"Candy Corn" Pizza...

If you were around last Halloween, you'll remember that it just happened to fall on one of our Friday Pizza Nights and we ended up making that Pumpkin-Shaped Pepperoni Pizza. Even though this year Halloween isn't until Saturday, we figured why not do another holiday-themed pizza night? How about a "Candy Corn" Pizza?

Okay, you got me... this is more based on the look - we didn't actually go as far as putting that sugary candy on a pizza (although you never know... we may explore that at some point for a wicked dessert pizza!).
Any pizza base would work here - we did use our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough, but a pre-baked crust from the market or a purchased dough would be fine. Because this is basically just a cheese pizza, I wanted to give the dough a little lift by brushing it first with fruity olive oil, then crushing a small pile of dried basil (use your herb of choice here!) and sprinkling that over the top. As you know, we are fans of crispier crusts, so we slid the glistening dough into the oven for just a few moments to give it a head start. If you like a softer crust or are using a purchased baked one, keep the oil and herb additions, but skip the first bake.

To make the design on top, we scattered a circular mound of mozzarella in the center of the crust, then made a thick ring around that with a sharp yellow cheddar. We now needed to darken this ring a bit, so to add some depth, we spooned a favorite spicy homemade pizza sauce (marinara would work too) over the cheese. Around that ring went the same yellow cheddar, but this time it was just the cheese to get the color contrast. Once baked to get the full effect, all you need to do is divide the pie into wedges and there you go - cheesy "Candy Corn" slices! If you're not too fond of a cheese-only type of pizza, you could certainly try to hide all sorts of toppings underneath the cheese to retain the same effect.

And, just on the off-chance you were wondering, I did make another round of those Butterfinger Eyeballs yesterday for Jeff to bring into the office this morning! I thought about making a batch of Cinnamon Fudge instead, but when I heard there were a few people hoping to see those groovy eyeballs again, I didn't want to disappoint!

Recipes
"Candy Corn" Pizza