Making gluten-free Pizza In Europe

[LuckotheeIrish1]

So, I live in Sweden and the gluten-free situation is a bit different here then in the states. First, we have tons of gluten-free mixes and stuff here. I don't ever need to buy brown rice flour or tapioca starch or any of that. In fact, I rarely see it. Sweden is very on top of their game in the gluten-free world. No problem when I go out to eat, always find tons of things in the grocery store, and all the local bakeries make gluten-free food as well. My problem is the pizza. The pizzas here are made first by middle eastern people with funky spices and meats on them. And most of them have zero clue about gluten-free. So I haven't really had a good pizza since back in Florida. I tried to make my own at home using our gluten-free base flour mix. It's actually made from wheat flour, with the gluten removed. It sounds crazy, and i know I can't explain it correctly, except to say it works. Haven't been sick once since being here except when I ate lea and perrins which here is made from the UK and contains malt. Most things here that are gluten free are still made from wheat.

So when I google recipes for gluten free pizza crust, I get the recipes using like 10 different flours and stuff. I need some suggestions for what we have here, which is an excellent flour mix. I use it to make breads and cakes and stuff with no problem. I tried to use a recipe I found online for ny style pizza crust. I follow the instructions to a t but when it came time to roll out my dough it wasn't the least bit elastic. I had to use a rolling pin to get it into the circle and the dough was extremely dry as I was doing this. I had to oil it up when I put it on the pizza pan. Those are really the only big problems I had. Oh and when it cooked, the edges got really hard and crunchy, almost like crackers. I suspect if I used a baking stone instead of a pan I might be able to avoid the cracker effect. But if anyone can make some suggestions that would be excellent.

Oh, and xantham gum and guar gum and things of that sort are hard to come by here. We don't exactly have a whole foods or trader joes down the street.

[Natsku]

Hey, I'm in Finland so have the same kind of flour mixes too.

I use this recipe for pizza (I make thin crust ones though so I don't know how it works for thicker bases, also i double the recipe and it makes 5 pizzas, I just divide the dough into 5 balls, freeze 3 of them for another time and make 2 straight away)

2dl water

1/2 packet dried yeast

1/2tsp salt

50g melted butter

4dl flour mix

1tbl spoon Psyllium (fiber-husk) (thats what I use as can't get xantham gum or guar gum here, it works really well)

Heat the water to hand-warm temperature (if using fresh yeast add it in now, if using dried yeast mix it with the flour), add in the flour, salt and butter and mix in well. Cover it with a towel and let it rise for about half an hour or so. Then just divide into balls and roll out!

I expect they sell Psyllium in Sweden if they sell it here so try a big supermarket or health food shops.

[Juliebove]

Can you get a mix for French bread? If so, make that. Roll it out like a pizza, let it rise, then spread it with olive oil, a bit of garlic powder and Italian seasoning.