The Gluten-Free Pizza Alton Brown Recommends The Most

I belong to various online forums for my fellow folks living gluten-free lifestyles, and one question I see over and over again is, "Which frozen gluten-free pizza is good?" The responses are usually less than encouraging. Non-gluten products are often pricey (the reason gluten-free bread is so expensive is thanks to the higher manufacturing costs), so spending a lot of money taste-testing different brands, only to get a disappointing result, isn't exactly encouraging. Luckily for pizza lovers, Food Network star and food scientist Alton Brown has come to the rescue.

Brown and his wife, Elizabeth Ingram, tried out various gluten-free frozen pizzas in a YouTube video, ultimately proclaiming one to be the tastiest of them all: Cappello's grain-free pie, which features a crust using a mixture of almond, arrowroot, and cassava flours. The exact product Brown and Ingram crowned as the winner was Cappello's Uncured Pepperoni Pizza, which is topped with uncured meat, tomato sauce, and mozzarella and white cheddar cheeses. Despite being skeptical of the entire taste test at first, the celebrity chef gave the pie a solid recommendation.

One big challenge for members of the gluten-free community is finding products that don't compromise on taste. Reviewers consistently say that Cappello's pizza accomplishes that, or at least comes the closest, among the ready-made pizza products they've tried. Foodies sing the praises of the pie's crispness and overall flavor.

On the packaging of Cappello's pies, "almond flour" is put right on the front – though the crust uses a blend, the company clearly wants the nut-based component to be featured as the star. Almond flour, made from blanched almonds that are finely-ground, is popular in gluten-free baking for its versatility, from bread to scones to the flour combination you need to know for your next batch of cookies. According to Alton Brown, Elizabeth Ingram, and other Cappello's fans, it also makes a darn good pizza base.

Gluten is what gives wheat bread and other baked goods their structure, and a lack of support is one reason why gluten-free flours pose certain challenges. Using almond flour helps add some of that missing structure back into a pizza crust, along with a crispy texture (no soggy pies here!) and a mild, nutty flavor. Cassava flour and arrowroot powder round out the crust with extra support and lightness. The folks at Cappello's believe almond flour also lends superior texture to their products, per the company's website. Its pizza crusts also contain psyllium husks, an ingredient that results in better gluten-free bread products and certainly helps here as well.