I’m just sitting here shaking my head. I don’t know what to say. This dessert pizza is just so good that you must make it and share it with your neighbor. You know the one–the guy who throws his beer cans over the fence into your back yard, or how about the one with the dog that won’t stop barking, or maybe the one whose teenagers make your house rattle when they pass by with their bass blasting, or maybe even that one neighbor who consistently brings your empty garbage cans up to your house as a kind gesture.
One of these neighbors is not like the others and truly deserves a great thank you. However, the other, less deserving neighbors may end up being your friends for life if you share this amazing and unexpected deliciously sweet dessert pizza with them.
Cook’s note: I had originally used 1 cup of sugar in this recipe. However, after eating more of this on day 2, I found it to be too sweet. I have now reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup. The sweetness of the fruit is sometimes a tricky factor, particularly when working with pears. I guess that I ought to have tasted a bite from each pear before I added the sugar. Oh well.
Apple and Pear Dessert Pizza with Gruyere
Recipe by Terri @ that’s some good cookin’
Printable Recipe
- 3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and rough chopped
- 3 pears, peeled, cored, and rough chopped
- 3/4 cup sugar (more or less depending on sweetness of fruit and personal preference)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 pound gruyere cheese, sliced thin or grated
- dough for one pizza crust (about 1 pound of dough), (or try 1/2 of this recipe for homemade pizza dough)
Streusel Topping
- 1/2 cup white all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces
Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
- Prepare dough for pizza, if making your own. Set aside to rise. Meanwhile, prep other components for this pizza.
- For the streusel: Mix the flour and brown sugar together. Cut in the chilled butter to form small crumbles. Set aside.
- In a 4 quart heavy bottomed sauce pot mix together the apples, pears, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter. Cook, stirring frequently, over medium heat until the apples and pears have released their juices and have softened. This will take between 20-30 minutes. Some of the fruit will break down, no problem. The fruit will give up a fair amount of juice. Do not cook off the juice.
- After the fruit has reached a softened stage and there are a fair amount of juices in the pot, mix together 1/4 cup water and the cornstarch until smooth, then stir into the fruit mixture. The mixture will thicken. Cook stirring constantly for about 2 minutes more. Set aside.
- Preheat oven to 425-degrees F.
- Shape pizza dough into a ball. Roll out on a lightly floured surface into roughly the shape and size of your pizza pan or stone. Fit onto a 12-inch pizza pan or stone. Push the dough at the edges of the pan to form a ‘lip’. This will help to keep the filling from over-flowing the edge and burning to the bottom of your oven. Just a word to the wise.
- Scatter the cheese on top of the dough.
- Pour the filling on top of the cheese. Note: There will probably be more filling than you need. Guess you’ll just have to get out a spoon and eat the rest of it yourself.
- Sprinkle the streusel over the apple-pear filling.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until the crust edges are golden brown and the filling is hot and bubbly.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool to a slightly warm stage.
- For the glaze: Mix together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and approximately 1 tablespoon milk. Drizzle glaze over slightly warm pizza.
- Slice pizza and serve. Note: This is a rich, sweet dessert. I would recommend either cutting this into 16 slender wedges or into squares.
Anonymous
Wow. This looks absolutely delicious! I just finished making the “no-knead dinner rolls recipe” you have up, and they turned out amazing! I haven’t made dinner rolls like this before and my confidence in cooking is really boosting because of your recipes. Thanks so much for sharing them!
Terri @ that's some good cookin'
Anonymous–Congrats on the cooking confidence boost! And thank you for your kind comments. P.S. I hope that you take a second look at the above recipe for the Apple Pear Dessert Pizza. I’m sorry, but I changed the sugar amount (lowered) and I had initially forgot to include the butter in the filling. That’s what happens when I go from memory instead of looking at my notes. So, so sorry.
Anonymous
No worries! thanks for the “heads-up” on the recipe changes. I’ll take a look at it when I print it out. Thanks again for your recipes, I’ve not been disappointed with anything I’ve tried and they all taste good!