The Best Gluten-free Pizza at Home

If you're gluten-free, there's probably one thing you're searching for... good pizza. Oh man, is it hard to find! Over the years, I have tried basically every pizza mix I could find on the market.

While there have been one or two that I have found to be good, the pizza was still not quite right. Whether in flavor, texture, or both, there was always something a bit off.

That is until I took a visit to a restaurant in a Chicago suburb that specializes in wood-fired pizzas. They are well-known in the area for making delicious gluten-free pizzas. I can attest, they are very good!

So what was the secret? How were they doing it? Well, oddly enough they give away the secret right on their menu! They share that they use a special gluten-free flour, direct from Italy, to make these amazing gluten-free pizzas! Thanks to Amazon, you can ship some of it right to your front door!

Needless to say, I've been using this flour ever since to make my own gluten-free pizzas right at home! My family agrees it is the best gluten-free pizza we have had because it actually tastes like normal pizza!

This versatile dough can be used to make a pizza in your oven or even outdoors in a wood-fired pizza oven! If you're making this pizza for the wood-fired oven, check out my post dedicated to gluten-free pizza in the Ooni for all the tips and tricks! Although for today, I will be sharing how to make this pizza in your home oven.

The Flour: Caputo Fioreglut

Let's talk about that special flour for a second. Using this specific flour, Caputo Fioreglut, is the secret to making the best gluten-free pizza at home. You can surely make this recipe with another flour but I doubt it will be quite as good.

To find it, just search Caputo Fioreglut either on google or Amazon. It's should be about $15 or less for a 2.2lb bag. You will be able to make at least four pizzas out of one bag, which comes out to roughly $3.75/pizza crust. That is not bad compared to other gluten-free pizza options, especially since this one actually tastes good!

Gluten-free Wheat Starch

A quick look at the ingredients and you might notice something... gluten-free wheat starch. Wait! What? I know. Don't quit reading and run for the hills quite yet!

Gluten-free wheat starch is an ingredient that is not only gluten-free but it's also safe for people with Celiac Disease. I personally was shocked the first time I ever saw it in a list of ingredients, which was long before this flour!

I actually saw it first on a package of Schar Gluten-free Crescent Rolls. Instead of immediately ruling it out, I did a little research to learn more about it. Here's what I found:

Schar, a well-respected gluten-free brand, uses gluten-free wheat starch in some of their products and has been for years! It's used to enhance the texture of certain products. They wrote a really great article about gluten-free wheat starch, what it is, and what it's used for. Make sure to read it! It's very informative.

When I was researching this particular flour, I noticed that little green symbol on the front of the bag. The words are in Italian so I popped it into Google Translate, it reads: "Ministry of Health National Register, Gluten-free food dispensable product."

Turns out, that is Italy's symbol indicating that this gluten-free food is produced and safe for those with Celiac Disease. In order to display that symbol, documentation must be supplied to the Ministry of Health that the level of gluten in the product is <20ppm of gluten.

During this research, I also found out, other than I want to move to Italy, that they provide those with Celiac Disease a monthly stipend of 140 euros to spend on gluten-free foods, including this flour! Talk about amazing seeing as the financial cost of this disease can definitely put a strain on the budget!

Alright then, let's get on with pizza making!

The Other Ingredients

Aside from our special flour, here are remaining ingredients you'll need for this pizza dough:

• Instant Yeast: Always get Instant Rise, Rapid Rise, or Bread Machine yeast. Those different names for yeast are actually all the same type of highly active, fast-rising yeast. Instant yeast is the easiest to use, especially for gluten-free baking! You can mix the yeast right in with the dry ingredients without dissolving in water first.
• Kosher Salt
• Olive oil
• Water

There you have it. Only 5 ingredients are needed to make the best gluten-free pizza dough!

