These soft, flavorful gluten free pizza bites are ready for the oven in minutes. Add some pepperoni, or switch up the spices to suit your tastes.
Why small bites are a win for everyone
First of all, and perhaps most importantly for busy families, miniature foods make it really easy to grab them and go. Ideally, we sit down at the table together for 3 square meals a day. But hahahahahaha ? who can do that? We do the best we can, and then we give ourselves some room to be human.
Second of all, it’s a great way to get smaller kids who inevitably go through periods of pickiness, to try “just a bite or two.” It’s less of a commitment! Oh, and since these tender gluten free pizza bites are yeast-free like my yeast-free gluten free pizza dough, they’re even less of a time commitment and of course more portable.
Use a mini muffin tin or standard size muffin tin
I very much like to make them in a miniature muffin tin, but of course, they work just as well in a standard 12-cup muffin tin. The diced cheese tends to bubble up and out of the wells during baking, but once everything cools down a bit out of the oven, the bites come up and out of the wells quite easily.
You can line the muffin tins with cupcake wrappers, and you’ll get a puffier, nicer shaped pizza bite. To make sure the paper wrapper won’t stick to the baked bite, spray it very lightly with cooking oil spray before filling it.
Make ahead tips
These pizza bites freeze very nicely and then defrost well in the refrigerator or on the counter, and are pretty much guaranteed to please everyone in the family. Not to mention how ridiculously easy it is to make up a big batch, with little to no advanced planning. Sometimes, you just need an all-around “win.”
I’ve also managed to make these very allergy-friendly with a few quick substitutions (please see the ingredients and substitution section just below). I’ve made these gluten free pizza bites with my suggested dairy-free substitutes a number of times, and they aren’t as beautiful, but they taste great.
I love having these on hand in the refrigerator for an after-school snack or a supplement to pretty much any dinner. Just put them in a tightly sealed container and they won’t dry out for days
Ingredients and substitutions
Dairy
These are surprisingly easy to make dairy free. I’ve made them myself using nondairy milk (unsweetened almond milk is my favorite nondairy milk for cooking and baking), replaced the mozzarella cheese with vegan mozzarella (my favorite brand is called Violife, but Daiya is also really good), and replaced the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese with miniature pepperoni pieces (or chopped larger pepperoni).
You can easily replace cow’s milk with any unsweetened nondairy milk. My favorite is unsweetened almond milk for its fat content and relatively neutral flavor.
Eggs
The two eggs in this recipe should be able to be replaced with two “chia eggs,” each of which is 1 tablespoon of ground chia seeds mixed with 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel. I haven’t tried it myself, though, and you’ll see flecks from the ground chia in the pale bites but it shouldn’t add much if any taste.
Spices
Garlic powder, dried basil, and dried oregano are my three go-to Italian-style spices. You can replace them with whatever sounds good to you, though.
I prefer to use dried spices in baking, as they’re more potent in their dried form. Feel free to sprinkle fresh spices on top of the pizza bites before serving, though.
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!
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Question, can you freeze the batter?
I don’t recommend making batter ahead of time that contains baking powder, since the first action happens as soon as the powder is hydrated. You can freeze these after baking, if let them cool completely, though. Just defrost and refresh in the microwave or toaster oven.
These look great! Since I love olives on my pizza, do you think they could be added on top or used instead of the Parmesan?
Hi, Jojo, great question! I would add them to the top, not inside, just because olives contain moisture that they’ll release during baking. If you add them inside the batter, they could upset the moisture balance. :)
These were so easy and so delicious! Definitely a new favorite in our house. My nine-year-old son and I baked them together. Very easy recipe if you have a child that likes to help out in the kitchen.
I’m so glad, Beth! Thanks for letting us know.
Once baked, can these be heated up in a Microwave? Or maybe a Toaster oven?
Heating up my oven takes time and uses up a lot of electricity!
They sure can, Margaret! I actually mentioned in a subscriber email about these bites that I often do just that! Both a microwave and a toaster oven work great to reheat them.
These sound yummy! Wondering if I could add some meat to them?
I added bacon to mine, some in the mix with the cheese and some on top. Gave it a nice salty touch too
These sound delicious for a grab and go brekky for my Husband. mmmmmm…… delicious ideas for insides are coming already. Thank you
Ooh yum these look really good! Great for picnics.
These are fantastic! I have made a similar recipe and they are great lunch box treats :)
Thank you, yet again, for another winner! I have to confess, I’ve yet to make the GF pizza from Bakes Bread. I must get that proofing to have this weekend! I cannot put it off any longer! I now have the pizza tiles and the peel. I have no excuses, except exhaustion!
Just put out the milk and eggs to warm up to room temp so I can make this for dinner. Track season requires a lot of grab and go, or at least grab and eat by yourself because no one else is home for dinner! Thanks!
These sound awesome! I’m bookmarking these for school lunches in the fall. I think they would work great in a lunch box :)
I’ve already packed them for lunches, Laura, and they work amazingly well. :)
Oh, these sound heavenly!!!! We may have them for lunch for a week !!!!! It comes in so handy now with trimming back the azaleas and cleaning up the yard.
Perfect for spring cleaning, Carole.
The rest of my crew will be eating leftover pizza (that I can’t eat) tonight. I was debating what to fix for myself and then this recipe landed in my inbox! I’ll definitely be making these for me! :) Yum!!