Description
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
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 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 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.
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 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.
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 timing and settings.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.