Way back when, back in the days when my husband and I were newly married and still in college, we lived on love and leftovers from his job at Godfather's Pizza. One 'perk' of working for that particular Godfather's was that employees could eat what they wanted--a definite plus for a 23 year old guy. We had pizza so often it wasn't even particularly fun or special anymore, and that's saying something! My husband (who, I must say, no longer cooks anything at all unless it requires an open flame) did a lot of pizza experimentation during that time. I can vividly recall a pizza with no tomato paste, but instead nacho cheese sauce covered by mozzarella and cheddar, and topped with bacon bits and other assorted things. It sounds gross, but it wasn't. Well, I guess it is. Let me just disclaim that I no longer allow my family to eat anything yellow and processed like nacho cheese sauce...
Anyway. We don't go crazy with pizza experimentation much anymore. Greek pizza is definitely as weird as we get. Our kids like just plain cheese pizza more than any other kind. Except dessert pizza. Perhaps dessert pizza is a Midwestern thing. I wouldn't know because I don't order pizza anywhere outside of the Midwest. My kids loooooove dessert pizza. Of course they do. It's simple carbs, sugar, butter, and cinnamon. I put apples on this one because hey, any time I can sneak in a fruit or vegetable I do...and apples are one of the only kinds of fruit they will eat.
If you are interested in sneaking in some fruit between layers of sugar and simple carbohydrates, here's how I did it.
Dessert Pizza
Pizza crust from Annie's Eats
For the apples:
1/3 cup sugar
2T flour
1T cinnamon
5 apples
To top the dough:
2T melted butter
cinnamon and sugar mixture
Struesel topping:
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1/3 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 T butter
Glaze
1 c powdered sugar
2 T milk
1 tsp vanilla
Prepare the pizza crust as directed by Annie at Annie's Eats. After the dough has risen and you have formed it into balls to rest, heat you oven and pizza stone to 500 degrees. As it heats, peel, core and dice your apples into small pieces about a half inch in size. I think it's fun to try to peel the apple in one long strip. But I'm weird like that.
In a small bowl, mix the sugar, flour and cinnamon together. Add the diced apples and toss to combine. Set aside.
On a flat cookie sheet, lay out a piece of parchment paper. On the parchment paper, press your dough into the shape you desire. Obviously the larger you make the crust the thinner it will be. When you have it in the size you want, brush the crust with the melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.
Top the crust with the apple mixture. In the used bowl, combine the struesel topping ingredients - oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter. Mix until well combined. Sprinkle the struesel mixture over the apples and the crust.
Carefully slide the parchment paper with the pizza onto the hot pizza stone in the oven. After a few minutes you can slide the paper out from under the pizza, but I just leave it there. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the pizza is browned and done. As the pizza is baking, whisk together the glaze. Remove the pizza from the oven and drizzle the glaze over the hot pizza. I dipped the whisk into the glaze, then used the whisk to drizzle. It's a really technical approach. I learned it from the Culinary Institute of Small Town Iowa. Or something. Once the pizza has cooled enough that it won't burn small fingers, cut with a pizza cutter and distribute to your family. Or just eat it all yourself. It's good!
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