Amazing Fruit Pizza: dairy/gluten-free

I was asked to bring a gluten free dessert to a family reunion the other day. I was feeling overloaded on sweets so I looked for something a little lighter. I came across a fruit pizza recipe and it sounded perfect. But it called for sugar cookie dough, and I have NEVER been successful at making GF sugar cookies. They always melt! The posted recipe looked the same as the other ones that had failed me before. I knew I had been relatively successful at rolling out GF pie crust and tortillas before, which have a common ingredient of sweet rice flour. I'm not one to do a lot of experimentation myself, so I searched for a recipe that had sweet rice flour. 

I found several recipes, but this blog post really caught my attention (please do go read the whole thing!). The first paragraph says:

"You know those super soft, frosted sugar cookies with festive sprinkles that they sell in the plastic boxes at every grocery store in the world? Yes, you know what cookies I am talking about: always decorated with colors and sprinkles to go with whatever holiday is coming up next?"

I am one of those people who always walks past those cookies and craves them. I thought, if this recipe is as good as she says then I've found my recipe! So I tried it, and it was amazing! It really DOES taste like that. Now I still don't know if cookie cutouts will melt when I make them, but the pizza crusts I made stayed pretty close to their shape so I am optimistic about it.

Here is my adaptation of the recipe. I admit I was a little scared to make a GF recipe that did not have xanthan gum or starch, so I did just a little swapping. Maybe next time I'll be braver and try the real thing!

1 1/2 c sweet rice flour
1 1/2 c brown rice flour
1 c GF oat flour
1/2 c tapioca starch
2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
5 tsp baking powder
3/4 c coconut oil
3/4 c dairy-free margarine
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In a standing mixer cream coconut oil, margarine, eggs, and vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredient mixture. Separate into two parts (according to the size you want your pizzas) and chill for 1-2 hours.

Now if you are doing sugar cookies, you'll have to go to the original recipe for instructions. But if you are making fruit pizza, read on.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out parchment paper and cut it to fit your pan. Place the paper on the counter top and put the chilled dough on top (unwrapped). Place a piece of saran wrap over the dough and press from the center outward with your hands until it fills the parchment paper completely. (No rolling pin necessary!)

Now put it in the oven and bake it until it's done. How can you tell it's done? I don't know, but tell me when you find out, will you? Seriously, if it looks like it's starting to brown then it's overdone. I sort of tapped the top until it was springy and stuck a toothpick in, which came out clean. But it really doesn't look done until it's burnt so good luck! And if it helps, mine took about 11 minutes.

There are so many things you can top your pizza with that I'm not even going to give a recipe. I wanted it light and dairy-free so I used So Delicious coconut yogurt (vanilla), a sliced peach (mine wasn't ripe, unfortunately), kiwi, and frozen mixed berries (thawed).

So there you have it. Enjoy!