Gluten-Free Bagels & Pizza Crust Recipes

I’m from NYC and grew up on pizza and bagels — my two most important food groups. I went gluten-free in 2005 and have tinkered with this recipe for the last 10 years to try to recreate them.

These recipes are dynamite. I make them both all the time. I hope you like them. Feel free to share the link to this page.

– Jeff

Both of these recipes start off with the same dough. See the directions below to make each recipe.

Yield: 6 bagels or 1, half sheet pan sized pizza crust

» Ingredients for Both Bagels and Pizza Crust Dough

I use the brand names of some products in this recipe because each has particular mixtures, flavors, and consistencies. Substituting other brands will not work for this recipe.

DRY –

• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 heaping teaspoon Kosher salt
• Baking powder:
  • Bagels: 4 teaspoons
  • Pizza: 5 teaspoons
• 2 heaping tablespoons ground flax seed
• 3 tablespoons dry egg powder
• 1/2 cup white rice flour
• 1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose G/F flour
• 1 1/2 cups Bob’s Red Mill G/F 1:1 flour

WET –

• 2 cups 0% fat-free Chobani Greek yogurt (There is no taste of yogurt in the bagels or pizza crust using this ingredient.)
• 3 large egg whites

» Directions: Step 1, Dough for Both Bagels and Pizza Crust

Both recipes begin with this dough. Please note the difference in the amount of baking powder for each recipe listed in the ingredients, above.

1. Combine and whisk together all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. Add the wet ingredients and mix. It will look too dry like it won’t come together and is somewhat difficult to combine. It just needs to be mixed hard and well for a couple of minutes. I mix the dough using a bamboo spatula with no holes in it. (I use this one.)
   You will need to clean off the dough from the spatula you’re mixing with a couple of times with a rubber spatula until the dough comes together.
   Be sure to get into the corners of your mixing bowl.

   

3. When done mixing, with the rubber spatula scrape down the sides of the bowl and smooth the dough over. You just want to get any holes or cracks smoothed out. It doesn’t need to look pretty.

   

4. Let the dough rest uncovered for 10 minutes.

» Directions: Step 2 for Bagels

Scroll down to step 2 for the pizza crust recipe.

NOTE: Hands must be wet when handling and touching the dough.

1. Preheat oven to 330°. Get a saucepan of water boiling hard on the stove.
2. Stack 2 half sheet or cookie pans and line the top one with parchment paper.
3. Place the dough that was prepared above on a different piece of parchment paper or silicone mat (I use this one,) on your counter. Form it into a uniform shape so it is easy to cut into 6 equally sized portions.

   

4. Massage, shape, and flatten each piece to about 1” thick round shape and place each on the parchment-lined, double pan. Work quickly toward getting them into the oven or they will begin to flatten.
5. When all the bagels are shaped and on the pan, with a wet finger — wet finger before doing each bagel — push a hole into the middle of each one and swirl your finger around to make a quarter-sized hole.
6. Sprinkle bagels heavily with seasonings of your choice — sesame, everything bagel seasoning that you can buy, poppy seeds, etc.

   

7. Place the pan with the bagels on the middle shelf of the oven and the pan of boiling water on a shelf underneath.
8. Bake for 1 hour, 10 minutes. Do not open the oven while they are baking.
9. Let cool on a mesh rack or other cool pan. They will stick a bit to the parchment paper. I use a thin, metal spatula to loosen them.

   

Interestingly, these bagels need to be frozen for at least 24 hours and defrosted at room temperature before eating. This helps build the chewy crust of a regular bagel.

The bagels need to be toasted. Toasting is part of the cooking process. Don’t be worried when you cut them and they look undercooked or gummy before toasting.

Store defrosted bagels in an airtight container for up to 48 hours. Do not refrigerate.

» Directions: Step 2 for Pizza Crust

1. Preheat oven to 340°.
2. Place the dough that was prepared above in the middle of a silicone mat, (I use this one,) or a piece of parchment paper on a single, half sheet or cookie pan. Using a rubber spatula form it roughly to the shape of the pan.

   

3. Place a sheet of parchment paper over the dough and roll it through the parchment paper so that the crust fills the pan.
   Use a short rolling pin so that you can get inside the edges of the pan. A straight sided bottle or travel mug works as well which is what I use.
   Try to get the crust rolled out as evenly as possible. Avoid rolling it up to the edges of the pan, it will stick to the metal.

   

4. When the dough is rolled flat, peel back the parchment paper. It will stick a little to the paper which is ok.

   

5. Bake covered with another half sheet pan for 20 minutes on the middle shelf of the oven.

   

6. Uncover the crust and bake for another 30 minutes.
7. The crust is now ready to use. It will stick a bit to the parchment paper or silicone mat. I use a thin, metal spatula to loosen it.
   After the crust is done, I cook the pizza on a mesh rack to help build a little crispiness but that’s not required.

   

I hope you enjoy.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Please check out the rest of this site. I’d love to hear what you think and to see if you have a story that you can submit.

Thanks,
   – Jeff Marden

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