Gluten Free Pizza Dough....Take 3

Attempt number three came that much closer into the success realm of gluten free pizza doughs.  I am on the scent and it won't be much longer until I crack the code.
What's that secret ingredient that binds it all together?

I am eager to continue to rise to the challenge, as already milestones have been made from the first recipe.  This time around, the dough was cooked, not translucent in appearance, did not have the potential to chip any teeth and tasted like pizza. Though attempt number two did have improvements, the dough was so rock hard especially in the crust, that teeth were one the verge of endangerment. Luckily, no casualties, but extremely close.

For round three, I dove into research.
Hmmmm. Scratch that statement.
For round three, I tried a new recipe variation. This time around the dough actually cooked, and was airy much like your typical dough. Though still very different.  Downsides: dough did not rise, has no elasticity, and required oiled hands for kneading.  Regardless, the product that came out of the oven, in fact tasted like pizza. That is an achievement in itself. For this round of dough, I shared it with my gracious hosts for the week here in Calgary.  Before I thought to take a picture, the pizza was eaten. A good sign if nothing else!

The recipe is as follows:

1 Tbsp yeast
1 1/3 C just beyond lukewarm water (or warm milk)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/3 C rice flour
2/3 C corn starch (or tapioca flour)
2 tsp guar gum
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp cider vinegar
1/3 C cornmeal (gf) (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.
(If using milk, warm in a saucepan until just above room temperature)
In a bowl, add warm water (or milk), yeast and sugar.  Set aside and let yeast do its thing...it'll start bubbling into a beautiful froth of sorts.

In another bowl combine all dried ingredients. Stir thoroughly.

Once the yeast has had time to ferment and bubble, add in vinegar and olive oil.  Stir. Then add to the flour. Mix together, making sure all is combined well. Mixture will start looking like dough.  Add a little oil to the dough, and some onto your hands (this dough is sticky!). Begin to gather into a ball.  You can knead it a little.

(I tried to let it rise, and perhaps I did not give it enough time, or the temperature was not right for rising conditions. Regardless, nothing really happened. Next attempt I will test out a longer rise and see what comes of it.)

Because the nature of gluten free dough does not have much elasticity, stretching the dough onto a pizza pan is not going to happen.  Instead, I put the dough in the centre of a greased pan and began patting it outwards. You could also try rolling it. Once all laid out, I stuck it in the oven for about 5 minutes.

Remove from oven, dress it in all your favourite pizza toppings and return to cook for about 10-15 minutes or until crust was looking golden on the outsides.

Reflection: all in all, I'm really impressed with how this version turned out. The cider added a nice flavour.  Upon future attempts, I would like to test out milk instead of water, and tapioca flour instead of corn starch to see if there are any remarkable differences. What would happen if I added an egg?