Dessert Pizza Tastes Like a Slice of Heaven — And It’s So Easy to Make in 15 Minutes

We can’t get enough of pizza, and just when we thought we couldn’t love it even more, we discovered dessert pizza. The delicious twist: You add sweet ingredients like melted chocolate, chopped nuts and fresh fruit onto a baked crust (or even a giant cookie!) before slicing and savoring. Even better, it’s easy and fun to customize this dessert delight with all sorts of toppings and spreads to satisfy any craving. Keep reading to learn how to whip up a crispy and flavorful dessert pizza that’s guaranteed to delight.

What is dessert pizza?

This type of pizza puts a spin on the Italian favorite — instead of tomato sauce, herbs and cheese, dough is topped with a variety of sweet ingredients. The crust is fully baked before the toppings are added. That’s because the sugar content in the sweet ingredients could cause them to burn in the oven before the dough for the crust is completely cooked..

Flavor options for dessert pizza 

Getting creative with the crust, sauce and toppings is a surefire way to make a sweet tooth-satisfying pie. Here are some of our go-to flavor options worth trying on a dessert pizza:

• Crust: Traditional pizza dough or cookie dough
• Sauce: Nutella, sweetened cream cheese, fruit jam or melted chocolate
• Toppings: Fresh berries, chopped nuts, mini marshmallows, sliced banana, chocolate shavings, whipped cream, spices like cinnamon, caramel sauce and/or crushed graham crackers

How to make a delectable dessert pizza 

To make a dessert pizza that produces yummy slices, follow these three simple tips:

1. Preheat your baking sheet or pizza stone.

Cooking the crust on a hot surface allows it to crisp up and brown evenly, especially if the dough contains yeast. “My recommendation is typically to use a preheated pizza stone in the oven,” Derek Gaughan, owner of Pala Pizza, says. “A cookie sheet can be used in a pinch as well, but preferably preheat the pan first and then carefully slide the pizza (on parchment paper) onto the preheated pan.”

While dessert pizza recipes may require cooking between 450°F and 500°F, a pizza stone usually takes around 30 minutes to an hour to preheat since it’s thick and made from ceramic. Meanwhile, a thin metal baking sheet needs at least 20 to 30 minutes to warm up.

2. Spread sauce onto a cooled crust.

Once baked, the crust should be removed from the oven and set aside to cool slightly. This way your desired sauce doesn’t heat up and become super runny.

3. Proportion toppings accordingly.

While there are many ways to mix-and-match toppings, add enough of each to just cover the surface without overcrowding it. Otherwise, your dessert pizza crust will become soggy and hard to slice.

3 mouthwatering dessert pizza recipes

If you need inspiration to make your dream dessert pizza, consider these three recipes along with this one for an ice cream cookie pizza. Yum!

For Store-Bought Dough: Banana Nutella Pizza

This recipe from Gaughan uses premade pizza dough to create a nutty and fruity dessert pizza.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. store-bought pizza dough
• ¼ cup Nutella
• 1 banana, thinly sliced
• 6 graham crackers or Biscoff cookies, crushed into crumbs (optional)
• Chocolate shavings, for garnish

Directions:

• Yield: 1 pizza

1. Preheat oven to 500°F. Place baking sheet or pizza stone on middle rack to preheat as needed.
2. Stretch out dough into 12-inch circle and move to floured pizza peel or parchment paper. Form disk out of foil to cover area where toppings will be placed. Place foil disk in center of pizza dough to prevent middle from puffing up and maintain nice crust ring.
3. Once surface is preheated, transfer crust to pizza stone or baking sheet. Cook until crust ring is golden brown, around 10 minutes. Remove from oven, carefully remove foil, and allow to cool on wire rack.
4. Once cool, add even layer of Nutella to center of pizza (if dough is still slightly warm, it will spread easily; if dough is cool, microwave Nutella a few seconds before spreading). Add bananas and crushed cookies. Serve.

For Semi-Homemade Dough: Mixed Berry Pizzas

Our test kitchen’s recipe for Mixed Berry Pizzas combines naturally sweet berries with tart lemon curd for a zingy version of this treat.

• 1½ cups pancake and baking mix
• ¼ cup ricotta cheese 
• 2 Tbs. sugar
• ½ cup lemon curd
• ⅓ cup seedless strawberry jam
• 4 cups mixed berries

Directions:

• Yield: 2 pizzas

1. Heat oven to 450°F. Place baking sheet in oven to heat.
2. Grease baking sheet. Mix baking mix, ricotta cheese, sugar and ¼ cup hot water until dough forms. Divide in half; shape into balls. 
3. Flatten to 2 (7½-inch) rounds; transfer to baking sheet. Bake until golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool. Spread with lemon curd and strawberry jam. Add mixed berries. Slice and enjoy.

For Homemade Yeast Dough: Tiramisu Pizza (“Pizzamisù”)

Fabio Errante, blogger and author of Fabioulous Pizza (Buy from Amazon, $11.39), takes dessert pizza to the next level by infusing it with the rich and decadent flavors of tiramisu, a layered treat made with mascarpone cheese, lady fingers, coffee and cocoa powder.

Ingredients:

Coffee dough:

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1¼ cups water, room temperature
• 1 tsp. instant coffee
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 generous tsp. instant or active dry yeast

Mascarpone cream:

• 1 (250 gram) tub mascarpone or regular cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 eggs, separated
• 3 Tbs. sugar

Topping:

• Dark chocolate shavings

Directions:

• Yield: 5 pizzas

For dough:

1. In bowl, mix instant coffee and water, then add yeast and stir well until dissolved. Pour half of flour into bowl and start mixing. Add sugar and mix again.
2. Slowly add the rest of flour and combine until sticky dough forms. Transfer onto lightly floured surface and knead by hand. until dough it’s smooth, about 10 to 12 minutes it’s time to knead by hand. (Note: Avoid adding too much extra flour to dough as it could make the crust dense.)
3. Once kneaded, place dough in greased bowl, cover and rest at room temperature 30 minutes. Then, divided dough into about 5 even dough balls. Place dough balls on greased baking tray, cover and rise at room temperature about 2 hours. Dough balls should be doubled in size. Use dough balls right away or place each one in a plastic bag and store in the freezer for up to 1 month.

For mascarpone cream:

1. In medium bowl, whip egg yolks with 1½ Tbs. sugar until foamy. Add mascarpone and continue whipping. In separate clean bowl, whip whites with the remaining 1½ Tbs. sugar and beat until stiff. Slowly fold whipped whites into mascarpone mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and keep refrigerated until ready to use.

To bake each pizza:

1. Preheat oven to 485°F. Place baking sheet on middle shelf to heat up.
2. Stretch pizza base to desired thickness. Prick surface with fork and sprinkle about 1 Tbs. water on top. Place crust on sheet of parchment.
3. Bake the pizza on heated tray and cook around 10 minutes or until crust is fully browned. Cool crust on wire rack about 10 minutes. Repeat process with other dough balls (if using).
4. Slather generous amount of mascarpone cream onto crust and sprinkle of shaved dark chocolate. Enjoy!

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