Sourdough Pizza Crust with Millet and Sorghum (Gluten-Free, Lectin-Free)

A lectin-free and gluten-free pizza that tastes and looks like that good pizza you were used to eating? Look no more. This sourdough pizza crust with millet and sorghum flour is the perfect replacement for any good pizza, and I promise you won’t feel like you are on a diet.

Make this for unsuspecting guests, and they’ll think they are eating a regular pizza. Once you get familiar with my sourdough method and have an active starter, you will make this pizza crust recipe with your eyes closed. Initially, the process might seem lengthy, but the hands-on time is pretty short.

The real taste and texture of pizza

I still remember the days, many years ago, when we could go to the best pizza place in town and enjoy a good pie. I always loved the one with thin crust, which had a little crispiness, but not too much, and I loved the bready edges, although I was trying to be good and not eat them all.

While I remember the pleasure of eating such a pizza, I also remember the unpleasant fullness after eating. I’ve had many attempts at creating gluten-free, lectin-free pizza crusts in these past five years, some of which were quite decent.

I specifically love the Sweet Potato Naked Pizza Crust from my first book – The Living Well Without Lectins Cookbook – page 48. And there are a few great options in my newest book, launched in January 2023: Everyday Low-Lectin Cookbook.

While living in the US, we had a few brands of lectin-free pizza crust available: Simple Mills and Cappello’s Naked Pizza Crust. But I was missing the real taste and texture of pizza. No more!

Have you started your sourdough adventure yet?

After creating my gluten-free and lectin-free sourdough method, I knew good pizza was in the cards, but at first, I struggled to find the right way to cook it. After a few attempts, I am happy with this method, and we will be using it to bring pizza back into our menu at home, and I hope in your homes too.

Firstly, this pizza crust is made with a sourdough method, so you should know you need to have a gluten-free and lectin-free starter to make this recipe. This is where you will find the starter instructions:

• Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter With Millet, Teff, and Sorghum Flour (Lectin-Free)

While it may seem intimidating initially, I promise you this is much easier than many recipes you are already making. You just need curiosity and patience and, of course, a love for cooking and baking.

I know people who were never into baking bread and made the most beautiful sourdough bread on the first try. Careful, though, because of the high level of satisfaction you get from baking with sourdough, it can become addictive :).

Another reason why this sourdough pizza bread is super easy because it follows the same steps and has the same ingredients as the Gluten-Free Sourdough Bread Recipe with Sorghum and Millet.

So if you are already familiar with making that bread, which is my master recipe, then making this pizza crust will be easy. It’s just the proofing, shaping, and baking that will be different.

If you are familiar with my sourdough method

So, for those of you familiar with my gluten-free sourdough method and my recipe for sorghum and millet bread, these are the steps you will follow:

1. Follow the same instruction to make the sorghum and millet bread to the point you start the fermentation process.
2. Leave the dough on the counter for about 1 hour (this is the summertime, for winter, it might go up to 2 hours).
3. Shape the dough as you would with the bread, place it in the banneton, cover it, and wrap it in plastic, and put it in the refrigerator. After about 6 hours (at 3 degrees Celcius), the dough is ready to use for pizza crust). However, you can stretch the time of using this dough to another 24 hours. So you can make half of the dough on the first day and the other half on the second day.
4. Shape, fill, and bake as per the recipe card below.

If you are new to the gluten-free sourdough world

If you are just starting your sourdough journey, you will have to take these extra two steps before you attempt making pizza:

1. Make the gluten-free and lectin-free starter with millet, sorghum, and teff.
2. Get familiar with and make the master bread recipe with sorghum and millet.

You will find all the links to the necessary posts in the paragraphs above.

Ingredients for sourdough pizza with millet and sorghum

For the preferment (make the night before, right before you feed the starter):

• 10 grams starter
• 30 grams of water (spring, filtered, non-chlorinated)
• 35 grams of flour mix (for this pizza, equal quantities of sorghum and millet)

The wet mix:

• 17 grams psyllium husk flakes (not powder)
• 420 grams of water (spring, filtered, bottled, no chlorine, no tap, and don’t use reverse osmosis water)
• 10 grams organic, raw honey, preferably local
• 6 grams extra virgin olive oil
• 75 grams sorghum + millet preferment (made the night before)

The dry mix:

• 230 grams flour (115g sorghum + 115 millet)
• 70 grams starch (tapioca flour)
• 6 grams non-iodized good quality fine sal

Extras:

• Coarse sorghum or millet flour (for dusting on the bottom)
• Toppings of your choice

Shopping for the ingredients & tools

You will find a list of all the ingredients and tools you need to make gluten-free and lectin-free sourdough bread on the SHOP page (SHOP, search by category: Project Sourdough).

