Thin Crust Pizza Dough Recipe (Gluten Free)
Thin crust pizza dough is a thing of beauty. While I sometimes like a nice thick crust, the majority of the time, I go for thin crust. It leaves less of a “brick” in my tummy and it’s just as tasty.
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. But the whole “grain free baking” thing has really put me off. I just cannot seem to get a feel for it. Usually, I rely heavily on my instincts when I cook. But the whole grain free thing really has me stumped. Things just don’t come together like they are “supposed” to. Where I normally get things right on the first try, I now have to do things 2 and 3 times. I suppose it’s all a learning curve, but I’ll get there.
I’m not totally grain free yet. I’m sort of easing myself into it. Overall, I think I’ll be leaning towards lower carb recipes in general for a while. It seems to be what my body agrees with most. So like it or not, here I go!
This particular recipe took me three attempts to master. But I did eventually get it, and I think it’s pretty tasty. I hope you will too!
Recipe notes: I’m trying to cut down on sodium, so this recipe doesn’t contain any added salt. However, I believe this is one of those recipes that would really benefit from it. So if you don’t have to worry too much about sodium, I would add about 1/2 tsp. to this. Just be sure to use a good quality salt. Also, this is definitely a Paleo style pizza. Those counting fat grams will want to skip this recipe. (Try this one instead.)
MORE HEALTHY GRAIN FREE RECIPES:
THIN CRUST PIZZA DOUGH RECIPE:
Thin Crust Pizza Dough
Equipment
- Pizza pan
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups sunflower seed flour (see directions below)
- 1 ½ cups almond flour
- 1 tbsp. garlic powder
- 1 tbsp. onion powder
- 1 tbsp. Italian seasoning
- 2 tbsp. coconut oil
- 3 large eggs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours and spices. Blend well.
- Using your hands, rub the coconut oil into the mix, much like cutting butter into flour. Rub it in well until you have no clumps of oil left.
- Again, using your hands, mix in the eggs and knead until you have a somewhat sticky dough.
- Wash your hands, then with them still being damp, spread your dough over a pizza pan or cookie sheet that has oiled parchment on it. (You can also rub a little oil on your hands if that works better) This is important. Without parchment AND oil, you'll end up with a mess. (I learned the hard way on that!)
- Spread the dough out over your pizza pan or cookie sheet. This can take a few minutes, so don't give up. You want it to be about 1/4 inch thick. So pretty thin!
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.Remove from oven and allow to cool.
- Carefully (get help if you need extra hands), flip the dough over. Top with your pizza toppings and bake as needed. You may see a bit of a "raw" spot in the middle when you flip the crust. You can bake this further for about 10 minutes or you can simply add your toppings and finish baking that way.
SUNFLOWER SEED FLOUR:
- This is a very simple process. Just empty a bag of sunflower seed into a food processor and blend for 1-2 minutes, or until you have flour. Note that it will be a bit more coarse than regular flour.
I am looking forward to trying this. Do you make your own sunflower flour? I haven’t seen it around.
Allison – Yes. Please see the directions at the very bottom of the recipe.
WOW, is that calorie count just for the crust!? I don’t know if all this grain free baking using nut flours is worth it!
Tracy – This is pretty exclusively a paleo recipe. People who eat paleo don’t count calories. So yes, that’s just for the crust. But on the other end of that, most toppings (if done correctly) don’t have a huge calorie count. Think veggies!
This sounds good! I am always looking for different options for GF pizza dough – oh how I miss pizza!.
Did you buy your sunflower seed flour or make your own? I assume it is made from raw sunflower seeds, not roasted, right? I have a large bag of raw sunflower seeds so I am thinking I will make my own. Thoughts?
Becky – Yup! That’s how I did it! 🙂
I’m new to eating gluten free. I have nothing medically that says I need to be but I am curious to see if I notice a difference in how I feel with gluten out of my diet. That being said my 8yr old and I made this crust this morning. I really like the flavor of the crust. The texture is something I will have to get used to. I had sunflowers in the pantry so we ground our own in a food processor. I’m thinking if I had a way to make the sunflower flour more fine that it would have a better texture.
JoAnn – Ya, it can be tough to get a really fine grind on nut and seed flours simply because if you go much beyond the coarse flour, you end up with nut or seed butter! It’s a delicate balance. But glad you enjoyed the flavor!
Thanks so much for the recipe! Question: we have tree nut allergies in our family so I am wondering what we can substitute for the almond flour that is still grain-free?
Many thanks,
Erin
Erin – You could try using all sunflower seed flour. I haven’t tried though, so it’s hard to say what the outcome would be.
This recipe looks amazing!! I can’t wait to try it this weekend!! 🙂
xx
Lisa
Lisa – Let me know how you like it! 🙂
I was wondering about the almond flour. I haven’t seen it yet in the stores. I have been shopping at Whole Foods lately and it is not in the bulk section. The almonds are expensive here, so making it at home is not an option. Where do you get your flour. I love the directions on the sunflower seed flour. I can totally do that. 🙂 I appreciate you hard work and your kind heart.
Toni – Thank you! 😀 Whole foods usually has it in packages. I believe the brand name is Bob’s Redmill. That brand has a lot of different flours. As long as they carry the brand, they should be able to order it for you if it’s not on their shelves. But it’s been my experience that the packaged stuff is more costly than the stuff you make at home. So you would need to do a comparison for this. You could certainly try using all sunflower seed flour, but I haven’t tried it so I can’t vouch for the flavor or texture. Should be pretty good though!
Made this for dinner tonight. I used whole wheat flour instead, it came out really dry so I had to add some water to form the ball. No big deal. However I should have used a rolling pin to thin out the crust instead of pressing it by hand…it was still too thick. Oh well! will definitely try it again with a rolling pin!
Monica – Ya, regular whole wheat flour can suck up a little more liquid. I hope it works better for you next time.
I made the pizza again today, I used whole wheat pastry flour and it was still really dry. I had to add 3/4 cup of water to the dough to get it to form a ball. I used a rolling pin and it came out much better.
Monica – Great! I’m glad it worked out!