Gluten-Free Pizza Dough

Okay, so, pizza.

The sorghum-tapioca-almond mix I used for cupcakes this weekend was so good and rose so well, I wanted to see how it would take to a savory recipe and a yeast-style rise. Almost all of the pizza crusts I see are rice-based, so pizza seemed like an obvious starting point.

1 tbsp dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
½ cup + 1 tbsp warm water
2 tsp olive oil
¾ cup sorghum flour
¼ cup tapioca flour
2 tbsp almond flour
1 ½ tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp ener-g egg replacer
1 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
½ tsp basil
½ tsp oregano
few turns cracked black pepper

In a small non-reactive bowl, stir the yeast and sugar into 1/2 cup of the warm water, making sure to separate any clumps that form. Let sit for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is noticeably frothy. In a medium bowl whisk together the flours, xanthan gum, ener-g replacer, salt, herbs and pepper. Add the olive oil to the water and add the liquid to the dry, forming the resulting dough into a ball. The dough should be relatively moist, though not so much that it sticks noticeably to the bowl - add the extra water if needed. Oil the bowl and let the dough sit, covered, in a warm place for twenty minutes.

Take the dough and gently begin to flatten it into a disk - it will hold together fairly well, though you might have to patch a couple of cracks as you go. It helps to spread a little olive oil on your hands before shaping. At this point, you can either use the dough as is or allow it to have another short rise before baking, depending on whether you want a thinner or thicker crust. When ready to use, bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes, until the dough has started to slightly firm up. Remove the dough from the oven and add sauce and toppings. Bake for another 15-18 minutes.

I've always seen gluten-free recipes call for more yeast than usual, and was wondering whether this would give the more neutral-tasting sorghum an overly yeasty flavor, but this wasn't the case at all - the yeast, herbs, salt and pepper came together to form a really nice, savory crust. I also got a surprisingly good rise from this, which I've never been able to get from rice-based crusts. I had mine on the crisp side, topped with a chunky oregano-heavy tomato sauce and herbed tofu with balsamic.

For the record, I'm really into this flour mix.