Home-Baked Pizza with UDI'S Gluten-Free Crust

Yesterday was a busy day out and about with our granddaughter. We even fit in a late afternoon movie. By the time we were heading home, our thoughts were to either eat out or eat simple. Hungry, yet opting for the latter, we made a quick stop at the grocery store for toppings to go on the 9-inch UDI'S gluten-free pizza crusts we had in our freezer back home. We hadn't tried UDI'S pizza crust yet, so this was the perfect opportunity to load those crusts up with savory items and sink our teeth into them.


We weren't disappointed; the pizza was easy to cut with a pizza wheel and tasted great! The crust was crisp on the outside, yet chewy and flexible so we could pick up individual slices loaded with sauce, cheeses, fresh veggies and tomatoes, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and olives... bending, and folding to wrap our mouths around them to take big bites!

The directions are to cook the pizza at 375-degrees for 5-7 minutes, if defrosted. Our crusts were frozen, so I let them cook for 10 minutes. I could have left the pizza in the oven for another minute or so, but I opted to microwave for 30-seconds on high instead. I said I was hungry! So, depending on the type of oven you have and how well it heats, the temperature of the crust, as well as how much you load up your crust, you will want to experiment on the time so your pizza is thoroughly cooked through from the crusty bottom to the juicy top.

Not only is UDI"S pizza crust gluten-free, it also dairy, soy and nut free. Each packages comes with two 9-inch uncooked crusts. The main ingredients are: tapioca, potato and corn starches, brown rice flour, canola or sunflower oil, evaporated cane juice xanthan gum, salt and yeast.

Note: I already have a couple posts about homemade gluten-free pizza and recently posted about trying gluten-free take-out pizza from Papa's Pizza. Next, I'll try making gluten-free pizza crust dough from a variety of dry mixes.

Gluten Free Take-Out Pizza

My husband didn't know when he called late this afternoon that I didn't feel like cooking dinner tonight. However, he did call to say that when he came home for lunch today, he checked the mailbox, and in it there was a handwritten message on the back of a Gluten Free Menu from Papa's Pizza. It reads:

"Here's the menu. It sounds like you may not have been to Papa's before. I'd describe their pizza as consistently mediocre, but, they do have a respectable salad bar & gluten free pizza." S

S is a neighbor of mine, who recently introduced himself when passing my house on foot while on his way to walk the Amazon Trail. He knew of me through the community newsletter, which posts updates, including a note that we were new to the neighborhood. S mentioned that he is planning the annual neighborhood potluck and wanted to know what I thought of it being held at Papa's Pizza. I said that it was something to consider, but wondered if they had a gluten-free menu. This note in our mailbox was a follow-up to that conversation.

Back to my husband. He also called me to tell me that he had called in an order to Papa's Coburg location for a medium vegetarian pizza. Wow... I've been craving take-out pizza for over a week. It has been at least four years since I've eaten take-out pizza, and only a few occasions that I can think of where we ordered a gluten-free pizza at a restaurant. We arrived home about the same time, hungry, and dove right into the pizza with only a 30-second warm-up in the microwave. Pizza craving satisfied! Not bad... actually, pretty good. And I didn't have to cook.

Papa's Pizza - Vegetarian
Olive, Mushroom, Green Pepper, Onion, Tomato, and Cheese

Papa's Pizza crust is Bavaria Mills' gluten free, soy free pizza crust. Ingredients: rice flour, chickpea flour, eggs, sorghum syrup, grapeseed oil, olive oil, potato starch, rice bran, xanthan gum, sea salt, yeast, rice vinegar, chia meal and guar bean gum.

"Bavaria Mills is a Wholesale Bakery in Vancouver WA but they will ship retail orders with a $50 minimum balance. Call them at (360) 571-7619 and stock up your freezer." Gluten Free Mom

Papa's Pizza gluten-free pizzas can be ordered in either a 10" or 12" size, with a selection of over a dozen pizzas and extra toppings to choose from. If you dine at the restaurant, there is a large salad bar with a list, for your convenience, of all the items that are not gluten-free.

Next time I see S, I'll not only thank him for the introduction, I'll give him a thumbs up for having our neighborhood get-together at Papa's.

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.

Gluten-Free Mediterranean Pizza

I took my friend Beth's challenge to try her Gluten-Free Pizza Crust recipe, which I will share with you below. I doubled her recipe. After procuring the flours needed, mixing and while baking the crust, I set to work preparing the toppings. I have to say it was easy, tasty and my husband loved it. He said it was better than the pizza at Pizza Research Institute. Not sure I agree, but I must say, it was quite good!

Beth's Gluten-Free Pizza Crust: "The goal - a gluten free pizza crust worth its sauce. Am I there yet?"

Active Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup quinoa flour
• 1/2 cup gluten free yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• water
• 1 egg

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Mix flours and salt together in a bowl.
3. Slowly add water and stir until you get a thick paste. Beat until batter has no lumps.
4. Add egg and blend.
5. Add water until mixture is the consistency of thin pancake batter.
6. Spread about a teaspoon of olive oil over pizza pan. Stir batter to combine and pour over pan, rotating for even coverage.
7. Put pan into oven and lower temperature to 300 degrees.
8. Bake for 15 - 18 minutes, until crust is firm to the touch and golden brown.
9. Add sauce, toppings, etc. Bake again to heat sauce and melt cheese.

"This also works using buckwheat or brown rice flour instead of the cornmeal.
You might want to add a tablespoon or two more of each flour, depending on the size of your pan and how thick you like your crust.

The idea was to create a gluten free pizza crust that uses whole grains and is free of gums and empty starches. While I'd still call it a work in progress, this is my best effort so far.
If you try it, please share your thoughts - If you improve it, please share your recipe!"

Toppings:

Once the crust had baked for 18 minutes, I removed it from the oven and added the following topping is this this order:

• 6 ounces of pesto
• 1/2 cup shallots, chopped and 1 cup chanterelles, chopped and quickly sauteed in olive oil with 1/4-1/2 teaspoon of my salt substitute herb blend.
• 1 zucchini, thinly sliced (microwaved 2-minutes)
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced in rounds ( microwaved 2-minutes)
• 1 red tomato, thinly sliced and placed on 1/2 of the pizza ( I can't eat raw tomatoes)
• 5 ounces of marinated artichokes, coursely chopped
• 15 Kalamata pitted olives, sliced
• 3 ounces of feta cheese, crumbled
• 5 ounces of pizza-blend cheese ( mozzarella and cheddar)

Baking the Pizza:

Set the oven to pre-heated to 400-degrees, and made the crust with the quinoa flour and cornmeal. Pouring the pizza batter into a oiled rectangular baking pan with a lip, the pancake batter-thin mixture spread out into an even, but irregular shape. The pizza crust cooked for 18-minutes at 300-degrees.

After topping the pizza, I returned it to the oven on "broil" (leaving the door ajar and the oven light on to watch its progress). I felt it would be better to finish cooking the pizza by broiling to melt the cheese and heat the toppings through than to put the pizza back into a 300-degree oven until the cheese slowly melted. It turned out to be a good decision. The crust did not dry out and become brittle, the toppings were hot and cooked through and the cheese was evenly melted on top. The edges crisped up, which I liked. The spatula had to work a bit to loosen the crisp edges, but the servings remained intact and could be cut with a knife on the plate or picked up to eat as individual slices of pizza.

Let me know if you try making this pizza using buckwheat  or rice flour instead of cornmeal. I too would be interested to know how it turns out.