Pizza. With Fruit? It must be - Fruit Pizza

I am not a great fan of doing any unnecessary work in the kitchen. Most of us live extremely busy lives, balancing work, family and social events so the idea of having to slave over a table making pastry or labouring to create the perfect icing is simply unappealing.

While I am all for doing things on a budget – and making pastry or icing from scratch is cheaper in the long-term – there has to be a limit to being a domestic goddess. Not all of us have kitchens the size of a supermarket, despite what TV chefs would have you believe.

Not all of us are so wealthy that we can afford not to work so live a life of baking luxury. There has to be a line drawn between doing it yourself and doing yourself in.

And this is where my fruit pizza comes in. It’s simply called Fruit Pizza. I believe I made this up out of my own head, having tried a recipe for making my own savoury pizza, and deciding that I could make a dessert along the same lines. I certainly have never seen this recipe anywhere else!

Fruit Pizza
This recipe will have your friends, family and even children oohing and aahing and getting all excited, despite the fact they are basically eating fruit – lots of it.

It looks amazing when it comes out of the oven, in all its sizzly, sweet, sticky glory and tastes divine. You can mix and match fruits to your heart’s delight – but a word to the wise, oranges, clementines and satsumas do not sit well with the other fruit. Leave the strong citrus fruit alone and stick with berries, bananas and orchard fruit.

You will need:
1 large, flat pizza tray, circular or square, lightly oiled
1 sheet of Jus’Roll puff pastry OR BETTER STILL make it yourself - recipe for this is elsewhere on this blog.
2 large apples
1 cup of blueberries
1 cup of strawberries, sliced lengthways
1 cup of blackberries
1 cup of raspberries
½ cup of custard – pouring custard will do but you can make it yourself and keep it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Don’t allow it to be too thick-it has to be spreadable.
Two tablespoons of icing sugar to dust
Some cream – Elmlea low-fat pouring cream does the trick

What to do:
Roll the pastry out over the pre-oiled tray – whether square, round or rectangle, it doesn’t really matter. Score a distinct line about 1cm away from the edge of the pastry all round – this will help the edges to rise up in puffy goodness and go all brown.

Don’t make the base too thin – the fruit juices will penetrate the pastry base otherwise.
Take the cold custard and spread it over the base as if you were spooning tomato puree over a savoury pizza base. Sprinkle some nutmeg or Allspice if you like.

Start laying the fruit onto the custardy base. Have fun creating faces, patterns or just being liberal-handed. It doesn’t matter.

Cook it for 20 minutes on gas mark 6 or the electric equivalent. Personally, cooking with gas is just the best thing in the whole wide world, until the government announces that we’ve run out. I’ll cross that ecobridge when I come to it.

When the edges are all puffy and goldeny brown, take it out of the oven, dust it with the icing sugar and serve immediately at the table, using pizza cutters and a slice. If you leave it too long before you get to the table, the icing sugar will have dissolved.

Serve with low-fat Elmlea double pouring cream (30% less fat than normal cream) or go the whole hog and serve with vanilla ice-cream.

How to be extra:
People at school used to say I was “being extra” if I drew in the margins of my essays. If you want to be extra, crush a meringue nest into pieces and put that over the top. These usually come in packs of eight and you can use the other seven for another fabulous dish like cherry meringues or Eton mess. Or just eat them by your own, when nobody but the cat can see. And he can’t tell a soul…..

How to save money
1) Berries freeze brilliantly if you are using them for baking or for smoothies. So I tend to buy bulk whenever there is an offer on for blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries. So if you freeze these – and they keep for ages – you can save money and time when you make this in the future. Apples can also be cut up into nice slices and, if sprinkled with a little lemon juice to prevent oxidisation, can also be frozen. However, strawberries do not freeze well AND keep their shape afterwards, so best to buy these fresh.

2) Make your own custard – but not from scratch, using vanilla pods and all that. Who has the time? Insanity. But do always have a tub of custard powder and granulated white sugar in your cupboard. This will help you save lots of money as buying a carton of pouring custard is exceptionally costly – you use it once and it’s gone.

And that's basically it! Enjoy.

The No-Bread Budget Pizza

Chicken and Olive Budget Pizza. Credit: SimoneySunday

I am attempting to diet. Not successfully, I might add. But I have been experimenting with ways to cut down on the carbs, boost the protein and decrease the snacking. I have also endeavoured to avoid the temptation for a take-out after work, particularly my husband's favourite post-press day go-to culinary delight: the two-for-Tuesday.

Mostly this has been a success. I have not purchased or partaken of my darling treat, a bag of crisps, for a couple of weeks. I feel healthier, less bloated and more energetic despite the growing workload that is inevitable in the run-up to the end of the tax year. Sadly today an enormous chicken, bacon and brie baguette leapfrogged the canteen counter and forcibly entered my mouth. I did fight it off bravely but I was overcome. I lived to fight another day...

One of my favourite experiments so far has been the no-bread pizza which I believe I have invented although no doubt if I could be bothered to search online, I would discover had already been discovered. So I believe that if I do not search, I will not find, and therefore will not have to feel bitterly disappointed.

It is basically a thick egg omelette, so no gluten or starches at all. Usually my omelettes are light and fluffy affairs, folded gently like an eggy cocoon around sun-blush tomatoes and cheese. But to create a decent pizza-dough like base for two people, I used six medium eggs instead of the usual four.

Obviously apart from being gluten-free and lower-calorie than shop-bought or pizza delivery, it also costs far less, especially if you are using up leftovers.

Ingredients
6 medium eggs
Herbs and spices
Tube of tomato puree (or ketchup would also work although it tends not to have as good a texture)
Grated cheese
Ham
Chicken
Olives
Or any topping of your choice.

How To
Mix eggs well with herbs and spices of your choice. I used a pinch of salt, a crackle of pepper, a scattering of tarragon and a shaking of paprika.

When these are beaten, pour half the mix into a round pancake pan, which has already been heated up with a little olive or sunflower oil. Make sure it spreads evenly, and use a spatula to stop it sticking. When it has almost solidified on top, gently place it onto a pizza tray. Spread some tomato puree over for a base. This can get wonderfully gooey, so have fun and don't worry if it does.

Whack on your chosen ingredients in a roughly even pattern to cover up the bare bits, then grate a shed load of cheese over it. Put it into a warmed up oven and bake at about 160-170 degrees Celcius (gas mark 3-4) for 3-5 minutes or until cheese has melted. Timing will depending on your type of oven.

Ham and Chicken Budget Pizza. Credit: SimoneySunday

Hey, yeah I said lots of cheese. What? I said this was a no-bread pizza, not a no-fat pizza. What do you think I am, a monster?