Pizza Pumpkins

With Halloween around the corner, it’s time to get in the Halloween spirit with Pumpkin Pizza. Emmalyn’s Mom, Amie, will be showing how to shape our pizzas into mini-pumpkins filled with your favorite toppings, or in this case, fillings.

Ingredients

  • 2 cans refrigerated pizza pie crust (i.e., Pillsbury Pizza Thin Crust)
  • Small jar of your favorite pizza or marinara sauce
  • 16 slices of pepperoni or finely chopped veggies of your choice (e.g. bell peppers, olives, mushrooms, etc)
  • 8 mini mozzarella balls (or 8 cubes of mozzarella)
  • 1 egg
  • 8 sliced pecan pieces for the “stems”
  • 2 tbs all purpose flour

Equipment

  • Baking mat
  • 12″ x 18″ baking sheet with parchment paper
  • Round cookie cutter about 4″ or a small bowl
  • Teaspoon
  • Tablespoon
  • Chopstick
  • Small spoon
  • Fork
  • 2 small bowls
  • Pastry brush
  • Scissors
  • Kitchen twine

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Pour 2 tbs of flour in the small bowl and set aside.

Slightly beat the egg with a fork in a small, add 2 tsp of water and set aside.

Cut out 8 strands of twine about 60 cm or 24 in.

Roll out 2 cans of pizza dough and lay them on top of each other. Use flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking. Using the round cookie cutter, cut out 8 circles of dough.

Place a small spoonful of marinara sauce in the center of each circle. Add 1 pepperoni slice on top of the sauce, then add a mozzarella ball/cube on top of the pepperoni slice, and finally add another pepperoni slice on top of the mozzarella ball/cube. Or add some chopped veggies in place of the pepperoni.

Bring the edges up and over, press them together and make sure to leave no gaps for the filling to leak out. Lay the pizza roll on the prepared baking sheet.

Wrap each pizza roll with a long piece of kitchen twine, around the ball to divide it into eight sections. The pizza rolls are baked with the string attached and the dough rises around the string forming little pumpkin shapes.

Brush each ball with egg wash and bake 16-20 minutes, or until it rises and get nice golden-brown color. Allow pizza rolls to cool for a few minutes, then use the scissors to remove the twine.

Use the chopstick and poke a hole on top of the pizza pumpkin. Place a piece of pecan in the hole to make a stem.

Serve warm with pizza/marinara sauce alongside.