PIZZA DOUGH
Makes 2 (12-inch) pizza crusts
Our friends Brandon and Molly own a tremendous pizza place/neighborhood restaurant called Delancey in Seattle. You might have heard of it: they’ve grown pretty famous for the thin-crust pizza pie, the always fresh vegetables, and the delicious cocktails at Essex, the bar next door. Brandon makes incredible vegetable dishes in the same wood-fired oven where he bakes the pizzas, and those are more than enough for me. But I’ve been working on my ideal gluten-free pizza crust for nine years. Finally, just before the deadline for this book, I started working on a new one, based on the recipe from Roberta’s pizza in Brooklyn, thanks to a piece in the New York Times. If I bring a dough ready to go, and call ahead so Brandon can set aside toppings for me, Brandon can make me and Lucy a gluten-free pizza that never makes us sick. I brought him in this dough, feeling pretty good but assuming he’d tell me it still needs work. Brandon brought me a gorgeous pizza with braised beef tongue, local mushrooms, and a lot of crusty cheese melted toward the edges. When he came back, I gave him a slice. He kept nibbling as we talked about it. And eating more. I expected him to offer suggestions, but eventually he just said, “This one’s good. Don’t change it.” And he took another slice.
Brandon is steeped in pizza, traveling all over the world to every great slice he could find before he started Delancey, and eating pizza nearly every day for six years since then. Brandon approves of this pizza dough.
We do too.
- 150 grams All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend
- 150 grams Grain-Free Flour Mix
- 1½ teaspoons psyllium husks
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¾ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 1 cup (225 grams) lukewarm water
Make the dough. Combine both flours, the psyllium husks, salt, and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Whirl them up.
With the mixer running on low, pour in the oil, then the water, very slowly. When everything has been added and the dough feels soft and pliable (but far wetter than a typical gluten dough), turn the mixer onto medium and let it run for a few more moments. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Let the dough rise. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place for 1 hour. Then, put the dough in the refrigerator and let it sit overnight.
Prepare to bake. The next day, pull the dough out of the refrigerator 1 hour before you intend to roll it.
Divide the dough into 2 balls. Put one dough ball between two lightly greased pieces of parchment paper. Roll out the dough until it is about 12 inches across. Take the top piece of parchment paper off the dough and transfer the dough to a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough ball.
Prebake the pizza dough. Put the baking sheets in the oven—one on the lower rack and one in the middle—and turn the oven on to 350°F. After 30 minutes, trade the baking sheets between the racks. Continue baking until the tops and edges of the dough feel set, about 30 minutes more. This will steam the water out of the dough and give you a great dough for baking.
Top the pizzas. At this point, remove the crusts from the oven and top the crusts with a drizzle of oil and any toppings you wish. (Here are some of our favorites: chèvre and sautéed cremini mushrooms with fresh thyme; fresh mozzarella with burrata and prosciutto; a tomato sauce with warm garlic, lardo, and an egg cracked on it at the end; fresh tomatoes with marjoram, mozzarella, and Italian sausage; and for Lucy, always lots of cheese with pineapple.) One thing Brandon taught us that improves the crust: cover the edges of the pizza with grated Parmesan cheese. Crusty melted cheese makes the crust of a gluten-free pizza even better.
Finish baking the pizzas. Bump up the temperature to as high as your oven will go. Ours stops at 550°F. If you have a baking stone in the oven, that raises the heat even more. Put the pizzas in the oven when it’s truly hot, then watch them. Wait until the cheese bubbles, then turn on the broiler at the end. Watch the pizzas closely. Don’t let them burn. But bake them to just before that point.
Voilà! Pizza.