Dessert pizza recipes
Pizza need not only be cheesy or exotically herbed. Try dessert pizza for a surprise ending
There’s no denying that pizza is the comfort food of couch potatoes. Conveniently sized, forgoing the need for crockery and cutlery, it’s sure to get invited to parties and sleepovers. However, there was something missing; something that made it fall short of becoming a complete meal with a sweet ending.
Clinton Cooper, Executive Chef at Four Seasons, shows us how to close this gap with dessert pizza – classic sweet pairings served on an edible platter. “Gourmet pizza come from a playful imagination,” says Cooper. “Think of classics such as apple and cinnamon, or for a good pizza base, you need flour with high gluten content. This makes the dough stretchy; low gluten makes the dough crumbly and is more suited to pastries”. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes to work the gluten until it becomes smooth and stretchy. Then leave it to rise for 30 minutes or until it doubles in size. Cooper suggests you roll out the bases to 2-3mm thickness, wrap them individually in clingwrap and store them in the freezer. Take one out every time you want a snack. chocolate, bananas and walnuts, etc and then play about with them on a pizza base. You’ll have some surprising desserts.” Once you get the hang of it, you can even mix together unusual, but harmonious flavours (cheese-cherry-pineapple anyone?)
Like with any pizza, the magic lies in the base. You get that right and everything will be just peachy. Cooper shares a few of his recipes
Pineapple Carpaccio Mascarpone Pizza
Ingredients
100 gm Pizza dough
200 gm Pineapple (thinly sliced)
50 gm Dulce de leche (or caramel sauce)
50 gm Mascarpone cheese
40 gm Mixed berries
6 gm Mint leaves
Preparation
Roll out pizza dough to desired size. Bake it at 180 degrees C until lightly brown. Spread caramel sauce evenly across the pizza base. Arrange the sliced pineapple and bake again for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and garnish with the mascarpone, berries and mint.
Pizza dough
Ingredients
1000 gm Flour
20 gm Dry yeast
20 gm Salt
10 gm Sugar
75 ml Olive oil (Extra virgin)
500 ml Water
Method
Place the flour in a mixing bowl, make a well in the centre and pour yeast, sugar, salt and olive oil into it. Mix it up and slowly add water and knead into a soft dough. Leave it in a warm area to rise. Divide the dough equally and roll each piece into a ball. Each ball can be rolled out to a pizza base.
Apple crumble pizza
Ingredients
150 gm Green apples
100 gm Cream cheese
1 gm Cinnamon powder
1 gm Nutmeg powder
100 gm Crumble
For crumble
50 gm Castor sugar
50 gm Soft butter
50 gm Flour
Method
-Beat the butter and sugar together until sugar dissolves.
-Add flour and gently mix to form a rough crumb. You can also just use crushed biscuits.
Method
Peel and core the apples and cut into small cubes. Place in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer until soft. Remove from heat and drain. Roll out the pizza dough and spread cream cheese liberally. Sprinkle the apple on top, and then the cinnamon and nutmeg powders. Finish by topping it with the crumble mix. Bake at 180 degrees C until the top is a nice golden colour.
Banana and nutella calzone
Ingredients
100 gm Nutella
100 gm Banana
50 gm Chocolate sauce
70 gm Ice cream (vanilla or caramel)
Method
Roll out the pizza dough to the desired size. Dice the banana and combine with the Nutella. Spread the mixture (1-cm thick) on one half of the dough. Fold over the empty side of the dough to cover the banana. Crimp the edges of the pizza with the back of a fork to prevent it from opening while baking. Place into the oven at 180 degrees C for 15 to 20 minutes or until the calzone is golden brown.
Mitali Parekh @timesgroup.com
Dessert Recipes with Bill & Sheila
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