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Dessert Pizza

4K views 20 replies 11 participants last post by  allie 
#1 ·
I often have left over dough, enough to make another pizza on pizza nights at our home.  I usually end up making another savoury pizza with whatever toppings I have left over but it has crossed my mind that I should make a dessert pizza.  But I have no clue about dessert pizzas.  Any idea?  Do I have to mix sugar into the dough?
 
#2 ·
No, I worked in a Pvt. Club that served it years ago  .They topped it with pastry cream.,marshmallow fluff, chocolate disk for sausage, strawberry jellow powder for tomato color. It was clever and a gimmick then.
 
#5 ·
It wouldn't be considered desert but rather a snack - many italian pizzeria a taglio (where they make big rectangular pizzas that they sell by the slice by weight) make nutella pizza.  They make white pizza - completely cooked (you just put it in the oven like that, with nothing on it, then when it comes out they drizzle olive oil and salt on top while it's hot - it's actually  very good.  It's not a focaccia, which is oilier and thicker. 

Anyway, then they split it like a sandwich and spread nutella in it. 

I really hate nutella in deserts (it's become such a rage here that even the pastry shops are not making chocolate cream any more but are filling pastries with nutella - pretty sad) but the contrast between the salty and the sweet is really good in this case. 

I can't imagine many things that would be good in pizza, since it's actually bread and what deserts are made with bread?

I saw something in florence once called schiacciata (squashed) - which intrigued me because in Lucca where my parents come from they make something called shiacciata but it's like a flat bread with grapes on top. 

I could imagine raisins and sugar, maybe cinnamon, but then why not make a cinnamon bun instead of pizza. 

And there is a thing you can get in the ancient ghetto of rome (the jewish neighborhood - oldest in the world outside of the middle east, from the time of the roman empire) which is called "pizza ebraica" (hebrew pizza or jewish pizza) and it's like pizza (though the dough may be different) and it's chock full of raisins, - tons of raisins.  Almost more raisins than pizza dough.  It's usually burnt (to my taste) but it seems people like it that way. 

But they're all really snacks.  not deserts. 
 
#7 ·
Any type of fresh/or canned fruit and build like a fruit tart. No cream handy, you can preserves under the fruit;

Pastry cream or vanilla pudding  has more options. You can use stewed fruit or plums, etc. and even bake it more with some sugar sprinkled.

You can also spread the cream on uncooked dough add raisins. Taste just like pain aux raisins.

I usually make something like this but make smaller calzones for the neighbor kiddos.

pan
 
#9 ·
Pcieluck, i don;t think so.  The brisee of tarte tatin is sweet and breaks up and is very different from chewy pizza - it would only lose i think. 

Maybe, you know, simply putting butter and sugar on top, instead of oil and salt, might make a very pleasant sweet thing. 
 
#10 ·
You can do several things with pizza dough to make a sweet pizza. I prefer to use cheese and fruit. Mascarpone and ricotta mixed with confectioners sugar topped with berries, kiwi, mango, etc. or apples, poached pears, etc. as well as preserves and chocolate are ideal ingredients. Really, the sky is the limit. Think about the flavor profiles you've seen combined in tarts and pies. If you don't have ricotta or mascarpone, you can use pudding, or curd, pastry cream or creme anglese...for that matter you could just use preserves and fruit to top your pizza and serve it with ice cream. instead of thinking outside the box, consider other dishes you may have had that are similar to tarts and pies. Once you realize how endless the possibilities are, then you can improvise in any way you see fits.
 
#11 ·
If I hve left over pizza dough I would deep fry it sprinkled with 10x sugar or cinnamon sugar in a paper bag like a Zepoli. YUM, YUM
 
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#13 ·
You can do several things with pizza dough to make a sweet pizza. I prefer to use cheese and fruit. Mascarpone and ricotta mixed with confectioners sugar topped with berries, kiwi, mango, etc. or apples, poached pears, etc. as well as preserves and chocolate are ideal ingredients. Really, the sky is the limit. Think about the flavor profiles you've seen combined in tarts and pies. If you don't have ricotta or mascarpone, you can use pudding, or curd, pastry cream or creme anglese...for that matter you could just use preserves and fruit to top your pizza and serve it with ice cream. instead of thinking outside the box, consider other dishes you may have had that are similar to tarts and pies. Once you realize how endless the possibilities are, then you can improvise in any way you see fits.
Would you top the pizza and then bake it? Or bake the crust and then top it?
 
#14 · (Edited)
My humble beginning to the food world was at Pizza Hut, who did put sweet toppings (pretty much canned pie filling) on raw dough and baked it as usual. I don't recommend you try that with any deep-dish type pizzas. Why? Pie filling is just plain heavier than normal toppings. It just comes out weird. But it would be garnished before it was cut with a frosting, similar to the crap that comes with toaster strudels.  Worked at a few pizza places with sweeter bread sticks too. Relevant because it was the same dough as the pizza, just cut differently and baked in a different pan. Cinnamon-sugar and chocolate toppings tend to burn at high pizza temperatures, and would get covered as they baked in the oven.

But if you want, maybe, another idea to use up your extra pizza dough, do what those silly tri-state pizzerias do. Flatten, cut into strips, tie into knots. Bake, dip in garlicky, cheesy oil, and then bake again. ZOMG garlic knots!  Never understood why the guidos love the darn things so much. Recommend eating with both a bib and a towel in your lap. But maybe could just as easily be dipped in butter then rolled in Cinnamon and sugar.
 
