Quinoa Pizza Dough

Today, I”m going to share with you an amazing quinoa pizza dough, but first I want to give a special thanks to all of you who have purchased my cookbook on pre-order! While i certainly had high hopes for the project, I am elated and humbled by the response. Thank you all for your support!

I’m really excited to bring you a guest post brought to you by my Australian friend, Tim. Tim writes about homemade pizza at liveforpizza.com, exploring recipes, tools and techniques for making amazing pizza.

There are a few qualities that the serious pizza lover looks for in any crust. The outside should be crispy and browned, the inside airy and moist but with some chew and flexibility. These can be a little challenging to reproduce in a gluten free crust, but with the right ingredients it is possible to make a pizza crust every bit as good as a wheat based version!

You’ll find all of those things with this quinoa pizza dough!

This recipe uses Quinoa flour to lend a great nutty taste and add some moisture to the dough. Supporting the Quinoa are Cornflour, Tapioca starch and Potato starch – a great combination in gluten free baking as they lend a little chewiness to the finished product without being tough or gluey like some gluten free breads can be. The sugar in this recipe helps with browning of the crust and adds flavor but it can be omitted, reduced, or substituted for another sweetener like honey. Make sure that the vinegar, cornflour and baking powder are all gluten free if baking for someone with dietary restrictions– all of these items can contain gluten.

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Quinoa Pizza Dough

Author Wendy Polisi

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup Cornflour
• 1/2 cup Quinoa flour
• 1/2 cup Tapioca starch
• 2 Tbsp Potato starch
• 1/4 tsp Xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Raw sugar
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
• Scant 1/2 cup water 110 ml
• 1 tsp Vinegar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425F/220C.
2. Mix together all of the dry ingredients and the olive oil. Stir well to combine.
3. Mix together the water and vinegar.
4. Add most of the water-vinegar mixture to the flour mixture, and stir well. Trickle in the remaining water slowly – you may not need it to the last drop. Aim for a dough that is sticky, but still holds its shape.
5. To shape the base, oil a pizza tray or other baking dish. Lift the dough out of the mixing bowl and form it into a rough ball – oiling or wetting your hands in advance makes this step much easier! Put the dough ball in the pizza tray and press it down into a disk shape about 2/8 inches thick. If you want to keep your hands clean, cover the dough ball with a sheet of oiled baking paper and roll out with a rolling pin, then remove the baking paper. This quantity should make a 10 inch crust of average thickness, or larger if you roll it thinner.
6. Now all that remains is to top and cook the pizza! Of course all the fun of homemade pizza is in creating your own topping combinations, so this step is entirely up to you. For me, the extra flavour from the Quinoa means I can add flavorsome ingredients without the pizza seeming unbalanced – think fresh tomato, olives, red pepper and onion for a tasty vegetarian option or smoky bacon, cherry tomatoes, onion and thyme for the omnivores among us.
7. Once topped with sauce, cheese and other ingredients, cook on the middle shelf of your oven for between 10-15 minutes – look for the edges browning and the cheese on top bubbling.

Recipe Notes

Gluten free, fast... If you are in a hurry or don’t have ingredients on hand, replace the Cornflour, Tapioca, Potato starch and Xanthan with 1 1/2 cups of prepackaged gluten free flour mix.
Non gluten free… If gluten isn’t a problem for you, Quinoa is still a great addition to a standard dough. Replace the Cornflour, Tapioca and Potato starch and Xanthan with 1 cup of bakers flour. Replace the baking powder with one heaped teaspoon of yeast, and skip the vinegar which is only there to help the starches act a little more like wheat flour. Once the flour mixture and water has been mixed together, knead until smooth and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours before use.