Thursday 15 September 2011

Dairy free pizza; an easy inexpensive meal to suit the whole family.

Cooking a meal for the whole family never used to require too much thought but since having a child who is lactose intolerant things have considerably changed. After a busy day I can’t just throw something out of the freezer into the oven because the odds are it will contain dairy; fish fingers, pizza, golden drummers and anything covered in breadcrumbs is out. I have found it hard to feed the whole family and would usually end up making separate meals for the baby. If anyone reading this has ever tried dairy free items you will know that most of them aren’t great; my other children don’t like the ones we have tried so this eliminates making the one dairy free meal to suit everyone. I set out to try a few recipes; I was determined to find at least one meal we could all eat together.
Today we made a dairy free pizza and the little one loved it. The activity turned into a family event with everyone getting involved and adding their own toppings. The girls loved making their own dinner and it was great way to spend some quality family time. The pizza took around thirty minutes to make and was a huge success; it was also a fraction of the price of a takeaway pizza and it fed the whole family without complaints.
I made the pizza base from scratch but you can buy a dairy free mix from most supermarkets for around 50p, all you need then is the tomato puree (also around 50p) and  the toppings of your choice; we used ham, bacon, sweet corn, mushrooms and pineapple. (The children’s choice)

The Pizza base recipe.

-          1 cup of strong white flour
-          1 teaspoon of sugar (optional)
-          1 teaspoon of salt (optional)
-          1 teaspoon fast acting yeast
-          1 teaspoon of olive oil
-          Half a cup of warm water

Mix the dry ingredients together first and then add the water and oil, knead together until you have a soft smooth dough; cover with a tea towel and leave for approximately 5 minutes to rise. (For best results leave for 10 minutes)
Once risen, roll the dough out on a floured surface to the shape of your choice; apply the tomato puree/ tomato sauce and begin adding your toppings. Once all of the toppings have been put onto the base, place the pizza into a preheated oven 180 ◦c for approximately ten minutes. Enjoy.
Warning – a great family activity but it can be very messy, we had more flour on the flour than on the table and in the bowl.

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1 comment:

  1. That sounds delicious! I'll have to try it out (I'm lactose intolerant too).

    ReplyDelete