Gluten Free Thin Crust Pizza from Usha's Very Own
Makes: 2 x 11”/28cm pizzas
Preparation time: Total preparation and baking time - 50 - 60 minutes
- dough making - 10 minutes plus resting time of at least two hours.
- vegetables - 10 minutes plus roasting time of 15 - 20 minutes
- rolling dough - 5 minutes
- baking minutes - 30 minutes (to include blind baking)
Suitable for: Vegetarians and those on a gluten-free diet
Gluten-free pizza
Ingredients for the gluten free pizza dough:
- 250g gluten-free pizza flour (I used Eurostar Food Della Terra Gluten-free Pizza flour)
- 240ml warm water
- 5g of instant yeast (I used Allinsons Yeast Easy Bake)
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 7g salt
Topping: Use whatever combination of vegetable you prefer. I used the following:
- 200g courgettes, sliced
- 1 green pepper, sliced
- 150g sweetcorn, tinned (drained) or frozen (thawed)
- 300g shiitake mushrooms, wiped and sliced
- 2 small red onions, sliced
- 1 green chilli, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil plus extra for brushing over the blind baked pizza base and for sauteing the mushrooms
- salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil plus some for brushing on the blind baked pizza bases
- 400g tin of pizza sauce (I used Mutti Pizza sauce)
Method:
- Sift the flour and the salt into a bowl, Stir to blend. Add the oil and rub into the flour/salt mixture.
- Add a small amount of warm water to the dried yeast and blend to make a runny paste. Add c. 200ml of the remaining water to the yeast paste and stir to combine fully without it going lumpy.
- Add the yeast water to the flour and mix to form a firm dough adding more of the remaining warm water as needed.
- Knead the dough for a few minutes. Place back in the bowl (if you used a work surface to knead the dough), and cover with clingfilm.
- Rest the dough at room temperature for at least two hours until it doubles in size. If the dough is not going to be used straight away, it can be stored in the fridge (in the clingfilm covered bowl) until needed.
- Once the dough has doubled in size, preheat the oven to 180°C-200°C/375°F/Gas Mark 6.
- Knead it again for a couple of minutes, then divide it into two equal portions.
- Roll out each portion to approximately 11 inch/28 cm diameter and place in a perforated pizza trays.
- Prick the surface of the bases with a fork and place in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes until the edges start to turn up an turn very slightly brown.
- Whilst the bases are being blind baked (as in No. 9 above) place all the vegetables except for the mushrooms and sweetcorn in a bowl, add the oil and combine. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, mix this through the vegetables.
- Spread the vegetables on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes (same temperature as for the bases) turning them over half way through.
- Place a small amount of olive oil in a pan and sauté the mushrooms. When almost done, add the sweetcorn and allow to cook through.
- Combine the roasted and sauteed vegetables together once cooked and keep aside.
Putting it all together:
- Brush all of the top side of the pizza bases (including the edges) lightly with vegetable oil.
- Spread 200g (half the tin) of the pizza sauce evenly over each base.
- Spread the vegetable evenly over the pizza sauce, then arrange the slices of mozzarella cheese over the top.
- Bake in the oven for c. 15 minutes.
- Remove and enjoy!
Recipe from our good friend Usha