Pizza Crust And Cinnamon Rolls

[Deby]

One thing that makes a pizza crust good IMO is that it is chewy in texture like good french bread. Pizza crust should also crisp on the bottom while it is baked but keep that chewy interior.

I have found that this recipe works best.

2 cups gluten-free flour mix (use Betty Hagmans mix)

1 cup sorghum flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1/2 cup Parmasian cheese

1 tbsp sugar or honey

2 tsp xanthan gum

2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 tsp yeast

4 cups warm water

Mix well until smooth. Dribble 1 or 2 tbsps of olive oil over the top of the dough and let rise until doubled. About an hour

Mix and set aside:

1 cup gluten-free flour

1 cup tapioca flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp baking powder

After dough is doubled, stir it down and add 1/2 of the mix you set aside. Mix well. Add more flour until you end up with a dough that is thick like a paste, sort of like cooked oatmeal. Spray pizza pans and spread the dough thick or thin as desired.

Preheat oven to 415 degrees. Let dough rest on pizza pans for about 15 to 30 minutes depending on how thick you spread it. The thicker the crust the longer it should rest.

After resting dough, prebake crusts for 10 to 15 minutes until firm but not brown.

remove pans from the oven and top as desired for pizza. Toppings should be as dry as possible. A thick sauce is perfered (this is true even for a traditional wheat crust. The reason being that watery toppings make the crust soggy)

Slide topped pizza directly onto the bottom oven rack to bake. Bake until cheese is bubbly and slightly brown.

You may make this batch as large as you like. each recipe makes 3 12" crusts which can be frozen after the prebake. To freeze place sheets of waxed paper between crusts and cover with plastic wrap. Freeze them stacked on a pizza pan until solid. Then crusts can be moved to a 2 gallon zip bag or heavily wrapped in plastic wrap. They keep for several months. I make crusts ahead and freeze them for quick dinners or lunches. They are so convenient. I can top them frozen which makes putting them into the oven right on the rack so easy!

Cinnamon rolls

I've never had a cinnabon cinnamon roll but I brought mine to church and was told that mine were "Just like cinnabon" So I thought I'd share my recipe here.

4 cups gluten-free flour

2 cups Sorghum flour

1 tbsp xanthan gum

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp Ener-g Egg Replacer

1 cup sugar

Mix dry ingredients well. measure 2 cups out and set aside for later use.

Add to remaining 4 cups: 1 tsp cinnamon and mix well.

in a medium sized bowl, mix:

2 1/2 tsp yeast

1 cup of warm water

1 Tbsp of sugar.

Let this foam then whisk in:

1/2 cup melted butter

2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs, 1 tbsp vanilla

1/2 cup sour cream.

Add to flour all wet ingredients and mix well until there are no lumps. Cover and let rise for 3 hours or more. (it's good to mix this up and then go run some errands or go to work or whatever.)

Remove cover (dough may smell a little sour but that is good) Stir in the two cups of flour you set aside to get a thick but sticky dough. DO NOT add extra flour to get a stiff dough. However if you dough is not thick enough to hold a loose shape, do add some extra gluten-free flour until you reach the thick but still sticky stage.

Before rolling out dough mix the filling. In a medium sized bowl mix together:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 stick firm butter

1 tbsp cinnamon (or less to taste)

dash of salt

Use a pastry blade or a fork to cut butter into the sugars and cinnamon.

Spray 2 rectangle baking pans with cooking spray, then sprinkle the bottom of the pans with some of the sugar mix. Cover the bottom about 1/4 inch thick. Drizzle 2 tbsps dark Karo syrup over the sugar mix. Sprinkle with chopped or whole pecans if desired.

Sprinkle a clean counter or pastry sheet with some gluten-free flour and pat or roll 1/2 of the dough out to a 3/4 inch thickness.

Sprinkle with 1/2 of the remaining sugar mix. Roll dough to form a log. Spray a sharp, thin knife with cooking spray and slice log into 1 inch thick sections. You will need to wipe and respray your knife for each slice. Place rolls into prepared baking pans. Place the rolls close together in the pan.

Repeat process with the other 1/2 of the dough and sugar mix.

Cover rolls and let them rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cinnamon rolls on the middle rack for 45 minutes to 1 hour until browned on top.

IMMEDIATELY turn rolls out of the pans to cool.

frost with cream cheese frosting:

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup softened butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp almond extract

mix well until creamy.

I know that these are long and complicated seeming recipes, but if you premix your gluten-free flour with the Salt and Xanthan Gum they will go off with less hassle. Use 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp xanthan gum for every 2 cups of flour.

Happy baking!!!

[angel-jd1]

Is this the same pizza recipe as your mix that I was sent to try out? Just curious.

