Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

Udi’s Gluten-Free Pizza Crust

Talking with folks that I know with Celiac disease it seems that one of the most missed foods is pizza. While there are some pizza places that make a gluten free crust, that's rare. (There's a great new chain here in New Orleans, Naked Pizza, that makes a pretty good gluten free pie.)

So the alternatives are to make your own, go without or purchase a frozen crust. Interestingly, frozen crusts are pretty easy to find, and you don't have to just look at specialty stores like Whole Foods.

I found a pizza crust in the Organic / Natural Food section of Winn Dixie. Yep, that's right: Winn Dixie. You can't get any more basic than that. And a pizza crust on the shelf. Not the freezer shelf, mind you. The company Schär makes this product. They're a huge company in Europe and I have seen their products during my travels. I will admit that I was pretty negative about this choice. First of all, it's on the shelf and not frozen, and second, it just looked funny. Like a cross between a Frisbee and a muffin top.

That said, this was pretty good. After cooking the middle of the pizza had some bite and the edge was crispy. The flavor was yeasty, like a pizza should be. Not perfect, but as good as any frozen pizza dough we've ever tested. The drawback? (You knew there would be.) They list 1/3 of a pie as 130 calories. That's a lot, because in truth 1/2 of a pie is about a slice, so that puts it at almost 200 calories for the crust alone (this can be typical for gluten free baked goods, of course).

A close second is from the domestic company Udi's. These come out of the freezer case and look more like flatbread or thick Naan. Looking at the package I was encouraged because the whole crust is only 300 calories. And the crust was pretty good, but it was very crispy. Think of a crispy, thin crust pizza with a hint of croissant or brioche dough.

I found the French Meadow bakery pizza crust in the freezer case at Whole Foods and it was cute because it comes in a two pack with its own little foil pizza pie pan. Like the Schär, it is 130 calories for 1/3 pizza, but is about 2/3 the size. So it's very high calorie but cute. Unfortunately, cute doesn't buy you good and this was awful. I won't go into the details but the verdict was unanimous and no one took a second bite. This is one disgusting pizza crust. Doughy and pasty, even cooked and brown on the bottom it tasted like raw dough. What a complete waste.

Until the Naked Pizza folks come your way so that you can order pizza again, you do have some alternatives for a quick and easy pizza.