Dessert Pizza

[Theresa D]

HI . Does anyone know what this is and do you have any great recipes and photos?

 

[kayb]

I have eaten a thing called "dessert pizza," with a crust of sugar cookie dough, a "sauce" of sweetened cream cheese, and toppings of fresh fruit. Wasn't bad.

 

I have also had more conventional pizza doughs topped with sweet toppings and baked in a pizza oven. Somewhat less successful, although the turtle cheesecake one the local pizza joint down the street does is pretty good when it's fresh.

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Theresa D said:

HI . Does anyone know what this is and do you have any great recipes and photos?

 

 That is where Google comes in. 

[liuzhou]

Fruit pizzas are very popular here in China, especially durian pizza which every pizza place has to do. The local Pizza Hut restaurants are promoting them right now. They are, in my opinion, horrible. And I'm a durian lover.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I've had the sugar cookie, cream cheese, fresh fruit version of dessert pizza kayb describes once at a baby shower. It was good and very pretty decorated with multicolored fruits in a sunburst pattern. I think crosswise sliced kiwi fruit is a must here, and I believe the cream cheese "sauce" was slightly sweetened probably with a little honey.

 

I've also had fruit pizza on traditional pizza crust and baked in the pizza oven. The ones around here just dump canned apple or cherry pie filling on the crust and bake. You could make your own fruit pie filling, though. I must admit I kind of like a slice of the cherry pizza pie, but I'm a sucker for sour cherries.

[shain]

I like white (cheese only) pizzas with fruit. My go-to is ricotta and motz with figs, but any fruit that does well when grilled should work in this format (peaches and cherries for example).

What I just can't get is nutella on pizza 

[Kim Shook]

I have a friend who makes a couple of dessert pizzas, both on a cooky dough crust.  They are very good, if a little too sweet.  I've linked them here:  Pizza 1  & Pizza 2 .  I've also had dessert pizzas made on actual pizza dough - sweetened cream cheese and what amounts to fruit pie filling.  I really prefer these to the cooky dough ones.  Like @shain, I really love the white pizzas with fruit (and NUTS!) - especially roasted pears or figs - but don't really consider them dessert pizzas.  Hope this is what you were looking for @Theresa D!

Edited September 22, 2017 by Kim Shook (log)

[Toliver]

I've had the sugar cookie dough "crust" topped with sweetened cream cheese and the sliced fruit. Didn't care for it as I thought it was far too sweet. Why not just give me the fruit and some lightly sweetened whip cream or some sugar cookie "bars/fingers" on the side? 

Also, in the versions I've had, the sugar cookie "crust" was always too thick, like a sugar cookie on steroids, which made it difficult to cut through.

Your mileage may vary...

[MelissaH]

I've done pizza on traditional dough topped with figs and either blue or goat cheese. For many, this is a perfect dessert, especially with a drizzle of honey added after it comes out of the oven.

[scott123]

A pizza-sized cookie is... still just a cookie I'm not saying it's bad, it's just not dessert pizza.

 

I know, for certain, that while I'm sure a handful of NY pizzerias, over the years, have tried versions of dessert pizza, there is no pervasive history in the area. I'm also relatively certain that the Midwest has mostly steered clear of this phenomenon as well.  On the left coast, they do some pretty wacky stuff, so I have no doubt that dessert pizza, to an extent, is a thing there, but I'm sure it's mostly Neapolitan inspired, and thus doesn't lay any claim to defining it.

 

Long windedness aside, dessert pizza is, at it's core, Neapolitan.   Perhaps not Neapolitan in relation to Naples, but more in relation to Neapolitan style pizza as it is served here in the U.S.  Based on Naple's infatuation with both pizza and Nutella, I think it's safe to say that someone there most likely had the idea first, and I know of one or two places there that go this route.  On this side of the pond, though, I've never come across a Neapolitan pizzeria that didn't offer an least one dessert pie- which is almost always Nutella. The absolute ubiquitousness of the Nutella pie in domestic Neapolitan pizzerias is Dessert Pizza's greatest defining component.

 

Here's the most basic approach:

 

Form the pizza skin

Dock it (this is one of the only times Neapolitan pizza dough is docked) - you can alternately not dock it, let it blow up like a pita, and stuff it with fillings

Bake it untopped

Immediately out of the oven, spread a generous schmear of Nutella, sprinkle with powdered sugar (and possibly some whipped cream)

Serve

 

That's as bare bones as you get, and, as long as you're working with a Neapolitan capable oven/a sub 90 second bake time, the results may not match up with a quality baklava or french pastry, but it's not the worse dessert in the world. The residual heat from the pizza helps melt the Nutella a bit, and the resulting ooziness is pretty delightful.

 

One can build on this a bit.  I have my clients give the baked skin a quick light brush of butter prior to the Nutella schmear.  The butter takes the very lean dough and gives it a bit more richness.  The bread can only absorb a very small amount of melted butter, though, so you want to use a light hand. If you're too excessive, the resulting pizza can get incredibly messy.

 

You can also go as crazy as you like with the toppings.  This is pretty creative

 

https://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?topic=43129.msg431717#msg431717

 

Nutella, bacon, bananas, candied jalapenos, aka, the 'Flaming Elvis.'

 

 

At the end of the day, the most critical aspect, imo, is the oven.  You're not going to see the same results with a longer baked pizza in a non Neapolitan capable oven. Fortunately, the number of consumer level Neapolitan capable ovens is growing, so this delicacy is much more obtainable for the home baker than in years past.

Edited September 23, 2017 by scott123 (log)