Heart Shaped Pizza for Valentine’s

It’s Valentine’s, and what better way to celebrate than with family and delicious food! This morning we made the yummy cherry hand pies (you can find our recipe here: https://www.ourcityhomestead.com/heart-shaped-hand-pies/ ) and this afternoon we made the absolute best pizza using my favorite pizza dough recipe.

This is my favorite dough that I learned in Home Ec. class in junior high. It was actually originally for baked pretzels that later I converted into a pizza dough. Over the last 34 years that I have been making this yummy pizza crust, I have received numerous compliments!! It is a dough that everyone loves! And it is my favorite because it’s soft, tender yet has a crispy crust. It’s super delicious!

We made two different kinds of pizzas today — and that is what I love so much about pizza, is that there are so many toppings and combinations that everyone can make a pizza with the toppings they like most. Luckily we enjoy mostly the same toppings so we kept it simple.

My oldest daughter made a smaller heart shape pizza with crumbled bacon and heart shaped salami that she cut out using a small heart cookie cutter. So yummy!

My youngest daughter and I made cheesy stuffed crust with ham and pineapple and heart shaped salami and ham pieces with a garlicky butter crust. So good!

Let’s get to it.

First, mix warm water, sugar and instant yeast together. Let sit 10 minutes before adding oil, salt and 1 cup of flour.

Stir well. The dough will look like this.

Add another cup of flour and stir well before adding the last cup of flour.

When the dough gets hard to mix, begin to knead.

When the dough looks shaggy, I begin to knead the dough until just slightly tacky, but no longer sticky. If the dough is too sticky add a sprinkle more of flour and knead. Be careful to not over knead otherwise the dough may become tough. Shape into a ball, place in bowl and let sit 10 minutes for the dough to relax while preparing the pizza toppings.

Now is the best part — shaping the dough! I often use this dough on a large rectangle stone baking pan, as a deep dish pizza, as a regular round pizza and even as mini pizzas or stuffed pizza fold overs (like calzones). For Valentine’s we made heart shaped pizzas, but you can make any style of pizza you like with any kind of crust. You can make stuffed cheesy crust, garlic butter crust, seasoned crust, deep dish or just good old fashioned regular crust! You can also stretch this crust quite thin or leave it thicker for a homestyle crust. There are so many options!

For stuffed cheesy crust, I placed mozzarella string cheese on the crust (I tore it in half lengthwise first), and shaped the crust into a heart around the cheese. It was actually quite simple.

Then the best part of adding toppings. My daughter added pasta sauce, ham, pineapple, bacon crumbles (on half) and of course cheese. She placed ham and salami hearts cut using small heart cookie cutters.

She drizzled the crust with garlic butter before cooking it. Then once cooked, we’ll brush on a bit more garlic butter with parmesan cheese and chives.

My oldest daughter shaped her heart-shaped pizza, stretching the dough a bit thinner, and added heart shaped salami along with crumbled bacon and shredded cheese.

Bake at 350F for 25 minutes or until golden brown and bottom crust of pizza has browned. Let cool slightly before slicing. Looks amazing and tastes even better!

Our stuffed cheesy crust pizza spread out and lost a bit of its heart shape but still tasted fabulous!!

Serve pizza with a side salad. We always have a tossed salad or caesar salad with pizza — it just goes so well together!

The Best Ever Pizza Crust for Heart Shaped (or any shape) Pizza

1-1/2 cups water
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast – I use pizza dough yeast or instant yeast, but you can also use traditional yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
3 cups flour

Combine water, sugar and yeast together. Stir. Let sit 10 minutes. Add salt, oil and 1 cup of flour. Beat well. Add one cup of flour, and stir well before adding remaining flour. Knead dough until dough is no longer sticky but just tacky. Let sit 10 minutes while preparing pizza toppings. Shape crust, add pizza sauce and toppings. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool slightly before slicing. If you want a crispier crust, bake at 375F for 25 minutes or until cooked.

enjoy from Our City Homestead to yours