And if you are new to making sourdough, you will find a comprehensive list in the starter and bread recipe posts (linked in the paragraphs above).

The only extra tool you need for this pizza is the pizza plate. This recipe was made with the pizza tray I use, which is from Le Creuset. I can’t find it on Amazon US to link it, but it is similar to this one:

• Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Baking Pan with Loop Handles, 14″, Black

This was a good investment for us, as we use it for the grill to make dishes like fajita, any meat or veggies that can’t go directly on the grill or to make pancakes and tortillas.

If you don’t have a pizza plate, don’t worry, it will also work on a usual oven tray. Maybe the texture of the crust will differ slightly.

A pizza board can be useful for shaping the pizza and transferring it to the pizza plate. I have a normal round wooden board with a handle, or you can get something like this:

• Pizza Peel, Pizza Board, Pizza Spatula Paddle, Pizza Cutting Bamboo Board, Wooden Baking Pizza Peel, Cutting Fruit Vegetables Cheese and Serving Board With Easy Glide Edges

The method of making sourdough pizza with millet and sorghum

Make the preferment

• Mix all the ingredients the night before (you will prepare the dough in the morning)

The mixing method

• In a glass or plastic bowl, combine the water, psyllium husk flakes, honey, and extra virgin olive oil. Mix well and set it on the side. Once the psyllium husks absorb the water, this mixture will have a gel-like texture (it needs about 5 minutes).
• In the meantime, combine all the dry ingredients in a glass bowl.
• Now add the preferment to the psyllium husk gel. Mix well with a spatula or wooden spoon.
• Add the preferment gel mixture to the dry ingredients bowl, incorporate as much as possible with a spatula or wooden spoon, then start mixing with your hand. Mix well until the dough is homogeneous and has no lumps. The dough is soft and sticky.
• Now you can start mixing with the silicone or plastic dough scraper, scraping the dough from the sides of the bowl, and folding it into the center. Rotate the bowl and repeat with the same movement for about 1 minute. Please watch the video in the original bread recipe linked above for a visual guide.
• Cover the bowl with a plastic cover, then wrap it in two extra big plastic bags and tighten the bags. From now on, the fermentation starts. I keep my bowl on the kitchen counter. Ideally, it needs a place where the temperature stays constant throughout the process.

Bulk fermentation

• Let it ferment at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the temperature and humidity in your house (usually 1h in the summer and 2h in the winter). At about 20 degrees Celcius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), it can take 2 hours. If it’s hotter than that, the time will decrease. At about 72-74 degrees Fahrenheit, my bulk fermentation takes about 1 hour.

Shaping the dough

• You might need visual help if you haven’t made my bread recipe before. Check out that post for video guides on how to shape the dough. Gently invert the dough on a working surface, dusted with just a tiny bit of flour. Gently lift one-third of the dough and fold it on top of itself. Then fold it one more time, so now what was on the bottom of the working surface is on the top.
• The following step is to shape the dough and seal the bottom part. You will do this by gently rotating the dough and shaping it into a round, and using the tension between the work surface and the dough to seal the bottom part. Gently rotate the dough several times between your palms without applying too much pressure with the hands or against the working surface. Check out the bottom part; the seams should disappear.

Proofing the dough

• Dust the lining of the Banneton or the towel with flour. Now that the dough is sealed and shaped, gently transfer it to the proofing basket with the sealed side facing upward (the smooth face down). Dust the top with flour, and cover with plastic wrap or wrap it in a towel. Because my house is pretty dry, I spray a little water on the towel. I cover it in plastic wrap and then in two plastic bags that I tighten very well.
• Place the dough ball in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours and up to 24 hours before making pizza. You can also use half of the dough the same day and the other half the next day.

