This is, hands down, the best gluten free pizza crust. It’s crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, and is also dairy free and vegan. Having a really easy gluten free pizza dough recipe makes life that much better. With just a handful of ingredients, you can have the best gluten free, dairy free, and egg free pizza ever.
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Pizza.
I don’t know about you, but once I started eating a gluten free diet, this became one of my top priorities to figure out:
Find gluten free pizza. Find the best gluten free pizza.
For a date night a while back, my sweet husband took me to a pizza place that had the coveted gluten free pizza crust. I was thrilled. And extra thrilled that I didn’t have to bring my own dinner (which is a thing as a gluten-free person).
That experience, however, can be summed up in one word:
Disappointment.
(Not my date. My date was hot. My pizza was lame-sauce).
It was not good pizza. It was edible, sure. But it wasn’t good.
Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience?
The joy of seeing there’s a gluten free pizza option only to plummet to disappointment as you actually eat…whatever the heck that cardboard is (can you really call that pizza?).
Read Next: Gluten Free Foods on a Budget
If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself
I don’t think this is a rule to always live by, but it’s very applicable here. Making my own pizza crust became a priority. I couldn’t find a good gluten free pizza spot.
But even if I had, I like to make pizza more often than I can afford to go out anyway.
I searched for years to find a half decent gluten-free pizza crust recipe.
Actively.
Weekly.
I wanted to find the best gluten free pizza crust recipe.
And after many soggy bottoms, disappointing mush, and cardboard replicas, I found our staple pizza recipe.
I seriously make this almost every Friday for our family movie night.
Easiest gluten free pizza crust
This gluten free pizza crust recipe not only has fantastic texture, but it’s stinkin’ easy to make.
And did I say easy?
My kids can make this dough with me.
(Check out this course that empowers kids to bake more than cookies! So good).
You barely need any ingredients.
Related post: The Best Gluten Free Sandwich Bread Ever
Tips on how to make the best gluten free pizza crust
Gluten free dough is different than regular pizza dough.
Thus you’ll want to make sure to do these following things for best results and the best experience (no cussing necessary).
Tip #1: Because this recipe relies on the use of xanthan gum, you’ll need to beat the pizza dough . This activates the gum and gets them chewy.
Using a kitchen mixer makes it that much easier, but you can use good old fashioned elbow grease, too.
Tip #2: Use silicone baking mats if you’re opting to not use corn meal and tapioca starch (these are the ones I have). This dough is sticky so you’ll need something helpful on the bottom!
Tip #3: When forming the pizza crust, you’ll want to scoop out the dough batter onto the center of the prepared pizza pan or silicone mat. Then use wet hands to press the crust out, working from the middle outward.
Keep re-wetting your hands as you work (I keep a bowl of water right next to my work area), and smooth out the top when you’re finished.
How to make gluten free pizza crust from scratch
You. Guys.
It’s so easy.
Here’s are the basic step-by-step instructions on how to make this delicious gluten free, vegan pizza crust:
- Stir together warm water, cane sugar or honey, and yeast and let it proof (get frothy) for 5 minutes.
- While your yeast mixture is proofing, toss together gluten free flour, salt, and xanthan gum in a mixing bowl.
- Pour yeast mixture into flour and add some oil. Mix it well (I like to beat it in my KitchenAid).
- Cover and let the dough rise for 10-25 minutes.
- Divide the dough in half and spread it out with wet hands onto two pans (this recipe makes TWO pizza crusts!).
- Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees F and then add your toppings. Pop it back in the oven and bake until cheese is melty.
- Cool (wait a hot minute) and eat.
This is the best gluten free vegan pizza crust
No substitutions are needed to make this pizza crust dairy free and vegan.
There is naturally no egg or milk in this recipe.
Bam.
I’m amazed at how beautiful a texture is created with such simple ingredients.
Even if you’re not technically vegan (like me) or dairy free, you won’t miss the milk or egg.
This easy vegan pizza crust tastes bomb. Just ask my husband who eats ALL the things.
Gluten free pizza dough isn’t really a dough.
This gluten free pizza dough is not stretchy. This pizza dough is more like a thick, sticky batter.
It’s ok that it’s sticky! Because guess what?
You aren’t going to knead this pizza dough. Nope.
