Gluten-Free grocery offerings are pretty easy to find these days. Even traditional flour products — such as bread and cake mix — have gluten-free representatives on store shelves. That said, the side of Gluten Free You and Me’s (GFYM) pizza crust box has some striking words in a tiny font: “Gluten Free since 1993”.
That is a long time. That’s a stance that predates the gluten-free dietary trend by about a decade. Then again, celiac disease has been around for eons* and GFYM’s recipes were originally designed to meet the needs of a specialized celiac diet. Now the Dublin-based operation’s products range from raw ingredients such as bread mixes to pizza crusts that can be found at over 150 restaurants in the midwest.
And you can find those crusts in the freezer section at gourmet grocers too.
Out of the freezer, they look pretty much like any freezer pizza crust. Poofy, pale, and rock solid: not particularly appetizing. That said, cover one of those crusts in sauce, cheese and toppings, and no one on the taste panel seemed to detect that something was missing (that would be flour). The baked crust is a little lighter, it seems, than your average hefty crust, but no less toothsome and lovable. It bakes up into a mildly golden, tender crust that is an effective delivery system for all the nice things about pizza. That’s a win.
According to the side of the box, the magic comes from water (that’s actually the first ingredient). After that comes a mix of tapioca, potato and corn starches and rice flour. The other ingredients, such as yeast and egg whites, seem fairly normal. It’s also dairy-free… at least before you put cheese on it.
You can find out more here: www.glutenfreeyouandme.com.
*Depending on how you view the history of medical research, you can trace celiac disease back to the late 1800’s with medical diaries. Alternately, you can trace discovery back to the 1950s with more modern scientific techniques.