Garbage Pizza on Garlicky Cornmeal Crust

If there's one food I miss, it's pizza. Enjoying pizza while on a gluten free lifestyle can be tricky especially if there aren't many local pizza places that offer gluten free crust options. Then there's some gluten free store bought frozen pizzas that are just are better left alone. I've found that I need to make my pizza to get my fix which is fine, but it does take some planning... until now. Most GF pizza dough recipes take some time to proof before using. However, I recently made this Garbage Pizza on a Garlicky Cornmeal Crust Pizza which took only a few minutes to prepand bake before I could top it and finish off. A blend of gluten free flours are whisked with cornmeal and garlic powder to create a flavorful, crisp and sturdy pizza dough to top to your heart's content. In this case, I topped my pizza with whatever random eats I could find, thus being a garbage pizza which was absolutely delicious...

To add to my garbage assortment of toppings, my local Dominick's grocery store was hosting a special culinary challenge. Dominick’s stores have more than 1,000 new international items with great everyday prices including Italian, Polish, Hispanic, German, Kosher, Irish, Asian, and Middle Eastern. Some of the brands you may recognize include Reconto, Goya, Krakus ham, Nateczowianka water and Chio Chips. They asked me to use 2 of their new international products to incorporate into a recipe and both found their way into my pizza. I was given Dell'Alpe canned pear tomatoes {below}and Chio Potato Chips {unpictured}. With the canned pear tomatoes, I made a simple pizza sauce where the recipe is below. The potato chips were crushed and added as a topping on the pizza.

Now YOU can win yourself a $50 gift card to Dominick's {or Safeway, Von's, Randall's depending where you are in the country.  Just tweet about their favorite international ingredient or dish and include your Twitter handle, the @Dominicks Twitter handle and hashtag #DominicksIntl in your response so I can select a winner to have a $50 gift card sent, compliments of Dominick's! Be sure to tweet today only, October 15, 2012, to be included in the drawing!


I've been trying to focus more on gluten free baking lately and I had the pleasure of meeting Jean Layton, author of Gluten Free Baking for Dummies, this past August in Seattle. Her book is wonderful and is where I found the recipe for this cornmeal crust. It's a great book because it's so full of helpful tips. I adapted her recipe for this crust by subbing some of the flours for what I had on hand and also adding some granulated garlic powder for that garlicky flavor. Feel free to play around with the gf flours you like, making sure to weigh them in grams versus scooping with measuring cup so the texture comes out better. For the toppings of my garbage pizza, I used:

easy pizza sauce (recipe follows below)
chopped bell peppers
chopped red onions
sliced cremini mushrooms
pepperoni slices
crumbled cooked bacon
crushed Chio potato chips
taco seasoned shredded cheese
pizza shredded cheese

Garlicky Cornmeal Crust Pizza
recipe adapted from Gluten Free Baking for Dummies

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup minus 1 teaspoon (49 grams) sweet rice flour
1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon (46 grams) sorghum flour
1/3 cup (38 grams) corn {masa}flour
3 tablespoons (28 grams) finely ground brown rice flour
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water
Toppings of your choice {see above list for ideas!}



Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Put a pizza stone in the oven to heat while you make the dough.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, combine the cornmeal, sweet rice flour, millet flour, corn flour, and raw buckwheat flour.

Mix until the mixture is one color.

Add the remaining ingredients and beat with the paddle attachment for 2 minutes.

Cut a piece of parchment paper to fit a 10-inch pizza stone for a thick crust. Spread the dough onto the parchment paper.

If you don’t have a stone, just line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the dough to its edges for a thin crust.

Slide the parchment paper onto the hot pizza stone or put the cookie sheet in the oven.

Bake for 15 minutes, remove, and top with your preferred toppings.

Return to the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the crust is browned and the toppings are hot and melted.

Cool for a few minutes before cutting.

Easy Pizza Sauce

recipe adapted from AllRecipes

makes about 3 cups 

1 (15 ounce) can pear tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 tablespoon ground oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground paprika
salt & pepper to taste

In a blender, combine together tomato sauce and tomato paste and blend until smooth. Stir in oregano, garlic powder and paprika. Add salt & pepper to taste.