5 Secrets to Perfect Gluten Free Pizza

My family went gluten-free over eight years ago, and this year we are finally (finally!) enjoying amazing homemade pizza.  We’re so thrilled about it that I just had to share our 5 secrets for perfect gluten-free pizza.

You can even make this gluten-free pizza Paleo by omitting the cheese and piling on a delicious sauce with veggies and meats.

5 Secrets to Perfect Gluten-Free Pizza

1. Crust

We’ve tried a number of Paleo recipes for pizza crust (spaghetti squash, plantains, etc.) and while we enjoyed each of them, this one is the hands-down winner.  Cassava flour is the key ingredient to creating a Paleo crust that behaves and tastes pretty darn close to the real thing.

Here’s the pizza crust recipe we use.  It’s so simple that I almost always delegate this task to my 12-year-old.

Tip: Thickness is key.  Roll out your crust pretty thinly and evenly.  Too thick and it will be too dense and chewy.  One recipe makes two 10-12 inch round crusts.

2. Temperature

Temperature is key for perfect gluten-free pizza!  I never realized how hot the oven should be to bake homemade pizza until a super helpful cooking instructor at Sur La Table enlightened me.

Basically, you want to turn your oven up as high as it will go.  For me, that’s 500° F.

3. Sauce

Another mistake I’d been making for years was adding way too much tomato sauce to each pizza crust.  This results in a soggy mess!

The key is to smear just a bit of sauce over the crust to add flavor and to hold everything together.  I always use homemade tomato sauce, and I cook it down until it’s nice and thick.

4. Stone

A pizza stone makes better pizza than a metal pan, and it’s important to heat the stone before adding the crust or baking the pizza.

I’ve used a pizza stone, a perforated metal pizza pan, and a cookie sheet, and the pizza stone definitely works best.  My stone isn’t even a fancy, expensive one, although I imagine a special stone could produce even better results.

5. Peel

This is another tip I learned from Mr. Sur La Table and it’s totally changed my life.  Or at any rate, it’s totally changed my pizza game.  A pizza peel most definitely contributes to perfect gluten-free pizza.

I can’t even believe I ever tried to make or serve homemade pizza without this simple yet amazing tool!  A pizza peel makes it SO EASY to transfer the crust, and then the pizza, from the countertop to the oven to the dining table.

And there you have it!  My 5 secrets for perfect gluten-free pizza, secrets I wish I’d learned a whole lot sooner on my gluten-free, paleo-ish journey.

Do you make homemade pizza?  What’s your method for the perfect gluten-free pizza?