And don’t even think about punching it.
You’ll have to find another way to get out your frustration.
After your dough has proofed, you’l scoop/pour it onto your prepared pans and then wet your hands really well.
Like, really.
Water is going to be your friend.
You’ll keep wetting your hands to gently press the pizza dough out.
You can also use oil on your hands, but I find water works best.
What is the best flour for gluten free pizza crust?
Rice flour.
You want to use a gluten free flour blend that is rice flour based.
That means that if you look at the ingredients on your bag of flour, rice flour will be listed first.
I prefer to make my own from bulk ingredients (check out how to do that here), but you can certainly buy a good gluten free flour blend, too!
These are a few of my favorite store-bought gluten free flour blends:
King Arthur Measure for Measure
Pamela’s All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
Can you freeze gluten free pizza crust for later?
Yes! I don’t recommend freezing the dough, but the pizza crusts can be frozen after the first bake.
Once they’re cooled to room temp, wrap them in plastic wrap and a layer of foil and pop them in the freezer.
When you’re ready to eat some pizza simply unwrap the frozen pizza crust, add your toppings, and bake at 425 degrees F for 15-20 minutes.
You can also top the pizza before freezing, then pop it in the freezer unwrapped until it’s frozen solid (about 4-8 hours).
Once it’s frozen, wrap it in plastic wrap and a layer of foil.
Cook the frozen pizza (unwrapped!) on a pan for 15-20 minutes at 425 degrees F.
The Best Gluten Free Pizza Crust Recipe Ever (dairy-free + egg-free)
Best gluten free pizza crust recipe ever. Your search is over! This is the most amazing gluten free pizza crust recipe, and it also happens to be a dairy free and egg free pizza crust, too. Borderline magical.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cup gluten free all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cup water
- 1 packet or 2 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon organic cane sugar
- 2 tablespoons avocado oil (or your choice of vegetable oil)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons xanthan gum
- Optional: 1 tablespoons corn meal
- Optional: 1 tablespoon tapioca or corn starch
Instructions
- In a glass measuring cup, combine warm water, cane sugar, and yeast. Quickly stir and leave it to sit for 5 minutes until it's frothy and foamy.
- In stand mixer, combine gluten free flour flour, salt, and xanthan gum (yup, extra from what’s already in the mix), giving it a quick stir.
- Add oil and yeast mixture to dry ingredients and stir on low until it starts to combine.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then beat on medium-high for 3 minutes. Beating the xanthan gum helps with elasticity, which is very important for soft, chewy gluten-free pizza crust! The dough will be pretty wet and sticky, but don’t worry. It’s very different from regular dough until you bake it! Then it’s magic.
- Leave dough in the bowl and cover with a tea towel to rise for 25-30 minutes. When you scrape the top of the dough, it should have lots of little air pockets.
- Preheat oven to 400 degree F. If using silicone mats, put the pans you'll be using in the oven. If not, lightly grease the pizza pans and dust with corn meal and tapioca starch. #nosoggybottom
- If using, take two silicone baking mats and lightly dust them with corn meal and tapioca starch, if desired.
- Scoop half of the pizza dough onto the center of the prepared silicone mat or pan.
- Wet your hands with water and press the dough into circle or rectangle. It’s OK for it to be thin. I usually make mine about ¼- ½ inch thick.
- Continue wetting hands and pressing out dough until desired thickness and size is reached. Smooth with wet hands.
- Repeat with the other half of the pizza dough.
- Pull out one hot pan from the oven and very carefully slide the silicone mat onto the sheet and then into the oven. Repeat.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until the top is opaque and dry to the touch.
- Add desired toppings, while cranking the oven temp up to 450 degrees F. Put topped pizzas back in the oven for 5-8 minutes
- If you like, crank the oven again to broil and broil pizzas until tops are to your liking. I really like those dark brown spots on my cheese, so I broil ours for about 4 minutes. But keep an eye on it! Broilers are finicky ad varying. So, check it every minute, at least! It can get burned if you try to wash a bowl right now. Seriously. Ask me how I know.
- Take pizzas out and let them cool on the pans for 5 minutes so you don’t burn your face off.
- Enjoy!
