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Easy Gluten-Free Pizza Crust (Dairy-Free)


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5 from 3 reviews

Description

Finally, an easy gluten-free pizza crust that actually holds up well, bakes up crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside! No rising time needed, no kneading required, and this pizza crust recipe is ready in less time than it takes to order a pizza, the perfect meal for pizza night. This is the perfect base for our gluten-free caprese pizza or any pizza toppings you love! It’s totally dairy-free (with an egg-free option too), but no one would know!


Ingredients

Units Scale

Instructions

  1. Preheat and Line: Preheat oven to 450F and line a large round pizza pan with parchment paper or a silpat.
  2. Activate Yeast: In a small bowl, mix the warm water, sugar, and instant yeast together and let it sit for 5 minutes until it turns foamy (if the mixture doesn’t turn foamy, it means the yeast isn’t working so throw it away and use a new packet of yeast).
  3. Whisk Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl, whisk the gluten-free all-purpose flour, brown rice flour, xanthan gum and salt together.
  4. Add Wet Ingredients to Dry Ingredients to Form Dough: Add in the beaten egg, oil, apple cider vinegar, and the yeast mixture. Mix very well together until you get a thick sticky dough (note that gluten-free dough will be much more wet and stickier than normal wheat flour dough, and that’s perfectly fine).
  5. Transfer Dough to Prepared Pizza Pan: Transfer the pizza dough to the prepared silpat-lined or parchment-lined pan, and spread the dough out into a 12-inch round (or divide into 2 smaller rounds if you prefer).
  6. Bake Until Golden and Crusty: Bake for 20 to 30 minutes on the lowest rack until pizza crust is golden brown and crusty on the bottom. Once the bottom is crusty, remove the silpat or parchment paper and place the crust directly on the pizza pan. Add pizza sauce and toppings of choice and bake for another 15 minutes until toppings are ready.

Notes

Warm Water: Make sure that the water is between 105F to 115F as the warm environment is required to activate the yeast, but if the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast.

Yeast: I like using instant dry yeast because it activates immediately.

Sugar: The sugar is necessary because the yeast needs to feed on the sugar to be activated. Don’t worry about the sugar making the dough sweet, because the once the yeast is done feeding on it, the dough will not be sweet at all.

Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour: I recommend using a good-quality gluten-free flour blend that has a mix of lighter flours/starches (such as rice flour, corn starch, tapioca starch or potato starch) to ensure a lighter final texture. I do NOT recommend using flour blends with heavier flours (such as garbanzo bean flour) as that will result in a denser final texture. 

Brown Rice Flour: I like using brown rice flour to add a bit more fiber to the dough (learn how to make homemade brown rice flour in just minutes)! If you don’t have brown rice flour on hand, or don’t want to use it, simply replace it with the same amount of gluten-free all-purpose flour. Alternatively, you may also substitute the brown rice flour with other flours such as millet flour, sorghum flour, almond flour or buckwheat flour.

Xanthan Gum: Xathan gum takes the role of gluten in gluten-free flours, and is necessary for binding the ingredients together.

Egg: If you want to make this dough completely vegan, swap out the egg for a chia egg or a flax egg for binding purposes.

Oil: I like using sunflower oil because I always have a bottle of it at home. Alternatively, you may also use other vegetable oils such as extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil.

Apple Cider Vinegar: Apple cider vinegar creates an acidic environment that helps the dough rise better. Alternatively, you may also use rice vinegar, or white wine vinegar if you don’t have ACV on hand.

Storing/Freezing: If not using the pizza crust immediately, let it cool completely before wrapping it in plastic wrap and then storing in the refrigerator for up to 2 days before using. To freeze, wrap the cooled crust in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. To use, thaw the crust on a pizza pan in the oven at 450F for 10 minutes before adding toppings and baking for another 15 minutes until ready.

Adapted from: Gluten-Free Palate

This recipe was originally published in June 2020, but has since been updated with recipe notes, ingredient substitutions,and clearer step-by-step instructions.

  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Category: Pizza
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: Italian