Gluten Free Deep Dish Pizza

My little family has a Friday night tradition – movie night complete with buttered popcorn, root beer, homemade ice cream, and some sort of fun, snacky dinner. Sometimes it's homemade nachos, but our newest favorite is this gluten free deep dish pizza.

Personally, I've found that I can digest wheat just fine as long as it's a traditional, sprouted, or even white (gasp!). But my hubby feels better when he eats gluten free. The whole family gobbles this pizza with joy.

This pizza crust is especially flaky because of the handy-dandy lamination method that I learned over at Brown Eyed Baker. Even though I'm a mediocre baker, at best, this crust was super easy to make and turned out great – all six times we've made it so far!

If you don't eat dairy, you're in luck. This gluten free deep dish pizza comes out better than perfect using lard (yep, bacon fat) in the crust instead of butter. Then you can fill it with all the goodies, minus the cheese. Learn how to render lard in this post.

Now, I'm not from Chicago, so I can't vouch for the authenticity from that perspective; good east coast pizza is flat as a pancake. But I will say, having pizza in a deep dish allows you to pile on toppings to your heart's content. My favorite version has Italian sausage, chunky tomato sauce, sliced mushrooms, and minced kale. Feel free to experiment.

Gluten free deep dish pizza ingredients

• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground flax, or chia seeds – Buy chia seeds here
• 1 tablespoon boiling water
• 75 grams sprouted corn flour – Buy sprouted corn flour here
• 75 grams potato starch, or tapioca starch – Buy tapioca starch here
• 75 grams arrowroot powder – Buy arrowroot powder here
• 75 grams sprouted rice flour – Buy sprouted rice flour here
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons filtered water, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 8 ounces mozzarella cheese, from grass-fed cows
• 1 1/2 pounds sausage – Buy pasture-raised meat online here
• 1 bunch kale
• 12 ounces cremini mushrooms
• 1 14 ounce can pizza sauce (BPA free)

Gluten free deep dish pizza method

1. Place the ground flax or chia seeds into a small bowl. Pour 1 tablespoon of boiling-hot water over the seeds. Stir immediately to make a thick paste, and set aside to cool.
2. Place corn flour, potato or tapioca starch, arrowroot powder, rice flour, sea salt, garlic powder, and spices into a large bowl and gently stir to combine.
3. Whisk together the flour/spice mixture and yeast in a large bowl. Add flax paste, water, honey, and melted butter and mix on low speed with a dough hook (or simply with clean hands), until fully combined, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping sides and bottom of bowl to fully incorporate all ingredients. Knead until dough is smooth and pulls away from sides of bowl, 4 to 5 minutes.
4. Coat a large bowl with 1 T. olive oil. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat the dough in oil; cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Let rise at room temperature until nearly doubled in volume, about 45 minutes to an hour.
5. To make flaky crust…Using a rolling pin and extra cornmeal to prevent sticking, roll the dough out onto dry work surface into a rectangle about 15×12-inches (I prefer to do this on a silpat for ease of transfer and clean up).
6. Using clean hands, spread the softened butter over the surface of the dough leaving a small margin at the edges.
7. Starting at the short end, roll the dough into a tight tube. With seam side down, flatten the cylinder into a rectangle about 18×4-inches. Cut rectangle in half crosswise.
8. Working with one half, fold into thirds like a letter; pinch seams together to form a ball. Don't worry if it's not perfect, it will still be delicious.
9. Repeat with remaining half. Return balls to oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let rise in refrigerator until nearly doubled in volume, 40 to 50 minutes.
10. Meanwhile preheat oven to 425F.
11. Remove sausage from casing and saute in 1 T. olive oil.
12. Meanwhile, slice mushrooms, and add to pan, sauteing until liquid has mostly cooked off. Remove stems from kale and chop finely. Add kale until just wilted. Shred the cheese.
13. To bake, coat two 9-inch round pie pans with 2 tablespoons olive oil each. Transfer 1 dough ball to dry work surface and roll out into a 13-inch circle. Gently transfer dough to the pan and lightly press into the shape. If dough resists stretching, let it warm at room temperature for about 5 minutes before trying again. Repeat with remaining dough ball.
14. To each pie, add half of the sauce, cooked sausage, kale, mushrooms, and shredded cheese. Bake until crust is golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove pizza from oven and let rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.