Brown Rice Flour Pizza Dough
Speed - 95%
Simplicity - 93%
Tastiness - 96%
95%
Yummy!
This brown rice pizza dough handled really close to one made with all-purpose flour. The choice of Chinese toppings was really yummy.
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 Cup Brown Rice Flour
- 1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Yeast
- 1 Tablespoon Flaxseed Meal
- 2/3 Cup Water
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
Instructions
- Combine yeast, salt, sugar, and warm water in a bowl. Leave for 5-10 minutes.
- Stir together 1 tablespoon flax meal and 2 tablespoons water in a bowl and leave for 5 minutes.
- Whisk together brown rice flour and tapioca flour in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the yeast and flax mixture into the flour and stir until a ball of dough is formed.
- Knead the dough in a floured surface.
- Set the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and leave to rise for about an hour.
- Stretch the dough onto a pizza pan and parbake for 8 minutes at 425F.
- Top your pizza and bake for another 8 minutes at 425F.
I’ve been developing pizza dough recipes lately, using gluten-free flour options for health reasons mainly. Honestly, it’s not that easy of a task and at most times quite frustrating. These grain-based flours just won’t turn out as flexible as a traditional pizza dough would because of gluten’s absence.
I came across brown rice flour in one of my visits to the health shop. Looking initially at its texture I thought working on it would be particularly easy. It just felt so much like all-purpose flour.
I knew I could add some yeast and make the dough rise. As usual, some yeast in a bowl, some sugar it can feed on, and tepid liquid to activate it.
My hopes of getting a good elastic dough quickly went down after my first attempt with this flour. As much as it felt like ordinary all-purpose flour, it still lacks gluten and will, of course, behave differently.
I had to put something in to give my brown rice dough that “pull” I wanted. Flax seed meal somehow solved this for me. Leave a tablespoon of flax meal in about 2 tablespoons of water until it turns a bit gelatinous.
My first attempt also told me that I needed more structure which brown rice flour can’t give on its own. This time I’ve decide to mix in some tapioca flour.
The activated yeast mixture and gelatinous flax meal goes into my mix of flours.
Now my dough is smooth and fairly elastic. Kneading it really felt right this time.
Set the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and leave it for about an hour to an hour and a half to rise. It will!
The dough will turn out very workable after the rest. Not really elastic to the point that you can hand-stretch it like you’ll do with a New York, but substantially pliable.
Bake it initially for 8 minutes at 425F, then take it out of the oven for topping and finishing.
Rice and tapioca flour in a pizza dough? Sounds Asian, at least for me, so I chose my toppings with a bit of Oriental taste.
In place of the usual tomato-based pizza sauce, I went for the fragrant flavor of hoisin and gathered all the other ingredients from there. Chinese ham had to go in for some saltiness, chili flakes for heat, plum sauce for something sweet to level off that spice, cream cheese to enrich my Asian pizza, and some chopped spring onions to freshen things up.
Don’t limit yourself to cooking indoors. Start grilling pizza outside and have fun with a couple beers and the company of good friends. Much better than being stuck in a hot kitchen during the summer!
Brown Rice Flour
This recipe used two main types of flour, brown rice and tapioca. Of the two, I was most interested in brown rice flour, as I have used tapioca as an addition in many other pizza dough recipes (like Millet Flour Pizza Dough).
Brown rice flour is interesting for a few reasons. First, it is relatively easy to find, which can’t be said for all wheat flour alternatives. For that matter, I choose to use it simply because I stumbled across the flour at a health food shop.
Get Brown Rice Flour on Amazon!
Another important factor is the texture. Brown rice flour has a fairly similar texture to all-purpose flour, giving it considerable versatility. Now, the flour is gluten-free, which does mean it will behave differently than regular wheat flour. However, that doesn’t stop it from being a flexible ingredient and also a popular one.
The flour itself has a slight nutty flavor and also acts as a good source of fiber and protein.
