Category: Picnic

Pizza Dough
Picnic · Week Night Winners

Pizza Dough

thelittleredpinnyLeave a comment
Picture of a cooked mini calzone on a cooling wrack.
Calzone

Ingredients

  • 500ml of warm water
  • 1 packet of instant dried yeast
  • 1/4 tsp sugar
  • 1tbsp salt
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 900g bread flour (we use white but you could use a mix of half and half)

Method

  • In a large bowl add the water, yeast and sugar.
  • Stir and leave it for 10 minutes until it is all frothy!
  • Add the remaining ingredients and bring it together into a dough. It will be a little sticky
  • Kneed the dough until it is smooth and has no lumpy bits. It shouldn’t take more than 8 minutes. I do it in the bowl as the bowl we have is huge but you can tip it on to your workbench. Just don’t add too much extra flour.
  • Put the ball of dough back into the bowl and cover with a damp tea towel or clingfilm.
  • Leave it somewhere warm for 3 hours.
  • Take the dough out of the bowl and kneed for 30 seconds to knock it back.
  • Cut the dough in to 8 balls (for large pizza/calzone) or 16 small balls for lunch box sized.
  • Oil a large tray and pop the balls on the tray with room for them to double in size.
  • Cover them with a damp towel or clingfilm and leave for 2-3 hours until they have doubled in size.
  • You can then roll them out and make either calzone or pizza.
  • For calzone you pop the filiing in the middle then fold over and twist the edge together. Pop on a tray in to a hot pre-heated oven (200c/gas mark 6) for 20 minutes until golden.
  • For pizza roll out your pizza and place on the tomato sauce. Pop into a hot oven (200c/gas mark 6) for 4 minutes then take out and add all your toppings. Pop it back into the oven for another 5 minutes or until it is the level of crispness you like!

Tips and Cheats

If you want to make the dough in advance you can freeze it before the second proving or pop it in the fridge overnight after the second proving. Just bring back to room temperature and carry on from where you left off. You can add so many different toppings and fillings from savory such as mushrooms, and sweetcorn through to sweet calzone with vegan chocolate spread and banana (these are addictive so be warned!) The cooked calzone will last 2 days in the fridge and are really good cold on a picnic! To make the sauce we use 1/2 vegan red pesto to half tomato ketchup or we just use vegan green pesto (my favourite!). Enjoy!

Fajitas
Picnic · Recipes · Week Night Winners

Fajitas

thelittleredpinnyLeave a comment
Fajita’s

Ingredients

  • 1 packet of tofu or tempeh (we love the Tofoo Co. one)
  • 1 tbsp Lime (or lemon) juice
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 2 cloves of crushed garlic
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon chipotle chili powder
  • Cornflour
  • 1 large courgette (or 2 small ones)
  • 2 peppers (we like red and yellow)
  • 2 medium onions

To serve:

  • Tortilla wraps
  • spinach
  • grated vegan cheese
  • plain yoghurt (we like Koko)
  • salsa
  • chopped cucumber
  • chopped tomato

Method

  • Drain the tofu and gently squeeze the water from it.
  • In a shallow dish mix the lime juice, cumin, garlic, soy sauce and chipotle chili
  • Slice the tofu in to thin strips or cubes and add to the mixture. Leave it to marinade for 30 minutes.
  • Meanwhile slice the veggies and stir fry off in a wok or large pan.
  • Once the veggies are part cooked pour in the marinade mixture saving the tofu (this needs crisping off!).
  • Set them aside on a low heat to get nice and soft.
  • Toss the tofu in to the cornflour and in another pan add a small amount of oil.
  • Fry off the tofu until it starts to crisp.
  • Now serve!

Tips and Cheats

I love to serve each components in little bowls and let the children make up their own. My daughter doesn’t like cooked veggies so I also put out bowls of raw pepper for her to add in. If you are short for time most of the Old El Paso Fajita kits are vegan, just check the milder ones as they contain milk powder. If you are using these sprinkle half the flavour mix into the veggies and half with the cornflour then fry the tofu the same way! So delicious! They are also great cold on a picnic or for lunch!

Baked Bean Pasties
Breakfasts · Picnic · Recipes

Baked Bean Pasties

thelittleredpinnyLeave a comment
Perfect Picnic Food

Ingredients

  • 1 Pack of Jus Roll short crust pastry (ready rolled for ease!)
  • 1 tin of baked beans
  • A little vegan spread

Method

  • Preheat the oven to gas mark 7/200c
  • Unroll the pastry and using a cutter cut out disks a little bigger than the size of the hole in your muffin tin.
  • Rub a little oil around each muffin tin and then line with the discs.
  • Pop a good spoon of beans into each case and on the top of the beans place about 1/4 teaspoon of the vegan spread. this gives the finished filling a creamy texture!
  • Re- roll the scraps of pastry and cut out the lids.
  • Pop into the oven for about 10 minutes until the pastry is golden!
  • Eat hot or wrap in foil and pop in a thermal lunch bag for a hot picnic treat.

Tips and Cheats

We often make bigger pasties by cutting out large squares, popping a good amount of beans in the middle and folding over. You can even add in some chunks of vegan sausage and vegan cheese for your very own breakfast pasty!