Gluten free pizza is such an exciting food to eat when you find a good gluten free pizza dough or pizza base. During my mission to find them, I’ve found the best gluten free dairy free pizzas in the UK and it’s taken trials and disappointments over many years as I have high expections when it comes to a credible (had to!) pizza as I know what good tastes and looks like.
I’ve tried Dominos, (square gluten free pizza bases) Pizza express (thin, burnt crusts and soggy bases) Pizza hut (too doughy) so the alternatives are
- buy your own base and make one at home in an oven or a wood fired oven
- make a fresh dough using gluten free pizza flour
- Or just settle for the poor quality pizza or find a restaurant that does delivery
The blog photo image is a gluten free pizza I made at home using a Schar gluten free pizza base and cooked in the outdoor oven.
Whaaaat? Well, we’re super lucky to have a woodfired pizza oven and all the ingredients and gluten free flour to make a great italian gluten free pizza. (That’s taken years to build up for too.) But I wanted a quick and easy recipe so use a Schar base and added whatever toppings I had in the fridge. (Note: the oven takes hours to heat to the right temperature and takes a while to prepare so we made a few pizzas that night).
Also when I’ve been out for a pizza to some well know pizza chains – either the crust is too burnt, the base is too soggy and they’ve put too much passata on or there’s just not a variety of toppings that are gluten free and dairy free.
Most takeaway pizza’s don’t seem to do gluten free AND dairy free. I’m yet to find a decent takeaway that offers both. So I’ve often found I’ll order a gluten free pizza WITHOUT cheese on and I’ll add my vegan cheese topping when it arrives. It’s never the same as I have to re-heat it.
It can be REALLY frustrating. Especially when you know HOW a good pizza has been made, how to make the dough yourself and when you have a pizza oven at home. You really appreciate the taste of a freshly cooked pizza with delicious fresh ingredients topped with vegan cheese with fresh basil and garlic olive oil.
Do you find that or have you got a regular place that you’ve found ticks all the boxes? Do let me know!
So I’ve made it easier for you and saved any faff or fannying around searching. Here are 3 bases and 2 places if you ever go!
Where to find good gluten free pizzas?
In my mission to find an amazing gluten free pizza outside of home, one is in a hotel in Gatwick the other in a pub along the Norfolk Broads:
- The Stanhill Court Hotel I stayed here before a holiday it’s a beautiful quaint hotel near Gatwick airport. The restaurant is beautiful and also has pizzas on the menu which include gluten free AND vegan cheese pizzas
This is how it looked. And yes it is as mouthwateringly delicious as it looks in the photo.
Toppings were gluten free pepperoni, chillis, jalapenos, picante peppers and vegan Sheese. Utterly divine. Served with a glass of red all covid safe. You can see my fragrance free hand sanitiser on the table there.
The Stanhill hotel use Barrel and Stone Pizza bases which come in a pizza base kit. I had a long chat with the restaurant manager about them and the vegan sheese they use.
Absolutely PERFECT mouth wateringly delicious spicy pizzas! It was the best start to a holiday (apart from that I’d been eating really healthy for weeks and then ate a pizza before flying out to a beach holiday..) I did a great review on tripadvisor that night! I wanted to get it out all before I forgot.
Sheese vegan mozzarella cheese is the best for gluten free pizza.
Forgot Violife mozzarella (their Epic cheese is good but the rest are tasteless, I’ll only get them if desperate) I’ll save you the time and money buying that – just go straight for the Sheese – it looks like this and is available at Waitrose. (not stocked in Ocado yet).
The Lion at Thurne pub offer delicious gluten free pizzas too. I had one during a trip along the Norfolk Broads and we discovered this lovely pub called the Lion with a beer garden and it just so happened that their menu included gluten free pizzas with vegan cheese.
Best Pizza Bases
- Barrel and Stone – do their own pizza kits delivered to home
- Lo Dough – gluten free, low calorie and carb free
- Schar – available from supermarkets or Ocado
- Best gluten free flour for pizza bases – Caputo Fioreglut Gluten Free Flour 1kg £4.95
Making pizzas in a wood fired pizza oven
Making a pizza in a wood fired pizza oven is one of the best flavour pizzas you can ever get.