In most cases, it is used in conjunction with at least one other type of flour. Doing so helps to ensure you get a good texture overall and can also offer an appealing balance of nutrients.
There is no shortage of different recipes out there that take advantage of brown rice flour, such as this Almond and Carob Chip Biscotti recipe. Likewise, I’ve used the flour in other recipes, like Gluten-Free Sicilian Pizza and Quinoa Flour Pizza Dough.
The versatility of the flour isn’t just limited to recipes either. Instead, brown rice flour is also common in many different diets. For example, people following a keto or a low carb diet will often turn to brown rice flour, although options like coconut flour are sometimes preferred. However, brown rice isn’t normally considered to be paleo.
Sourcing Or Making The Flour
One major advantage of brown rice flour is that you can make it yourself with relative ease (the same is true for regular rice flour). All you need to do so is the rice itself and some type of grinder, both of which are easy to obtain. You don’t need a specialized tool either. Personally, I use a coffee grinder, which works well for many different types of flour.
The main step of making your own flour is using the grinder to create a fine powder, which is then your flour. Many tools will also let you choose how finely you grind the rice and this affects the texture of the flour and even how it acts in a recipe.
In most cases, you’d want to grind the flour as fine as possible. Doing so helps you avoid any grittiness in your finished products.
Of course, you can also just buy brown rice flour directly. The flour is readily available and is also fairly inexpensive when compared to many other gluten-free flour options.
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 Cup Brown Rice Flour
- 1/2 Cup Tapioca Flour
- 1 Tablespoon Yeast
- 1 Tablespoon Flaxseed Meal
- 2/3 Cup Water
- 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
Instructions
- Combine yeast, salt, sugar, and warm water in a bowl. Leave for 5-10 minutes.
- Stir together 1 tablespoon flax meal and 2 tablespoons water in a bowl and leave for 5 minutes.
- Whisk together brown rice flour and tapioca flour in a large mixing bowl.
- Add the yeast and flax mixture into the flour and stir until a ball of dough is formed.
- Knead the dough in a floured surface.
- Set the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and leave to rise for about an hour.
- Stretch the dough onto a pizza pan and parbake for 8 minutes at 425F.
- Top your pizza and bake for another 8 minutes at 425F.
Cocoa Pizza Dough Recipe
Are you sure that you don’t mean 1.66 C of rice flour. When I mixed all the ingredients I had a soup, not a dough. I added about an additional cup of rice flour and a couple of tbs of tapioca and finally got a kneadable dough. It did rise and when baked gave a very passable pizza crust. I will find out tmmw when we fire up the wood burning oven how well a finished pizza comes out. Thanks
Updated the recipe Murray! Thanks for trying it out.
Hi There! Curious to know if you were able to try this in a wood fired oven. Didn’t work out for you? And if yes….do you put it back n without toppings first for a bit…take out. Too and then put it back?
Can you substitute an egg instead of the flaxseed?
I’m not sure what that would do to the recipe, but try it out and let us know what happens 🙂
Hi Rick. Happened on your site trying to find how to grind brown rice. Sort of changing my eating pattern which is undeniably shocking, when lo and behold you have a pizza base recipe. Hallelujah! My fave food and you have just taken the guilt from it. Albeit l have numerous caulifour base recipes, (hmm doesnt drive me) l think this just might be the answer. Gonna try it, not with Asian toppings just yet, l do like my take on the vege and bean toppings with a tomato puree(nothing bought only made). If they succeed l will try yours. Just need to perfect the base. I’ll come back and fill you in on the success (fingers and toes crossed)……..thanks in advance…you are possibly my hero x
Try it out and let me know what you think. With these alternative flour pizza dough recipes, the results are hit and miss from people making them. They worked out great for me, as you can see in the photos, but some folks complain about the dought being too sticky, or too dry, or too wet. Seems to be a lot of variation in the results. Let me know how they go for you!