Gluten Free Pizza from the Woodfired Oven
You’ll no doubt have some friends or family members who are gluten intolerant or are coeliacs so it’s tough to know what to give them when you’re having a pizza party; shop-bought gluten free pizza bases resemble cardboard unfortunately and they always look a little glum to be offered one.
We now use Caputo’s Fioreglut gluten free flour, easily bought online if you can’t get it in your local shops.
This video on our youtube channel covers how we use it to make gluten free pizzas in the woodfired oven; do give it a watch for how to handle the dough and bake your gluten free pizzas and you’ll be keeping your gluten free and coeliac friends completely happy!
Ingredients
For 4 x 10-12 “pizza bases
500g Fioreglut flour from Caputo
400g water
8g dried yeast
17g olive oil
17g fine seasalt
Oven State, Equipment etc
Oven – 1 Mississippi, Door Off
Polenta, cornmeal or fine grits for shaping the dough
Your normal pizza toppings
Piece of teflon sheet to bake the pizza on in the oven
Heat deflector for keeping the oven tidy, preventing sidescorch and lifting the flames for better grilling
Small pieces of wood to add to the fire
Method
- Put the dry ingredients into the bowl of a standmixer and add the water. Turn on the motor on a low speed and mix together for 5 minutes, stopping from time to time to incorporate any of the dough that has gone up the sides of the bowl.
- Add the olive oil and continue mixing for another minute or so.
- Put the dough in a bowl and cover the bowl; put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Spread a little more oil on the clean dough rolling mat and turn out the dough. Divide the dough into 4 pieces and shape into dough balls – wath the video to see how David does this.
- Put the dough balls on a lightly oiled surface and cover – we used the lid of a plastic box and then covered the lid with the box. You might need 2 large boxes or put them on a tray and cover with a large plastic bag blown up like a tent.
- Put the covered dough balls in the fridge and leave for 4 hours to rise.
- When the dough balls have risen, make sure the oven is ready to bake your pizzas – fired up with the embers kept behind the heat deflector, floor cleaned and lots of small pieces of wood to feed the fire.
- Use some polenta or cornmeal or fine grits on the dough rolling mat and put one of the gluten free dough balls on top. Use your fingers to spread out the dough to a 12″ circle and put it on the clean Teflon sheet.
- Top the pizza as you choose and put it into the oven keeping it on the Teflon sheet and using a peel to do so.
- Keeping the fire at around 1 Mississippi with a fire burning cook the pizza, turning it round after a minute or so to ensure even baking.
- Bring the pizza out of the oven when it’s ready and give it to your gluten free friends to enjoy and sing your praises!
Things to remember
- Keep your work surface as clean as possible from any wheat flour or anything else with gluten in it.
- Make sure you tell your gluten free guests that there will be some flour in the environment and to confirm that they are happy with this. If they aren’t, better to invite them on another night than a pizza party.
- The dough needs plenty of time to rise and relax so plan ahead.
- Your oven wants to be less hot than for a Neapolitan pizza so maybe an idea to cook the gluten free pizzas first. This also keeps your working area as flour free as possible.
- Make sure not to overtop the pizza; same as normal – less is more!
- This may sound like a lot of salt percentage wise – and it is for a regular dough. We’re not sure if this is to do with the strength the salt may give the dough or just because Caputo like a salty pizza base!