Equipment Needed

There are some tools that come in handy for making pizza at home. You don't need any or all of them but if you're into making pizza, these are the tools that help:

• A digital kitchen scale: I especially like to measure the flour and water by weight. I will include cup measurements as well but weighing the ingredients is the most accurate.
• A stand mixer: I usually make this dough in my stand mixer but in case you don't have one, I will show you that you can also mix it by hand. It takes a little more elbow grease but the results are the same. (Please note: I would not use a hand mixer for this recipe. The dough is pretty thick and will likely break the motor.)
• Parchment paper: The dough is sticky and parchment paper helps immensely in rolling out and forming the crust.
• A pizza stone, steel, or cast-iron pan. Something that can rest in the oven and get very hot! This helps the crust get a crispy bottom. Please note, cheap pizza stones can break at high temperatures. My preferred option is a cast-iron pizza pan. They are affordable and will never break! If you don't have or want to buy one, you can make the pizza on a standard pizza pan or cookie sheet although your pizza may not get quite as crisp on the bottom.
• A pizza peel often comes in handy for getting the pizzas into and out of the oven. A flat rimmed cookie sheet or flat pizza pan could also work.

Making the Dough

A lot of people get intimidated by the word yeast. It brings to mind complicated recipes and techniques. When it comes to gluten-free baking and especially this pizza dough, you really don't have to fear. If you can measure and stir, you can make this recipe!

Step 1 (as seen in images below): Place the flour, instant yeast, & salt in a large bowl or stand mixer bowl.

Step 2: Whisk them together.

Step 3: Pour in warm water & olive oil.

Steps 4, 5 & 6: Stir, Stir, Stir! Mix and mash with a sturdy spoon until the dough is very well combined. If using a stand mixer, blend on medium speed for 2 minutes using the regular paddle attachment.

Step 7: At this point the dough will be very sticky, the texture of buttercream frosting. Scoop the dough into a ball and drizzle with a little olive oil. Roll the ball around to coat the dough and sides of the bowl with the olive oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a dish towel. Set aside to let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Step 8: After the dough has doubled in size, you can form pizzas right away or place the covered bowl in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Pro-tip: The dough is much easier to work with if you have time to refrigerate it first! Keep it cold until you are ready to form the pizzas! You can refrigerate the dough for several hours so feel free to make it ahead of time!

Forming the Pizza

Forming the pizza is the trickiest part, mostly because gluten-free dough doesn't have the same elastic structure that a gluten dough would have. For this reason, it's easiest to form the dough on a piece of parchment paper.

Sprinkle plain white rice flour on top of the dough to prevent it from sticking to your hands as you pat out the dough into a circle. You can also use a rolling pin covered in rice flour to gently roll out the dough if you like.

Pro-tip: if you like a thicker, softer crust edge, pat out the dough. If you like crispy, crunchy crust edges, roll the dough with a rolling pin. I've found the rolling pin flattens the edges more than when patting out the dough, which results in a crisper edge.

Cooking the Pizza

When it comes to cooking the pizza, there are a few tricks to getting the perfect gluten-free pizza in your home oven.

• You need a hot oven! The hotter the better! Crank the oven temperature to 450°F!
• Pre-heat the oven with your choice of pizza stone or cast-iron pan for at least 30 minutes.
• Pre-bake the crust. The dough takes longer to cook than the toppings, so pre-baking is necessary. Form the crust and then slide it into the hot oven, parchment paper and all. After 2 minutes or so you can pull the parchment paper out from underneath the pizza to get a crisper bottom.

After the crust has been pre-baked, you can top the pizza with whatever toppings you like and finish baking it in the oven.

There you have it! All of my tips and tricks for getting the perfect gluten-free pizza right at home! If you have any questions, drop them in the comments and I will be glad to help you out!

The secret really is in the flour, so check out the links and grab a bag to try. Soon you will be making delicious gluten-free pizza that actually tastes like pizza! If you love this recipe, be sure to check out my gluten-free Chicago-style deep dish recipe as well!

More Gluten-Free Recipes You'll Love

If you love using Caputo Firoeglut as much as I do, be sure to check out even more ways to use it here in this roundup of gluten-free recipes with Caputo Fioreglut, where you'll find even more great recipes like this gluten-free Detroit style pizza!