Give Dessert Pizza Sweet And Smoky Notes With This Cooking Trick

Pizza is widely acknowledged for being acceptable for dinner, lunch, and even breakfast. But, when you sweeten the toppings, pizza can be a knockout choice for dessert, too. While chocolate chips, marshmallows, and various candies are indulgent choices, people often gravitate towards fruit for a sweet yet fresh take on dessert pizza. Using fresh fruit is fine, but you may enjoy the flavor even more if you grill your fruit first.

Grilling not only makes your fruit juicier, but it caramelizes the natural sugars, making them taste sweeter. The fruit will also pick up some smoky flavor from the grill and become branded with enticing grill marks that look especially scrumptious on lightly charred pizza crust. The best fruit to grill are those that hold their shape when sliced and placed on hot grates. Peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, melons, pears, pineapple, figs, and bananas are excellent for grilling; as are strawberries, blueberries, and cherries, but smaller fruit should be skewered so it doesn't fall into your grill. Along with berries, grapes deserve a spot on your grill, getting super sweet and juicy as they warm through. Add even more sweetness by brushing warm honey or maple syrup over your fruit before grilling. If you accidentally char your fruit, don't toss it. Instead, you can repurpose burned fruit in syrups, sauces, smoothies, and cocktails.

When it comes to dessert pizza, cookie dough, Rice Krispies treats, and brownies often create the base, as substitutes for pizza crust, but a super sweet crust isn't a prerequisite for great results. If you really want the sweetness of fresh fruit to stand out, you can build your dessert pizza on regular pizza dough, perhaps brushed with a neutral oil and sprinkled with some sugar; or on mini naan or pita breads. Surprisingly, sweet summer watermelon slices can also stand in as a very refreshing pizza "crust." Chocolate hazelnut spread is excellent as your "tomato sauce" stand-in, but so is sweetened cream cheese or your favorite jam.

On the non-sweet but still mild and creamy end, you can use fresh mozzarella cheese, ricotta, luscious burrata, and brie — all which taste wonderful with grilled fruit. Julienned basil and mint leaves, drizzled honey, finely grated lime zest, canned mandarin orange segments, toasted coconut, and ruby red pomegranate arils make delicious and colorful finishing garnishes. If you want to add some crunch, consider toasted sliced almonds, or pistachios, or even freeze dried fruit.