How To Bake A Crocodile: Pizza Take Two...

I made my first homemade gluten free pizza. It was very easy and much better than Amy's. But still not perfect. Really I just need to give up the dream that I will ever eat a NY slice again. I'll still play around with recipes until I find the right balance though. Oh and as I was about to pour in my yeast, I realized it was expired. I looked at every package of yeast in my house and they were all expired. Some I bought recently too. Drats. I used the least expired package. Haha- as much as I love Martha and Ina, I better relate to Rachel and Sandra.

In the end, it was pretty dense. As are all things GF. But I think it might be less so if the yeast had not been expired. The flavor was lovely and actually tasted like...wait for it....whole wheat. I bet if I didn't tell you it was GF, you would think it was whole wheat. I know, surprising.

I adapted this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

*1/4 cup sorghum flour
*1 cup rice flour
*1/4 cup cornstarch
*1/2 cup potato flour
*2 teaspoons xanthan gum
*3/4 teaspoon salt
*1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
*1 teaspoon sugar for proofing yeast
*2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
*3/4 cup warm water
*2 Tablespoons ricotta cheese
*2 eggs
*2 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
*1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
*1 Tablespoon Honey

DIRECTIONS:

*Place your pizza pan or stone in the oven and heat the oven to 170 degrees to get it warm.
*Prepare your liquid ingredients. Mix the olive oil, egg, ricotta cheese, honey, and vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside so the mixture comes to room temperature.
*Combine all the dry ingredients and sift together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Use the paddle (not the dough hook) for this recipe.
*Heat 3/4 cup of water in microwave. In a separate small bowl, place your yeast and the teaspoon of sugar. Mix with about 1/4 cup of the heated water, stir, and let it sit for a few minutes. Once you know the yeast is active, proceed with the recipe.
*At this point, you want to double check and make sure all your ingredients have come to room temperature. Turn the stand mixer on and give the dry ingredients a few twirls. Add the egg, ricotta mixture to the dry ingredients and give it another few twirls. Add the yeast mixture. At this point, gauge the liquid level. You want the dough to look like stiff cake batter. The dough should still hold the swirls of the mixer, but it should be shiny and not dull. Add water slowly until the right consistency is achieved. The original recipe added the full amount but I only needed about half. Since different brands of flour and measuring techniques vary, it is best to eyeball this and add the water slowly to get the texture you want. You will get good at knowing what gluten free pizza dough is supposed to look like.
*Once you have the pizza dough made, take the pizza pan/stone out of the oven. You can turn the oven off at this point and leave the light on in the oven. Fit the pizza stone with parchment paper or foil (do not use waxed paper) and lightly brush with olive oil. With oiled hands (I spritz mine with evoo spray), slowly spread the pizza dough batter in a 12-13 inch circle or rectangle. You want the batter to be evenly distributed. If you find your hands getting too sticky get a little more olive oil on your hands.
*At this point, I put my pan back in the oven for a 40 minute rise.
*Once it has risen for 40 minutes, turn the oven to 375 degrees for 10 minutes to prebake crust.
*Then add toppings. Turn the heat up to 400 degrees and cook for 7-12 minutes, depending on toppings and thickness.

Makes 1 12-13 inch pizza crust.

Trying to rise in the oven with expired yeast.

For my toppings, I did a half and half pizza. I used up a ripe tomato from my garden, fresh spinach, some dabs of ricotta and shredded cheese that I had on hand on one side. The other side had a base of a peanut sauce, sauteed chicken, scallions, dabs of ricotta and a tiny bit of shredded cheese.