Making Pizzas Using Cup 4 Cup Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix
July 29, 2015
Earlier this summer, our older (non-Celiac) son who doesn't like pizza anyway was off to a camp with friends. It provided a great opportunity for me to have some in-the-kitchen bonding time with our younger son (who has Celiac) making pizza (which he loves!).
We've tried all sorts of store-bought gluten free pizzas over the 10 years since our son was first diagnosed with Celiac, and we've also bought "naked" crusts to customize them ourselves. I've even tried various gluten free mixes and flours to make our own "from scratch" pizza when time allows.
So I was particularly curious to try Cup 4 Cup's new gluten free Pizza Crust Mix. Surprisingly, this was my first Cup 4 Cup purchase. I know many of you swear by their all-purpose flour. I've been meaning to try it -- despite its high price tag -- but have been really happy with the other GF flour blends I use (King Arthur's all purpose GF flour and GF all purpose baking mix, Bob's Red Mill new gluten free 1-to-1 baking flour, Pamela's GF All-Purpose Flour Artisan Blend, Tom Sawyer gluten free flour, and gfJules Gluten Free Flour).
But when I saw this new Pizza Crust Mix from Cup 4 Cup on the shelf of one of my local stores recently, I couldn't pass it up. I figured if anyone could nail a gluten free pizza crust, it would be Cup 4 Cup.
There was enough mix to make 2 decent sized pizzas, and we decided to do one round and one rectangular. The round pizza was for our son -- traditional tomato sauce and cheese topped with pepperoni. My husband and I opted to do half pesto and half tomato sauce -- and top it with cheese and various toppings we had on hand (grilled chicken, pepperoni, mushrooms, and orange and yellow bell peppers).
The process took a bit of time, due to needing to let the dough rise after adding the packet of yeast (included in the mix), but it was easy and straightforward.
The texture of the finished product wasn't bad, although if I make it again, I'd roll it out even thinner, since I like a crispier crust. Although my son really liked the pizza crust, I thought it was lacking in flavor…quite bland. Next time I'd add some spices to the dough. Surprisingly, there are none in the mix, and the recipe doesn't call for adding any. Of course, you can spice up your pizza with toppings, but even with all the tasty sauces and toppings we added, I still found it a bit lacking.
I'd be curious to know if any of you have tried the Pizza Crust Mix -- and what you thought. Did you vary the recipe at all? Have you used the mix to try any of their other suggested recipes on their site, like Crispy Crackers?
Cup 4 Cup also has three other new gluten free mixes: Vanilla Cake, Chocolate Brownie, and Pancake/Waffle. Have you tried any of those? Personally, I'd like to try those in due time, but right now, our family is hooked on Betty Crocker's gluten free yellow cake mix when we want vanilla cake, Glutino's double chocolate brownie mix, and Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix for pancakes and waffles (our favorite for 10 years!). Once you find products like this that your family loves -- and that guests typically never detect are gluten free(!), it's hard to switch!
But I suppose we could be convinced to try any of the Cup 4 Cup mixes you'd recommend…it's a tough job, but someone's got to do the hardship baking!