Focaccia-Pizza Crust, Gluten-Free

My friend Gina shared a recipe with me last week for Bette Hagman's gluten-free crust for either focaccia or pizza. Bette Hagman authored The Gluten-Free Gourmet: Living Well without Wheat.

Ingredients:

First, mix together in a bowl and set aside:
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup of lukewarm water
1 packet of 2-1/4 teaspoons yeast

Next, whisk together the following dry ingredients, and set aside:
1 cup rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1-1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
1 tablespoon minced onion (use dehydrated for more flavor)
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
1 egg
1-3 tablespoons olive oil, divided (1 for the dough, two more for the top of a focaccia)

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer, blend the egg, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and the yeast-water.
2. Add the flour mixture and beat on high for 2 minutes. The mixture with be frothy.
   
3. Spoon and spread the thin dough into whatever disk or rectangular shape that works best for you on a lightly-oiled baking sheet or a silicone baking mat (my preference).
4. For making focaccia, drizzle the dough with the remaining oil, plus a dash of onion salt. Add more Parmesan cheese, if desired.
5. For pizza crust, leave plain and cover with greased plastic and let rise for 20-25 minutes, if cooking with rapid-rising yeast; 45 minutes for regular yeast.
6. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 12-25 minutes or until the crust is firm and lightly brown.
7. At this point, you can either freeze the crust or add toppings and put the pizza back into the oven to heat through and melt the cheese.

Here is the list of the toppings I put on our pizza this evening, in order of layers:

1. I slathered the freshly-made pesto, which I purchased from Marche Provisions, over the top of the hot crust.
2. Scattered 1-1/2 cups of a shredded cheese (mozzarella and/or cheddar) over the pesto.
   
3. Ladled over the cheese a medley of vegetables I had sauteed in a little olive oil: mushrooms, fresh red bell pepper, home-dehydrated green bell peppers and zucchinis, sun-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced white onion, marinated artichoke hearts cut into bite-size pieces with a teaspoon of Caribbean seasoning by Mountain Rose Herbs.
4. Heated through until the cheese melted and the edges of the crust were crispy, and served with freshly grated Parmesan cheese and red chili pepper (optional).

Thank you Gina! And my husband thanks you, too. We decide that this was the best pizza we've ever eaten.