Gluten-Free Adventures

People who can eat gluten honestly have no idea how lucky they are when it comes to pizza crust.

I’ve been trying to find a fairly cheap method for making pizza (something that’s a weekly tradition in my family), and it seems that yesterday I finally stumbled upon the answer: corn flour.

Also called “masa harina”, corn flour is an interesting substance that most people use to sprinkle under their already stretched-out, gluten-ridden, soon-to-be-puffy-and-delicious pizza dough. They use it to make it crispy on the bottom, and they occasionally add it into the dough itself to make it more crispy throughout.

A few days ago, I learned that people make pizza crust using mashed potatoes. At first, I was a little weirded out, but then it dawned on me: mashed potatoes get crispy when they are put in the oven, and they’re pretty sticky…almost like glue. Hmmm.

Corn Flour Potato Pizza Crust:

• 1/2 cup mashed potatoes (I kept the skins on)
• 1 cup corn flour (NOT cornmeal)
• Water (enough to make a dough you can roll out)

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Blend the potatoes and corn flour. It should be pretty crumbly, and you might have some flour that won’t be picked up by the moistness of the potatoes.
3. Add the water
4. Grease a pizza pan (I used Pam Cooking Spray), place dough on the center of the pan.
5. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it’s thinned to your liking (mine was pretty thin).
6. Bake until crispy (it should be brown around the edges). (About 20 minutes)

Before I baked mine, I sprinkled salt, granulated garlic, and basil over the top to give it an extra flavor. Corn flour has an odd-ish flavor, sort of bland, so adding extra seasonings to it will help make this crust taste amazing.

After I baked it, let it cool, and later made a full-out pizza (baked and all), I was pleasantly surprised by how it all turned out. The crust is crispy enough that it wasn’t soggy or floppy (which I don’t like), but it wasn’t rock-hard. The texture was surprisingly smooth, too, and I personally didn’t notice the typical “grittiness” that people often complain about when using cornflour/cornmeal (which are two different things, keep in mind). I imagine the mashed potatoes added a lot of softness to this dough, which may have saved it from disaster. To add some nutrition, I might consider using mashed sweet potatoes next time. Who knows…orange pizza crust could be good.

This crust doesn’t really puff up like normal pizza dough (but what gluten-free pizza crust does, right?), but if you’re not super picky about that sort of thing, you’re in luck. I used to miss this thickness, but I’ve learned to live without it—nowadays, as long as I have any pizza at all, I’m okay.

Mostly what gets me is that this recipe was a first-time try, it’s super cheap (especially compared to how much those bloody gluten-free pizza-crust mixes cost in the store) and how much of a gamble it is to risk wasting expensive flours and whatnot on trial-and-error recipes you might find online or mixes you’ll find in the store.

So…give it a whirl. And if you successfully add a new twist to it, drop me a line and let me know! :)

P.S. Sorry for not having any pictures. I’ll definitely try my best to include pictures from now on, with anything I post recipe/technique-wise.