Notes
These gluten free pizza crusts can be made in advance and frozen for later use! To just freeze the crusts, bake them at 400 degrees F for 12 minutes and allow to fully cool. Wrap them in cling wrap, and then a layer of tin foil. To use, thaw in the fridge before topping, or go straight from the freezer to the oven. Bake for 5 minutes at 425 degrees F before topping. Bake another 8-10 minutes, and broil if desired.
To create a fully prepared frozen pizza, bake for 8-10 minutes, create the pizza, and then freeze for two hours before wrapping. To bake, heat oven to 425 degrees F and cook for 12-16 minutes. Broil if desired (do not thaw before baking).
If your gluten free flour has xanthum gum in it do you need to add it?
Hi Annie! It is best with the added xanthan gum, even if your flour does have it. The xanthan gum makes it chewier and softer. That being said, I have totally forgotten to add it or have been out of it, and the pizza crust is still delicious.
This was so easy and so good. I don’t even have a stand mixer, I just mixed with my hand for a few minutes and it still turned out great. I won’t use store bought gf mix again. Thanks!
Sabrina, I’m so glad to hear it! Yay! Thanks for letting me know it worked by hand, too. That’s fantastic and I’m sure helpful for other readers 🙂
I can’t wait to try this recipe. Do you have any experience baking this dough in a 700 degree pizza oven?
Hi Beth, I hope you like it! I have no experience with pizza ovens, to be honest. And I don’t have access to one. But please let me know how it turns out if you try it!
This is AWESOME!! Crispy and cheesy and easy to make. I highly recommend this recipe and will definitely make this again.
I’m so glad! Thank you for taking the time to comment, Aimee 🙂
This calls for too much water and I ended up with batter, not crust. I have enough flour to fix it, but I took you at your word on these proportions. Live and learn.
Hi Llane, I’m sorry this didn’t work well for you! I make this almost weekly and the proportions work perfectly for me. Did you add the extra xanthan gum? The xanthan gum helps bind it really well. And this recipe IS definitely a batter, not a rollable dough. It remind me of the thickness of muffin batter. After it rises it’s scoopable and then you press it out with wet hands.
If it was even too watery to do that, I’m curious what flour you used with it? I want my readers to have a good experience and account for various flour blends 🙂 Thanks for your help!
The outside of the crust was amazing but the middle didn’t crisp up. Any idea what I could have done wrong?
Hi Kristen! Hmmm, there are a couple things I can think of…It’s possible it was under cooked and just needed a few extra minutes. I had some texture issues a couple times with a different recipe and actually found my oven wasn’t working and the temp was too low. That’ll do it! Might be worth putting an oven thermometer in to make sure your oven is hot enough. ?? Another possibility is using a flour blend that contains a high percentage of starches or one that has a high gum percentage. If a flour blend has TOO much xanthan gum, the extra gum can be reduced or omitted.
And the last thing I can think of is perhaps it was too thick? (just spit balling with the details I have haha). If you like a really crisp crust, you might want to press it thinner.
I hope this helps narrow things down! I’m happy to continue brain storming with you so you get the perfect pizza crust…because I seriously want that for you 🙂
Hey there! I have to say I feel the same way… if you want it to be good, make it yourself! We’ll I tried your recipe yardage and it was AMAZING! And simple! I’m gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free, so it is DEFINITELY a challenge! I also calculated for people on WW, each slice is only 4 points for 1/12th (and very light on cheese…I used cashew cheese). Thx so much for sharing!
any advice for using a pizza stone with this recipe??
Hello! I do not own a pizza stone, but grew up with one. I would suggest pressing the “dough” (more like batter) as directed on a piece of parchment paper that will fit on the pizza stone. Heat the pizza stone in the oven while the oven is preheating. Then carefully transfer the parchment paper with pizza crust onto the hot stone and bake as directed. I would think pulling the pizza stone out and on top of the oven, quickly putting the dough on it, and then setting it back in would work great and be easiest.
If you try it, please let me know how it turned out for you! I think this method would create a beautiful crisp crust!
This was delicious ! Easy to make and came out crispy. The best gluten free pizza dough that we have had!
Hooray, Cindy! My heart is all warm and fuzzy hearing that. Thanks for taking time to share <3
Your directions were great. We were very nervous that it was batter like consistency but it turned out FANTASTIC!!!!