This is ours, you can make at least 4 pizzas at a time in there. temperatures reach over 400 and you only need to shove it in with the pizza paddle for 4-5 minutes max and keep turning.
Coat the pizza with your sauce even round the edges otherwise it burns the base. The trick we found is to turn, turn turn. your pizza every minute or so during the process.
Normal pizzas can go in the wood fired oven for longer – Gluten free pizzas take quicker time. And probably taste nowhere near as good as ‘normal’ pizzas but I’m just grateful for having a pizza!
The gluten free base is thicker and fluffier and doesn’t seem to get as crisp, but the taste texture and flavours are out of this world. The one above shown in the oven had mushrooms on it, the one below is more of a meat feast. And now I know what GOOD vegan mozzarella cheese tastes like and how it transforms the taste of a gluten free pizza, I’ll never have any other vegan cheese on mine again.
What are the best toppings to add to pizzas?
- Firstly make a passata in a saucepan using Rega or Mutti San Marzano peeled tomatoes or Vero Pop San Marzano PDO peeled tomatoes. Add garlic, basil, salt and pepper and optional tabasco sauce, leave to cool down.
- Chop up some nitrate free chorizo, (gluten free) remove the outer skin set to one side.
- Prepare some nitrate free proscuitto ham peel off and lay it down on a plate (Tip: don’t put this on your pizza in oven, lay it on top after it’s been in then oven otherwise it burns and ruins the flavour)
- Wash some fresh basil (i love the smell of fresh basil) for sprinkling when it comes out the oven
- Get some vegan cheese out (this was violife as I hadn’t discovered Sheese then)
- Jalapenos red or green (i prefer red ones)
- Chop some red peppers, red onions, mushrooms, garlic
- Caramalised onion – do this in a frying pan and use balsamic vinegar and some celtic salt
- Nduja sausage for putting on top of the pizza. Or you can use normal sausages but grill or fry them first
- Spinach leaves (optional) and rocket or you can use whatever veggies you like for pizza
- Eggs (let’s not forgot the fiorentina pizza)
- Scarmosa smoked cheese and mozzarella for the normal/non-allergic, non-dairy free) people in your party
- Fresh cooked chicken to lay on top if you like a chicken pizza
- Fennel seeds + chilli flakes, salt and black pepper to season.
- Extra virgin olive oils for adding a dash on top of the pizza when it comes out the oven – I like Rosemary oil, garlic olive oil, chilli oil
- Prepare your pizza plates – get them out ready and also a pizza cutter or I just use scissors to cut mine up to save the faff or injury. Especially if you’ve had a g&t!
Pick and choose whatever toppings you like, for example:
Meat feast: I’d go layer of passata sauce, then neatly and evenly top the pizza with chicken, chorizo, nduja. Make it look nice, and space it out beautifully. You want good presentation here. Not just taste.
Add red onion in between areas, dot some red peppers, jalapenos around. Then top with cheese, sprinkle your chilli flakes, add a few bits of garlic and put on your pizza shovel. Carefully shove it in the oven (convential or wood fired) 3-5 minutes depending on your base. Remove with pizza paddle/shovel.
Get a nice large round pizza plate then place pizza on it and top with basil + chill oil after it’s out the oven. Slice the pizza and devour.
Vegetarian: same process as above this time do the passata and then add a layer of spinach, crack 1 egg in the middle of pizza, surround with red peppers, add a few sliced mushrooms, caramelised red onions, chilli, vegan cheese. Top with spigs of rocket and a drizzle of rosemary oil and some fresh basil leaves.
So to sum up, hope you’ve enjoyed learning about my experiences with pizza. If I had to choose my favourite ever pizza out so far, it’s got to be this one. My pre-holiday gluten free pizza treat from the hotel near Gatwick. It’s making my mouth water just looking at it!
However my favourite pizza at home, has probably got to be the most recent one I made using the Caputo flour for a pizza base, with the vegan Sheese and LOADS of the above toppings on top.
I’ll dig out my photos as I need to download them onto my computer so I can share with you. I’ll update this later! Until later, start ordering your pizza bases and then tag me over on my Instagram 🙂
What’s your favourite pizza restaurant for gluten free pizza and how do you like yours? What are your favourite toppings?
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