Socca Crust: Tasty Gluten-Free Pizza Crust

Gluten-free pizza crust has become one of the most popular non-traditional pizza crusts. It seems like every week there’s a new recipe with different ingredients that don’t contain gluten. I’ve found that most of these recipes require a long list of ingredients and take quite some time to bake. Recently while searching through recipes, we came across a gluten-free flatbread called “socca” that only requires four ingredients. Even better, that socca doesn’t take long to pre-cook before preparing your pizza, leaving you with an easy and convenient way to make a gluten-free pie.

Par-Baking is Key

If you’ve made a gluten-free pizza before you’re probably familiar with the term par-baking. Par-baking is simply cooking the crust halfway through before topping it and turning it into a pizza. This is done because gluten-free crusts take anywhere from 20-35 minutes to cook from start to finish, which is much longer than the time it takes for cheese and toppings to cook. With socca as a crust, par-baking times are reduced to a mere 6 to 8 minutes. This allows you to produce a tasty gluten-free pizza in under 20 minutes with just a few simple ingredients.

The Recipe

This recipe will yield approximately (2) 12” pizza crusts. To cook the socca, I used a 14” Cast Iron Pizza Pan. Alternatively, a regular cast iron pan can be used to cook the socca by following the same preheat and cook times.

Ingredients

• Olive oil, as needed for cooking
• 2 C. lukewarm water
• 2 C. chickpea (garbanzo) flour
• 1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
• 1 ½ tsp. yeast

Instructions

1. Add yeast to water in a large bowl. Mix yeast with the water until dissolved.
2. Add the salt and chickpea flour into the bowl and whisk until a batter is formed and lumps have disappeared.
3. Preheat the large cast iron pizza pan over medium heat 3-4 minutes or until 450° F. Add 1 ½ Tbsp. olive oil to the pan and swirl to coat.
4. Using a ladle, scoop 1 ½ cups of the batter into the pan and spread it in a circular motion until desired size is reached.
5. Cook 4 to 5 minutes, flip crust and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown on both sides.
6. Remove crust from pan and add desired toppings. Bake pizza on a pizza stone at 400° F for another 6 to 7 minutes or until cheese has melted and toppings are cooked.

Now that you’ve got a socca recipe, gluten-free crust couldn’t be easier!