Kristin! Thank you so much for taking time to leave feedback. I’m thrilled you loved it!
Great Recipe!
Made a couple changes that helped:
1. Added 1tbl baking powder as additional/back-up leavening.
2. Brushed with olive oil after pre-bake.
3. Spread batter on parchment — easy release without using flour or cornmeal.
4. Used 1:1 Flour (either King Arthur or Bobs). Added addl. 1 tsp xanthan gum.
5. Next time I will pipe batter to build up for crust.
Love this gluten free crust!!! So good and easy to make!
Erin, thank you so much for taking the time to comment! I’m very glad you love this pizza crust (yay yay!)
Is all of the 1 3/4 cups of water just for the yeast mixture? My package of yeast says to only use 1/3 cups of water.
Hi there! Yes, you put the yeast in with the full 1 3/4 cup of water 🙂
In step 2 you have said to add extra
Xantham gum. How much do you add here, additional to what you have added to the first step?
Hi Brenda, the additional xanthan gum is what is included in the ingredients. Just to clarify that you add more xanthan gum than what is in your gluten free flour blend 🙂 Let me know if you need any more help!
I made this recipe twice. Flavor was good, but it seemed very “doughy” I even baked it longer than directions.
Todd, Hmmm, that’s interesting. What flour blend are you using? It may be high in starch? The one time I had this happen, I checked the oven temp and found out my oven was not reaching the correct temperature. Yikes! We ended up having to get a new oven *palm to face* Hopefully this is not your issue, but it’s always a good idea to check! I used a thermometer like this one.
My pizza was nice and poofy in the oven and completely flattened when it came out 🙁
This recipe is amazing!! Literally the best gf pizza crust ever. Great texture. So excited to get pizza night back 😀
Thank you so much for taking time to leave a comment! I’m ecstatic you loved this pizza! Happy pizza night-ing 😉
New to the whole GF world and was very skeptical when I patted the risen dough into the pans with seriously wet hands, but oh my! It was AMAZING. So close to real dough! Thank you!
Hahaha I love your honesty! The wet hand method does not feel normal at all. SO glad you stuck it out and ended up enjoying the pizza! Hooray! Thanks for taking time to leave a comment <3
its the first time I visited your website I really like your recipe
We love love love this recipe! My son diagnosed at 8 with celiac loved pizza beforehand and since hated it until your recipe ( we tried tons as it was our go to on appointment nights). Im attempting to prebake and freeze, but a little confused on the freeze instructions as your tips section differs from the freeze instructions in the notes section. Or can i just pick which is convenient? Haha. I like the cook for 5 -8 min haha
Thanks for sharing this recipe!!!! And all your pizza sacrifices to get here!!!!
I made this recipe last night but used rapid rise yeast instead of active because the listed ingredients say “dry active rapid rise” -which is pretty confusing. Only after tapping on the link did I see that it was suppose to be active dry yeast. :/
Could you correct the yeast “name”, please?
Thank you so much for spotting this confusing error! It is active dry yeast for this recipe. I corrected it. 🙂
Thank you!
I’m going to try it again soon.
This was a wonderful surprise! I live up at 6000ft and things can bake strange. I did have to increase my baking time by several minutes. I made the crust early in the day (on my silicone mats) and the finished pizza in the evening on my pizza stone. I preheated the stone and baked at 475. Then used the broiler for several more minutes to brown everything. If you haven’t used liquid “mozerella” (vegan) than you must if you can’t have dairy. I am so happy to have found this recipe. Thank you!
You are so welcome. Thank you for taking the time to give your feedback (and share your win!!)! This is so encouraging 🙂 Great advice on the liquid mozzarella! Thanks.
Hi, are the pizza pans you use 10, 12, 14 or 16 inches? I am new to cooking gluten and dairy free and have been trying and failing at baking. I will persevere! I can’t wait to try your flour blend and some of the recipes. Especially the pizza dough and the sandwich bread!
Hi Sheila, great question! Thanks for clarifying. I use 12 inch pizza pans, and make two of them with the recipe. You could easily make one 16 inch pizza with it if you prefer a thick crust. Let me know if you have any questions! I’d love to help as you make this switch. I know it is a big learning curve to move to gluten & dairy free baking, but your persevering attitude will help you so much!