#15 ·
My humble beginning to the food world was at Pizza Hut, who did put sweet toppings (pretty much canned pie filling) on raw dough and baked it as usual. I don't recommend you try that with any deep-dish type pizzas. Why? Pie filling is just plain heavier than normal toppings. It just comes out weird. But it would be garnished before it was cut with a frosting, similar to the crap that comes with toaster strudels. Worked at a few pizza places with sweeter bread sticks too. Relevant because it was the same dough as the pizza, just cut differently and baked in a different pan. Cinnamon-sugar and chocolate toppings tend to burn at high pizza temperatures, and would get covered as they baked in the oven.

But if you want, maybe, another idea to use up your extra pizza dough, do what those silly tri-state pizzerias do. Flatten, cut into strips, tie into knots. Bake, dip in garlicky, cheesy oil, and then bake again. ZOMG garlic knots! Never understood why the guidos love the darn things so much. Recommend eating with both a bib and a towel in your lap. But maybe could just as easily be dipped in butter then rolled in Cinnamon and sugar.
Hey now, you makin fun of our guidos ova 'ere?
 
#17 ·
The fried dough sounds pretty good. In fact, I'm sure pizza places do that kind of stuff all of the time to reduce their costs.

As far as baking the fruit itself, that's up to you, depending on the fruit and what you want out of your pizza. I would par bake the dough, maybe with a light amount of preserves on top so that the pizza "crust" is still cooked like it was a regular savory "za". Then paint your crust with unsalted butter and sprinkle it with cinnamon sugar. Then add your cheese mixture and fruit( in one layer, leaving little space) and cover it with apricot glaze or preserves, so that you cover all of the fruit. Bake for 5 more minutes on super high (like 450-500) or you can broil for 3 minutes (preferred). Boom...See how that works out.

sidenote: if you make your cheese mixture more "eggy" and add a little flour <( though not necessary), It will almost be like cheese cake.

You can also bake your crust all of the way with butter and cinnamon sugar, and add a curd or cheese mixture as a cold spread or paste and add fresh cold fruit, Then top with apricot glaze, white, milk chocolate. Sky is the limit. Seriously. All naysayers have little experience running a lean, gourmet kitchen.
 
#18 ·
I think I'll try it.  Par bake the dough, then paint it with butter and cinammon and continue baking.  Then drizzle with honey maybe.  I'll start there and then experiment with sweet cheeses.
 
#19 · (Edited)
I was ordening my foodmagazines and found these recipes. So, don't blame me for anything, I just translated the recipes.

All credits to "Culinaire Ambiance" - issue september 2008. Yes, I keep my magazines that long!

I have to admit I started to drool when translating these yummie recipes.

Pizza with figs roquefort and pancetta

1 pizzacrust - 10 ripe figs - 1 dl port wine - 150 g roquefort cheese - 50 g sugar - 100 g pancetta

- quarter 5 figs, chop the rest in chunks

- caramelize sugar in nonstick pan, add chopped figs and port, let reduce to thick sauce. Remove from fire and only now add the other part of the quartered figs.

Cover the pizzacrust with the figs

- crumble roquefort over figs and then some thin pancetta slices.

- Bake at 200°C for around 14 minutes.

(Note; Roquefort is very strong. I would go for gorgonzola, the soft tasting one)

Sweet pizza with red fruit

1 pizzacrust - 1 dl cream - 2 eggs - 4 tbsp sugar - 1 bag of vanillasugar - 20 g almond flakes - 2 tbsp honey - 120 g mixed red fruit - fresh mint

- fold the edge of the crust over and put the crust on a baking tray

- beat eggs with sugar and vanillasugar on low fire or bain-marie until the foamy consistency starts to thicken. Leave to cool at room temperature

- whisk cream not to stiff and fold under eggmixture

- mix fruit with almonds and honey and spread on pizzacrust. Pour eggmixture over it. Bake at 200°C for around 15 minutes.

- decorate with mint leaves. Serve with some vanilla icecream

Pizza with chocolate, red fruit, buffalo mozzarella, lemon and mint

- 400 g mixed red fuit - 1 mozzarella (125 g) - 200 g sugar - 50 g confit lemon - 20 g fresh mint - icing sugar to dust

- chocolate sauce; 200 g chocolate - 20 g cream - 100 g butter - 120 g sugar

Put sugar, lemon confit, mint and mozzarella in a blender and mix.

Melt chocolate, add other ingredients for the sauce and mix in a smooth sauce.

Heat oven to 220°C. Put only pizzacrust on the tray and bake 10 minutes. Dust with icing sugar. Paint with chocolate sauce, cover with red fruit. Cover with mozzarellamixture.

Bake for another 10 minutes.

The last recipe is from an excellent cook who also published these in the same issue under the title "Pizza de luxe";

- pizza calzone with cod, leek, buffalo mozzarella and coulis of tomato

- pizza with mussels, celery, onion, mozzarella, mustard and tarragon

- pizza with chicken, fennel, aubergine, courgette and tomato

- pizza with Vacherin Mont d'Or, beef and compote of tomato
 
#20 ·
Now, figs, roquefort or gorgonzola and pancetta really makes sense.  Nice idea, chris.  My feeling is that to make a filling or topping that is more suitable for a crumbly crust on a bready pizza crust is just wrong - but figs and cheese, that makes some sense.  Of course, the cheese and pancetta take it out of the category of strictly "desert" pizza, but figs and cheese is a good ending to a meal for those who are not really desert fanatics. 
 
#21 ·
A pizza restaurant in Indiana would spread peanut butter and jelly over a pizza crust and serve it on their buffet.  That was a hit with the kids!


I have used crescent roll dough for this but pizza crust should work, too.  Bake it and then spread with a sweetened cream cheese, top with fresh sliced strawberries, and drizzle with chocolate sauce. 
 
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