Gluten Free Homemade Pizza Crust and Sauce, gluten free,

I love making pizza!  In my previous life, I never attempted a homemade pizza until I found out that I have Celiac. Now that I have, I would never go back!  Homemade is so much better than the soggy ones in the box!

Yes, it's a little work, but it really doesn't take that much time and this is a big MONEYSAVER over buying a little gluten free pizza for $7.00 in the store!!

With this recipe you can make 3 medium crusts for apx $2.00! Boy,  you can't beat that!!

So this is what I do-  (sorry about the old pics with dates!)

This post will show you the PIZZA CRUST and  the PIZZA SAUCE.

I will post my favorite toppings and assembly on another post but it's pretty much whatever you want to pile on and love to eat.  Everything goes on a pizza!!.   Be creative!!

So Here we go!

I make a large batch of dough and split it into 2-3 pizza crusts.  You can do one large and one small or 3 mediums- See recipe below!!

I do the first prebake on all of them and then cool the ones I'm not going to use,  wrap in plastic wrap and foil and  freeze.
This is a big TIMESAVER on busy nights!!  All I have to do is take a crust out of the freezer, make my sauce, top with meat and vegies and cheese and bake for 10-15 min!

Aldi has green peppers and mushrooms on sale all the time and I love them on pizza.  We also use their sausage, pepperoni, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses because they have the best prices I can find.

We have company coming and I've been cooking like crazy and freezing.
Another big TIMESAVER- If you take a day and precook your sauces, meatballs, bread, pizza crusts it will make your life better!  Just freeze and label with the date.   I am so happy when I can pull something out of the freezer and whip up dinner in minutes....it's just heaven.

So as I was saying, I don't want to be in the kitchen the whole time our company is here.  Yesterday I spent the evening making pizza crust and meatballs .  Hubby was out with friends and it was nice quiet evening !  Just me and Jack our lab, cooking and watching girly shows and cooking.  Fun stuff!

Keep reading below for the recipe!!

Gluten-Free Pizza Dough Recipe

The recipe makes one big pan pizza and one round pizza or 3 small rounds. I use a big cookie sheet and a round pizza pan, but bake times may be shorter, so keep an eye on it.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 c. Bob's Redmill GF Brown Rice flour (this is really the best flour for pizza crust)
• 2 ½ c. tapioca starch
• ¾ c. dry milk powder
• 1 Tb. xanthan gum
• 1 ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 Tb. sugar
• 1 ½ Tb. instant yeast- I use Bread Machine Yeast that you can add right into the dry ingred- see note below on Yeast
• 1/4 c. olive oil + oil for pans
• 3 whole eggs (room temp. warm up eggs under hot water)
• 1+ c. warm water (105-115 degrees; ) add a little more if dry( I warm up 1 1/2 cups but start with 1 cup and then add more if needed)

Instructions:

1. Combine dry ingredients in large mixing bowl with paddle attachment, add in the oil and the eggs warmed in the water and mix on low speed. Add the water until dough is thin but not watery Let it mix a while before deciding to add more.
2. Mix on high speed about 3 minutes.- (this is very important to develop the dough)
3. Divide the dough onto the greased pans putting a little more in the rectangular one. Using a baggie sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, pat the dough out to the edges. Try to get it somewhat even, keep spraying your glove or baggie and gently push from the center out.  You can make your crust thick or thin
4. Let rise about 20 minutes. I put it in a slightly warmed oven for 8-10 minutes,( turn the oven on for a couple minutes and then turn off while you are mixing the dough so it is barely warm) remove pans to the stove top to finish rising and let the oven preheat to 400 degrees
5. Make sure the oven racks have some space between them. I  put mine on 2 and 5.
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes-   This is the PREBAKE 
7. Remove from oven, brush a little olive oil over the surface and edges and sprinkle with the finely grated Parmesan cheese. These two steps help keep the sauce from soaking into the crust
8. You can now take the crusts you want to freeze and set them aside to cool and wrap

For any you want to use immediately- 

Add pizza sauce, cheese and toppings. Bake about 15 minutes more or until cheese is melted. 

Pizza Sauce Recipe

Combine the following ingredients:
16 oz. tomato sauce or sometimes I use a small can of tomato paste and a can of water
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 Tb. sugar
1/8 tsp. garlic powder

Note: I use SAF or bread machine instant yeast which can be mixed right in with the dry ingredients. You can buy block packages of it or buy the jars of bread machine yeast. If you don’t have instant yeast, you will have to add the sugar and yeast to the warm water and let it proof/ bubble for a few minutes to make sure it's working.  ps-Don't let your water get too warm or it will kill the yeast.