Making pizza

• When you are ready to make the pizza, and all your toppings are ready, preheat the oven to 230C / 450F and a pizza plate, using the pizza setting and instructions of your oven. That really helps with getting the perfect crust. This recipe is made for a cast iron pizza tray. If you have another type of plate or a simple oven tray, it will work, but you might have to adjust the timing and settings.
• Invert the dough on parchment paper, and divide the dough into 4 equal parts, which you will gently form into balls. Each dough ball will make one 23 to 24 cm / about 9.5 inches pizza. Use sorghum flour for dusting at any time needed to prevent sticking. If you are only making one or two pizzas, place the rest of the dough in the proofing basket, cover with the towel and plastic wrap, and put it back in the fridge. You can use it the next day. Another option is to make all four pizzas, prebake them and freeze them.
• Stretch the dough, gently pressing outwards with your fingers and leaving a raised edge all around. Dust with sorghum flour on top and the bottom anytime needed to prevent the dough from sticking. Stop when you have a circle of 23-24cm / about 9.5 inches. For a perfect crispy bottom, dust some more coarse sorghum flour (like semolina is used in regular pizza).
• Carefully remove the pizza plate from the oven, and slide the parchment paper with the pizza dough on the plate. Par bake for 8 minutes without toppings. After 8 minutes, take the pizza crust out, add a thin layer of your favorite pizza sauce, and place the toppings of your choice without overloading it. Bake for 7 more minutes.

• You can also split the big dough into two parts and make a bigger pizza if you prefer. Also, if you can’t be bothered to make a round pizza, you can shape it into a rectangular or anything else you wish.
• While the first pizza is cooking, you can prepare the dough for the second pizza. After you take the first pizza out, place the second one in the oven, and you can serve the first one.

Suggested toppings

I love this combination of toppings, but the beauty of pizza is that you can top it with anything you want and love:

• Homemade low-lectin tomato sauce with extra virgin olive oil, onions, garlic, basil, and oregano
• Chanterelle mushrooms, sliced or shredded, tossed in extra virgin olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper
• Grass-fed beef salami or Prosciutto di Parma (or any compliant deli or meat)
• Buffalo mozzarella
• Olives
• After baking: fresh basil, fresh or dry oregano, arugula

And a green pizza is always a great option. Use your choice of pesto as the base and the toppings of your choice. Keep some fresh pesto for topping after baking.

More lectin-free and gluten-free sourdough recipes

If you prefer a soft bread, you will find a recipe for lectin-free sourdough focaccia:

• Gluten-Free Sourdough Focaccia (Lectin-Free)

And a recipe for bread rolls:

• Rustic Sourdough Rolls With Teff, Millet, and Sorghum (Lectin-Free)

Or maybe you’d like an easy flatbread recipe:

• Sourdough Flatbread with Sorghum Flour (Gluten-Free)

Have any questions?

If you have any questions about my sourdough method in general or about this sourdough pizza with millet and sorghum, please leave a comment below. I’ll be more than happy to help you in your sourdough journey.

*This post contains affiliated links, which means I get a small commission if you choose to purchase something via one of my links, at no extra cost to you.

Print Recipe

Sourdough Pizza Crust with Millet and Sorghum (Gluten-Free, Lectin-Free)

(9 votes, average: 4.44 out of 5)

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By Claudia Curici – Serves: 4 pizzas (9inch)

Prep Time: 1 hour – Cooking Time: 15 minutes

A lectin-free and gluten-free pizza that tastes and looks like that good pizza you were used to eating? Look no more. This sourdough pizza crust with millet and sorghum flour is the perfect replacement for any good pizza, and I promise you won't feel like you are on a diet. Make this for unsuspecting guests, and they'll think they are eating a regular pizza. Once you get familiar with my sourdough method and have an active starter, you will make this pizza with your eyes closed. Initially, the process might seem lengthy, but the hands-on time is pretty short.

Ingredients

• FOR THE PREFERMENT (make the night before, right before you feed the starter):
• 10 grams starter
• 30 grams of water (spring, filtered, non-chlorinated)
• 35 grams of flour mix (for this bread, equal quantities of sorghum and millet)
• THE WET MIX:
• 17 grams psyllium husk flakes (not powder)
• 420 grams of water (spring, filtered, bottled, no chlorine, no tap, and don't use reverse osmosis water)
• 10 grams organic, raw honey, preferably local
• 6 grams extra virgin olive oil
• 75 grams sorghum + millet preferment (made the night before)
• THE DRY MIX:
• 230 grams flour (115g sorghum + 115 millet)
• 70 grams starch (tapioca flour)
• 6 grams non-iodized good quality fine salt
• EXTRA:
• coarse sorghum flour
• TOPPINGS OF YOUR CHOICE

Instructions

1

MAKE THE PREFERMENT:

2

Mix all the ingredients the night before (you will prepare the dough in the morning)

3

THE MIXING METHOD:

4

In a glass or plastic bowl, combine the water, psyllium husk flakes, honey, and extra virgin olive oil. Mix well and set it on the side. Once the psyllium husks absorb the water, this mixture will have a gel-like texture (it needs about 5 minutes).

