Sorry, but I have no experience with gluten-free baking. 
After my son longingly smelled the aroma at Auntie Anne’s pretzels (he loved getting them when he was young), I thought I’d try my hand at making some GF ones from scratch. The dough didn’t rise as much as expected, which led me to test the yeast. Not completely dead, but not as robust as it should be. Debating whether I should try to finish making them or toss the dough. I am hopeful that new yeast will yield better results the next time I make buns.
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That particular recipe was meh, but I made this one today, and even the non-celiac household members gave them a thumbs up. I made some with cinnamon sugar and some with salt. They really did taste similar to Auntie Anne’s soft pretzels.
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Making pork back ribs today. Stole the recipe from the internets.
No smoker needed. Just the oven and a couple of days with dry rub. More than recommended, but i was busy yesterday.
The secret is using the drippings in the sauce. I’ll post the link later.
Recipe adjacent question:
Anyone here use a pizza steel? If so, any tips/suggestions/recommendations? Pizza has been a missed item in my household, and getting gluten free pizza at local restaurants unfortunately doesn’t mean celiac safe. So, I’m taking a stab at making pizza at home again, and I’ve not been successful in getting a decently crisp crust. It looks like pizza steels are around $100, and I probably need a pizza peel, too.
I make pizza on a pizza stone, in my regular oven. I get great results from that. Pre-heat it to 460 for a bit to get it all heated up. I read that steel should heat up faster and transfer heat better, so I think I could see an improvement, but I am happy enough with what I have to not bother. Kids like my pizza better than the local places.
I have some baking sheets that I use as peels, and prep/bake the pizza on parchment paper to make the trasnfers easier. I do bake two pizzas at a time…I swap them top to bottom 7 minutes in which is when the top one is starting to get the toasted cheese on top. This should help get the insides of the crust a bit more done. I am using an electric oven, so it has the heating elements on top and bottom.
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+1 for stone as opposed to steel
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Thanks. Yesterday I made the dough on parchment, baked it a couple of minutes at 500° on a pizza pan with holes, slid it off the parchment paper (just used a big spatula), baked the crust another 6-7 min, pulled out the crust and topped it, then finished baking another 7-8 min. Gluten free dough is fiddily to handle (tears easily, so parchment paper really helped), and needs longer baking time due to more liquid needed for hydrating the flour (why I par baked the crust before topping). My family prefers a thin, crisper crust, and last night’s attempt had a still pretty doughy crust. I’ll try pressing the dough out thinner and retry the stone next time. I appreciate the input.
What toppings are you putting on it? Veggies can release a lot of water, especially mushrooms. I’ll saute a pound or so of mushrooms while I roll out the dough…and often will just do some garlic and lightly brush on some olive oil instead of sauce. That leaves little moisture to seep down into the crust, giving it a better chance to cook.
I never had any sort of luck with using a pizza pan, even par baking crust. I think you should be able to have a decent shot with just the parchment paper over stone or steel. 500F will burn the paper quite a bit (just the exposed bits not under the pizza) - at 460 I am getting brown flaky corners.
Just a light layer of sauce and cheese. I know more toppings = more moisture, so I’d like to get things figured out with a cheese pizza first.
Pizza sauce is a must. The recipe made way more sauce than I need for a family meal, so I’m considering freezing it in batches.
With regards to the parchment paper, do you leave it on the whole time? I’d previously done so with the pizza stone at a lower temperature (like 450°), but it seemed to hold in moisture. The parchment paper box states it’s safe to 425°, so I’ve been hesitant to go to 500° with it for more than a couple of minutes. Keeping it on parchment paper would make it easier to par bake and then add toppings rather that moving the pizza stone in and out of the oven.
I see there’s a cast iron for baking pizza, too.
We’re thinking about getting a Detroit pan, as our local place lost (or got priced out of) its lease.
(Rant: Place has been empty for several months now. Guess the rent price was market-correct before they raised the rent.)
We went to another place farther away for a pickup, and it wasn’t as good and a bit too expensive. So, home cooking it is!
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We got a pizza oven thing that goes in the bbq. Works great! It had a stone inside, and we have a peel for sliding them in and out of the oven. I usually rotate a few times while they are in there. About 5 min or so cooking time once it’s heated up.
I should take another stab at making Detroit style pizza. We had some great pizza (both regular and gluten free) at Nightshift Brewing in Boston.
I originally was going to make pizza last night, so I made up the dough in the afternoon. That plan changed, so I figured I’d make it tonight. Unfortunately, the dough fell quite a bit. I did try the pizza stone again, one pizza with parchment paper the whole time, the other with parchment paper while parbaking, then directly on the stone after adding toppings. I think the stone did help, and it seems that parbaking without toppings for a longer time makes for a crisper crust. I cut the parchment paper about an inch from the edge of the crust, and it was pretty handy for moving the pizza. I probably should’ve heated the stone longer. Next time. My son who hadn’t had my attempt over the weekend said it wasn’t terrible, so there’s that.
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