Gluten-Free Pizza (Hertzberg & Francois Crusty Boule)

As mentioned in my other GF pizza dough recipe (Gluten-Free Pizza (Hertzberg & Francois Olive Oil Bread) #402987), this is from "Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg & Zoe Francois. They seem to favor their olive bread recipe for pizza, but I've found both outstanding. There are a couple of things that set this apart from other pizza dough recipes: this is a no-knead recipe, so it's easy on your hands (especially important if you also have arthritis) and it can be refrigerated for use in other recipes (bread, crackers) for about 7 days. I don't have experience in freezing it, but will update this later with info (or perhaps other zaar readers can comment ...). This recipe makes enough dough for 8 12-14" pizzas -- you need about 1/2 pound per pizza. Doing a little math, if you want 3" mini-pizzas (the size of a bagel or English muffin), you'll get about 16 mini-pizzas from a 1/2 pound lump of dough ... or about 128 from a full recipe! According to Jeff and Zoe, this recipe is easily doubled or halved. The prep time is estimated assuming you have made the dough previously (i.e, it is refrigerated and you are starting at step 9). If you are making the dough from scratch for immediate use (i.e., starting from step 1), the prep time is about 2 1/2 hours additional, of which only 1/2 hour is active chef prep. The nutritional analysis is for the dough only and doesn't include the pizza toppings.

• Ready In: 47 mins
• Serves: 64
• Yields: 8 12"pizza

Ingredients

• 2  cups  brown rice flour
• 1 1⁄2 cups sorghum flour
• 3  cups tapioca starch (may be labeled tapioca flour)
• 2  tablespoons  granulated yeast
• 1  tablespoon kosher salt (adjust up or down to taste)
• 2  tablespoons xanthan gum
• 2 2⁄3 cups water, lukewarm
• 4  large eggs
• 1⁄3 cup  oil, neutral-flavored
• 2  tablespoons honey
• 6  tablespoons  rice flour (for dusting ( can use either white or brown rice flour)
•  pizza toppings (your choice)

Directions

1. Making the dough (enough for 8 12-14" pizzas) --
2. Use a 5+ quart lidded container, that can close but isn't airtight.
3. Mix together (whisk) the dry ingredients (rice flour through xantham gum).
4. In a separate container, mix together the liquid ingredients (water through honey).
5. Gradually mix the liquids into the dry ingredients -- you can use a spoon, a food processor with dough attachment, or a stand mixer with paddle; if you mix by hand, incorporating the last bit of flour may need some extra hand work!
6. Cover and allow the dough to rise for at least 2 hours at room temperature.
7. At this point, you can use the dough immediately (go to step 8), or you can refrigerate and use over the next 7 days -- note that the flavor improves with 24 hours' rest.
8. When ready to bake --
9. Prepare a pizza peel (or a prizza pan, greased cookie sheet or a silicone baking mat), either sprinkled with cornmeal or rice flour or lined with parchment paper.
10. In your oven, put the rack in the middle space and put a baking stone on it in the middle space if you have one; otherwise use a cookie sheet, pizza pan, or a silicone mat.
11. Thirty minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.
12. Wet your hands slightly -- keep your hands moist so you can work with the dough, but not so wet that the dough becomes soggy.
13. Take an orange-sized piece of the dough (about 1/2 pound) and quickly shape it into a ball (no gluten, so no stretching).
14. Dust as needed to keep it from being sticky, but no so much that you're working lumps of flour into the dough.
15. This dough will be sticky, so use a metal dough scraper and be generous in dusting the peel, the roller, the dough, etc.
16. Roll out the dough (hands or a rolling pin, but remember, no gluten, so no stretch in this dough) 1/8 - 1/16 inch thich, directly on the pizza peel or silicone mat (or roll out, then transfer to the cookie sheet).
17. Add toppings of your choice (you should have them all prepared and ready to go -- the faster this dough gets into the oven, the better the pizza will be).
18. Slide the pizza onto the stone or into the oven.
19. Check for doneness in 10-12 minutes.
20. May need to be turned to brown evenly; may need up to 5 more minutes to complete baking.
21. Cool slightly on a rack before serving.