Apple Cinnamon Pizza

Along with herds of others today, Jeff and I went out to a few stores to see if there was anything to find during the after Christmas sales. Other than dodging the array of people, we didn't find too much... however, I did score a few boxes of parchment paper for a whole $0.99 each! Woo! So, while the trip out wasn't too exciting, at least we would be coming back to a Friday Night Pizza!

This was not our typical savory pizza we would have for dinner though... nope, this time we made an Apple Cinnamon Pizza for dessert (well, and to snack on before dinner!).

I didn't stray from our regular whole-wheat pizza dough for this sweet treat - once stretched out, we gave the dough a quick pre-bake since the original recipe called for a "twelve inch pizza base". Over the lightly baked crust, we tossed on top plump golden raisins - if you don't have any raisins, dried cranberries would be a suitable replacement. To hide those sweet gems and keep them from burning, we added an apple mixture composed of diced apples, granulated sugar, melted butter, fresh lemon juice and a healthy dose of our favorite Vietnamese cinnamon.

Spread the apples close to the edge, but do leave a bit of a lip around - as the apples cook, their juices will begin to release, merge with the butter and begin to caramelize with those sugar crystals. That lip will be a barrier from those juices leaking and cementing to your oven floor! Let the pizza bake until the crust is golden and those bits of apples are pleasantly soft, but not too mushy. Jeff thought a confectioners' sugar drizzle would be nice to spruce up the top, but we added it when the pizza was still warm, so while it melted right into the apples, you can still see a bit around the edge of the crust. Did it need that extra dose of sweetness? That is debatable, but it was a nice touch - just whisk up a quarter cup to half cup confectioners' sugar with enough milk to thin it to a drizzleable consistency.

The texture was a nice contrast between the soft apples and the crackly thin and crisp crust - while the lemon juice adds a bright background, it also helps keep the apples from darkening too much if you want to prepare the apple mixture a little early. If you're a nut fan, toasted walnuts would be a nice way to finish this off. As is, this nutritional stats are pretty good on this - however... a little naughtiness is always good, so I'd certainly wouldn't turn away a piece that had a few lines of melted chocolate on top. Or... leaning heavily to the evil side, why not heat up some Nutella or peanut butter to pour on top for a decadent dessert!

Recipes
Apple Cinnamon Pizza