Gluten Free Pizza and Dough balls

Pizza was one of the first things I tried to make when I had to go gluten free. I say tried because it has taken many failed attempts. Every other recipe I tried tasted 'special' and I refuse to settle for anything that couldn't pass as good 'normal' food.

I definitely count this as a success because when I made this last week for the first time my mother remarked that my pizza was better than the normal sourdough pizzas she had made for the rest of the family. I think that's the best compliment you can get when cooking gluten free.
I guess I should explain that I am the only person in my family who can't eat gluten so I spend a lot of time trying to get my food to be as good (or better!) than the food my mom (an amazing cook) makes for everyone else.

The dough balls were a result of leftover dough and a bit of bravery. I always used to make dough balls stuffed with halloumi or feta and so with a touch of courage and possibly stupidity I attempted to make some with the leftovers. I didn't hold out much hope but I was shocked to find that they came out almost perfectly.

This time I tried dough balls stuffed with pepperoni and halloumi and I can say they were a success

I apologise for the lack of good pictures for this recipe but every time I have made this I find I have eaten most of it before I even think about taking a photo (I think that is a good sign).

This is the texture that this recipe gives and I found it to be pretty good by normal pizza standards let alone gluten free standards. 
I topped my pizzas with homemade tomato sauce, halloumi, feta, pepperoni and homemade pesto (I'm half English and half Greek so unsurprisingly both halloumi and feta tend to feature heavily in my house but feel free to add whatever you want)

I use sourdough in most of my bread based recipes because I used it before I went gluten free and I feel that it improves the texture but I can't say I have tried this recipe without the sourdough so it may not make any difference. If you decide to make this without sourdough please let me know how it turns out.

This recipe made one pizza and 4 dough balls and I couldn't finish all of it (I tried) but if you want to make it for more than one person or you have a better appetite than me (I don't eat that much) you may want to double it etc...


Ingredients:

• 75g cornflour
• 75g potato flour
• 25g buckwheat flour
• 10g ground almonds
• 1 tablespoon of tapioca flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar (or some honey)
• 1 tsp yeast (you may want to use slightly more if you don't use sourdough)
• 1tsp xantham gum
• 6 tablespoons of sourdough starter
• 1 egg
• 75ml warm water (again you may want slightly more if not using sourdough)

Method: 

• Add the flours, almonds, salt, sugar, yeast and xantham gum to a mixing bowl and mix together well.
• Then add in the egg, sourdough and water and mix.
• The result will not be the same as typical 'dough' ,but it rarely is with gluten free cooking, so it should resemble very wet and sticky dough.
• Leave this to rise for around an hour (it should have a nice 'wobble' to it when it's done)
• Pre-heat the oven to 200C (maybe slightly higher if it is not a fan oven) and get out a baking tray, a bowl of water and some baking paper (greaseproof paper).
• Put the baking paper on the tray and wet your hands (you will need to do this regularly hence the bowl of water) before handling the dough.
• Scoop as much dough as you want onto the paper and use wet hands to push the dough into a pizza shape.

•  Once the oven is up to temperature cook the base until it is solid and starts to brown.
• Remove the base from the oven and add whatever toppings you like.
• Return to the oven and cook until done.

For the dough balls:

• After the bases have been pre-cooked take a small amount a dough and flatten it against one hand. Use the other to put a small amount of any filling into to the middle of the flattened dough. Seal the dough around the filling and bake along with the pizzas until they start to brown.