-Jessica

[kactuskandee]

Deby, (or is it Monica?)

This is FABULOUS!!!!!!!!

It just got printed out, saved in a file, and backed up on a disk!!!

You'll never know how much I appreciate your attention to detail in the recipes for making the rolls and pizza crust. Often it is one little missing step, (like pre-mixing the salt and Xanthan gum into the flour), that make a world of difference for someone making these for the very first time.

I have TWO questions though. Do you use rapid rise yeast, or plain old, say, Fleischman's regular, or doesn't it matter?

The Hagman's gluten-free blend you are talking about (I have her books)..Is that the one that is Rice Flour/Potato Starch/Tapioca or the one with bean flour in it? (I want to get it right, you know!)

Thanks again so very much,

Kandee

(Did you take maybe just a little pity on me with all my questions about making homemade Cinnamon Rolls and Pizza crusts? Sure seems so...LOL...and if that's the case, I'm GLAD you did!!)

[Deby]

It's Monica, Deby is my daughter. She has bi polar disorder with Schizophrenic tendencies. I named my gluten-free bakery after her to give her focus. I use her name for my nick because it's the name of my bakery. But I don't mind being called Deby :-)

Yes, it is Bette Hagman's mix, the rice, potato, tapioca from her book. It's not exactly what I use, but it's close. You have to have a scale to make my mix, but if you want it, it's 3 lb rice flour, 1 lb potato starch, and 1/2 lb tapioca flour. I like weighing because it is easier for the LARGE quantities that I mix. Also, I find that these weight ratios make a better mix. Possibly because all three flours have different weights per cup. In my mix, there is, by measure, more potato and tapioca flour than in Bette Hagmans. I also sell my flour pre mixed with the xanthan gum, Egg Replacer and salt. This makes it ready to use for most purposes and saves all of that messy premixing in your own kitchen.

As for the yeast, I use a special kind that is large ball. I have to order special, but I like it because it has a long shelf life. Also, the yeast holds up to a higher temp of water so my dough has that warm environment to help it rise. However, any yeast that is fresh will do. For my packaged mixes, though, I always include the large ball yeast. I want my customers to have the highest chance of success. Unless you boil your water, you won't kill your yeast with my mixes :-)

Yes, this pizza crust recipe is the one I sent out as a sample. I hope you like it!!! You can make wonderful bread sticks with this recipe. Just load the dough into a gallon zipper bag. Snip off a corner and pipe the dough out onto a cookie sheet. Spray with cooking spray or drizzle with butter, or olive oil (I like olive oil flavored cooking spray) Sprinkle with a mix of:

1 tbsp Kosher salt (it's coarse and nice for this purpose)

3 tbsp Italian seasoning

1/4 cup Parmasian cheese

Bake as directed for the pizza crust. You could serve these to company and they wouldn't know they are gluten free.

Also, if you pipe the dough out in a thick line, you can slice these and use them for hogie buns. They make a great Italian sandwhich bread.

Finally, Yes, I did type out these recipes because there were so many questions about good pizza crust. I hope this one lives up the expectations :-) Let me know.

And if you are ever in the Denver Area, stop by my bakery and you can have a pizza fresh from our stone pizza oven, and you may even be able to have a gluten-free beer with that, or an ice cream cone, or just about whatever you have been craving!

[kactuskandee]

Oh My Goodness Monica,

I'm salivating as I read your post. You must be the only hometown gluten-free baker in the US(?) That's worth taking a trip to Denver in my book--and summers are delightful there!

The first time a friend, who's hubby has celiac disease, baked me a loaf of gluten-free bread I was in heaven. I think 95% of why it tasted so great was just that she went out of her way to do it for me. (I had just started experimenting with making my own, after buying the commercial stuff for years, and they weren't turning out so hot.) That turned out to be the best bread I'd ever tasted, mainly because it was such a special gift. To be able to go into a place like yours and enjoy a real live (safe) pizza would be ecstasy!

Again, can't thank you enough for posting all the recipes and valuable tips that go along with them.

Yes, yes, I agree about weighing flours. I learned the hard way they all weigh differently. I'll go according to the weight you suggested...thank you.

The bread sticks (and Hoagie buns) sound terrific. I was just thinking the other day, when someone remarked how good the rolls were at Subway if there was a good gluten-free knock off. This sounds close enough!

I'm real interested in your mixes. I'll be emailing you!

Kandee

[Deby]

Kandee,

If you do come to Denver and stop by the bakery, do introduce yourself. I'd love to meet you.

Also, I neglected to add that you can mix ground golden flax seed into the pizza crust recipe. It adds good nutrition to the mix, something gluten-free foods seem to be lacking. Add 1/4 cup ground golden flax seed to the recipe I listed above.