be frozen, thawed and reheated in a pan on the stove or in the microwave on half power.
Top Tip for Gluten Free Pizza
Create a system for measuring flour. Check out my system in this post, EGFG gluten free flour blend. That recipe has four flours/starches but it's the set-up and the tools that will set you up for easily mixing multiple flours for any recipe. For this pizza dough, I pull out the main bucket, grab my other flours and quickly combine the dry ingredients I need.
Gluten Free Pizza Dough Recipe (New York Style)
Equipment
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 75 grams white rice flour
- 38 grams quinoa flour
- 38 grams tapioca starch
- 30 grams potato starch
- 11 grams potato flour
- 2 teaspoon psyllium husks
- ¾ teaspoon salt
Yeast Mixture
- 200 grams warm water , 110-115°F
- 1½ teaspoon sugar
- 1½ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Bench Flour
- 1 part cornmeal
- 1 part sweet rice flour
Classic New York Pizza Toppings
- ½ cup pizza sauce
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 6 oz mozzarella cheese , grated
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
Finishing
- 1 teaspoon chile flakes
Instructions
Preheat oven and Pizza Stone or Steel
- Set oven rack in middle position with pizza steel or pizza stone on it. Preheat to 550°F for 1 hour.
Make Bench Flour
- Mix equal parts cornmeal and sweet rice flour in a jar to use for shaping dough.
Mix Dough
- Measure dry ingredients in large bowl and whisk. Set aside.
- In a 2-cup measuring cup weigh water and confirm temperature, 110-115°F. Add sugar and yeast. Stir and loosely cover to activate, 5-10 minutes.
- When foamy on top add oil and stir. Add to dry ingredients stirring vigorously with wooden spoon until dough is smooth.
- Let rest 15 minutes to allow flours to absorb liquid. When it looks more like dough than batter, shape as follows.
Shape Dough
- Place large sheet of parchment, at least 13 inches, on the counter or directly onto a pizza peel. Sprinkle with bench flour.
- Using a spatula scrape dough onto the centre of the parchment. Lightly oil your hands. Using your palms gently push dough into a circle. You should easily make an 8-inch circle. Don't rush or let the dough rest for a few minutes while you clean up or prep toppings.
- Oil hands as often as needed. Finish shaping dough pressing from the center outward to form an 11-13 inch circle. If needed brush a second piece of parchment lightly with oil and lay over the dough to help complete this step.
- Once pressed to the desired size the dough can rest for 20-30 minutes. This can be helpful if you're making several pizzas and want to get this step complete before topping and cooking them.
Top Pizza
- Add garlic powder and salt to pizza sauce, stir. Spread over dough.
- Cover with mozzarella cheese, sprinkle with herbs.
Bake Pizza
- Slide pizza peel under the parchment and transfer to preheated pizza steel in the oven.
- Bake 2-3 minutes. Use pizza peel to lift the pizza from the parchment and swiftly remove it. Continue cooking pizza for 6-7 minutes until bottom is nicely brown and toppings are melted.
- Sprinkle with chile flakes, take pictures and videos while it cools. Cut and serve hot!
Notes
Nutrition
FAQ's
No, gluten free pizza dough, and all yeast breads, are best with a different combination of flours. All-Purpose or 1-for-1 flour blends do not stand up to the rise and cooking process. If you're not ready to measure individual flours look for specific flour blends called gluten free bread flour or gluten free pizza flour rather than a cup-for-cup type of blend.
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New here? I'll help to get you from overwhelmed and frustrated to confident and cooking gluten free food everyone wants to eat, as quickly as possible. Start with these 29 Tips for cooking with GF flour.
🎉 Exciting news! Cooking classes are back and Adventures in a Gluten Free Kitchen, a membership, is coming soon. Join the waitlist!
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Heather
I had the privilege of cooking online with Cinde recently and you do really need to trust the process. The dough is not like regular pizza dough-much sloppier! It works though and tasted great. With a little practice, I think I can get the hang of spreading it out better. Thanks, Cinde!
Cinde Little
Thanks for the comment Heather. Every time I teach a class I learn something new. The temperature of a pizza stone will only get to about 550F while a pizza steel gets up to 640F for a much crispier crust. You will be baking pizza in your Ooni oven and I think it will cook at 700F in just a few minutes. I'll be doing the same at our cabin but I look forward to hearing how it turns out for you.