Rarely did I ever eat pizza to begin with but it is one of those comfort foods that I tend to crave more on cold winter days.

I decided to stay in last night and make some gluten free pizza. The gluten free pizza was actually amazingly good. Hot, saucy and cheesy, just what I wanted! Andrew, who is not gluten free, enjoyed it as well! He was really excited for me and I thought that was kind of him to consider my plight.

Here is the dough. I should have taken out the stand mixer, but at least I got a good workout out of it.

Here is the recipe:

crust:
1 packet yeast
3/4 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup potato starch
3/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter

Toppings:
your favorite pasta sauce
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
your favorite pizza toppings (I used red bell peppers and pepperoni)

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine yeast and milk. Stir to dissolve yeast. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients and shortening. Mix well.
3. To dry ingredients, slowly add milk/yeast mixture. Mix well. Dough will look wet, thick, and pasty but is quite workable if you spray your hands with nonstick spray or keep your hands damps with water. This is a soft dough.
4. Roll or pat out dough onto a lightly greased baking tin or pizza pan. For a thin crust, pat out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. A 12-inch circle will make a thicker crust.
5. Bake until the top is lightly browned.
6. Top with the sauce, cheese and the toppings you chose.
7. Return pizza to oven to warm the toppings and melt the cheese (about 5-7 minutes)

I just used pasta sauce as pizza sauce, it worked out fine.

This is before it was baked. I forgot to take a picture of it finished! I was so eager to begin eating!

So that was my pizza night. I had not had one of those in a long time. This version of pizza dough is a little bit of a splurge interms of calories. You can replace the butter with olive oil and the milk can be any unsweetened variety, almond milk hemp milk etc.

Let me know what you think or send me some sugestions for gluten free pizza toppings in the comments section.

-Chelsea

Traveling. It is one of my favorite things. I travel 4-6 months out of the year. And I have had to learn how to cope with being gluten free abroad.

Traveling is an environment where you need to expect the unexpected. You are out of your natural environment and planning is key. When traveling, especially to countries foreign to you be sure to have snacks and plan ahead. Here is a list a great snacks to take with you on the plane or to keep in your backpack:
—-nuts (high in protein so not only are they gluten free, they will keep hunger away)
—-easily transportable fruit. apples, pears, bananas and oranges are all great ideas
—-gluten free bars
—-protein power. you do not have to be a body builder or worry about gaining weight to drink protein power. Since liquid is not allowed in planes this is a great snack or meal replacement since you can add water anywhere and it takes up virtually no space.

Planning snacks and meals is essential when you are traveling abroad gluten free. But what is also critical is asking questions. Ask how a meal is prepared. Is the chicken breaded? Is the chicken served with rice or noodles? Are the noodles made from rice or flour? It only takes a few seconds to learn how to say “I want no flour, bread, noodles” etc or write it down for easy reference.

Being gluten free while traveling has never been a problem for me and it shouldn’t be one for you either. It just takes a little planning and a little patience.

Ingredients of the Gluten Free Pizza Crust:

Wet Ingredients:

• –1/3 cup (70mL) milk, any unsweetened variety will do including rice and soy
• –2 teaspoons apple cider or white vinegar
• –2 teaspoons Olive Oil

Dry Ingredients:

• –1 1/3 cup rice flour (300mL) (using brown rice flour makes a crispier more rustic crust, using white flour will make a smoother fluffier crust)
• –1 cup (235mL) corn starch
• –1 tablespoon yeast
• –2 teaspoon xanthum gum (this I for the texture, can be substituted for guar gum)
• –1 teaspoon sea salt
• –1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• –1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• –1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1. In a small sauce pot. Heat milk until warm, not hot. You should be able to dip your finger in the milk without it burning.

2. In a mixing bowl add the yeast and slowly pour in the warm milk as you stir. Slowly pouring and mixing makes the yeast dissolves quite nicely. The just set it aside, giving the yeast time to activate.

3. In another mixing bowl mix the remaining dry ingredients, the flour, corn starch, gum and spices.

4. By now the yeast should be activated in the milk. You will know it is ready to move on if there are some bubbles forming in the milk.

5. Add the vinegar and the olive oil to the milk.

6. In the large mixing bowl with the dry ingredients create a little bowl with your fingers so that that you can pour the milk mixture into the bowl you made with the dry ingredients.

7. Pour the milk mixture in the bowl of dry ingredients. Now you can mix the dry and wet ingredients together.

8. Once combined it will be sticky. Before you roll the dough out in a pan, be sure to do two things. 1) spray the pan or baking sheet with non-stick spray or grease the pan with olive oil or butter 2) dust the sticky dough with a bit of the flour so that it doesn’t stick to your hands when you pick it up.

9. Now all you have to do is spread out your pizza dough on your pan. Enjoy