5

In the meantime, combine all the dry ingredients in a glass bowl.

6

Now add the preferment to the psyllium husk gel. Mix well with a spatula or wooden spoon.

7

Add the preferment gel mixture to the dry ingredients bowl, incorporate as much as possible with a spatula or wooden spoon, then start mixing with your hand. Mix well until the dough is homogeneous and has no lumps. The dough is soft and sticky.

8

Now you can start mixing with the silicone or plastic dough scraper, scraping the dough from the sides of the bowl, and folding it into the center. Rotate the bowl and repeat with the same movement for about 1 minute. Please watch the video in the original bread recipe linked above for a visual guide.

9

Cover the bowl with a plastic cover, then wrap it in two extra big plastic bags and tighten the bags. From now on, the fermentation starts. I keep my bowl on the kitchen counter. Ideally, it needs a place where the temperature stays constant throughout the process.

10

BULK FERMENTATION:

11

Let it ferment for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the temperature and humidity in your house (usually 1h in the summer and 2h in the winter). At about 20 degrees Celcius (68 degrees Fahrenheit), it can take 2 hours. If it's hotter than that, the time will decrease. At about 72-74 degrees Fahrenheit, my bulk fermentation takes about 1 hour.

12

SHAPING THE DOUGH:

13

You might need visual help if you haven't made my bread recipe before. Check out that post for video guides on how to shape the dough. Gently invert the dough on a working surface, dusted with just a tiny bit of flour. Gently lift one-third of the dough and fold it on top of itself. Then fold it one more time, so now what was on the bottom on the working surface is on the top. The following step is to shape the dough and seal the bottom part. You will do this by gently rotating the dough and shaping it into a round, and using the tension between the work surface and the dough to seal the bottom part. Gently rotate the dough several times in between your palms, without applying too much pressure with the hands or against the working surface. Check out the bottom part, the seams should disappear.

14

PROOFING THE DOUGH:

15

Dust the lining of the Banneton or the towel with flour. Now that the dough is sealed and shaped, gently transfer it to the proofing basket with the sealed side facing upward (the smooth face down). Dust the top with flour, and cover with plastic wrap or wrap it in a towel. Because my house is pretty dry, I spray a little bit of water on the towel. I cover it in plastic wrap, and then in two plastic bags that I tighten very well. Place the dough in the refrigerator for a minimum of 6 hours and up to 24 hours before making pizza. You can also use half of the dough the same day and the other half the next day.

16

MAKING PIZZA:

17

When you are ready to make the pizza and all your toppings are ready, preheat the oven to 230C / 450F and a pizza plate, using the pizza setting and instructions of your oven. That really helps with getting the perfect crust. This recipe is made for a cast iron pizza tray. If you have another type of plate or a simple oven tray, it will work but you might have to adjust timing and settings.

18

Invert the dough on parchment paper, and portion it into 4 equal parts, which you will gently form into balls. Each ball will make one 23 to 24 cm / about 9.5 inches pizza. Use sorghum flour for dusting at any time needed to prevent sticking. If you are only making one or two pizzas, place the rest of the dough in the proofing basket, cover with the towel and plastic wrap, and put it back in the fridge. You can use it the next day. Another option is to make all four pizzas, prebake them and freeze them.

19

Start to flatten each ball of dough, gently pressing outwards with your fingers and leaving a raised edge all around. Dust with sorghum flour on top and the bottom anytime needed to prevent the dough from sticking. Stop when you have a circle of 23-24cm / about 9.5 inches. For a perfect crispy bottom, dust some more coarse sorghum flour (like semolina is used in regular pizza).

20

Carefully remove the pizza plate from the oven, and slide the parchment paper with the pizza dough on the plate. Prebake for 8 minutes without toppings. After 8 minutes, take the pizza out, place the toppings of your choice without overloading it, and bake for 7 more minutes.

21

You can also split the big dough into only two parts, and make a bigger pizza if you prefer. Also, if you can't be bothered to make a round pizza, you can shape it in a rectangular or anything else you wish.

22

While the first pizza is cooking, you can prepare the dough for the second pizza. After you take the first pizza out, place the second one in the oven and you can serve the first one.