These individual sized deep dish pizzas, baked in a cupcake or muffin pan, create a perfect appetizer platter, make an adorable finger food option at parties, a great make-ahead lunch box item, and are a simple and fun 'kid friendly' activity for adults and children alike. The best part is, they are cheap, quick, and super easy to make!
Pizza is my all time favorite food. I
like every kind of pizza from delivery, to frozen pizza, to NY style, to
deep dish. I like meat pizza, veggie pizza... tomato sauce to bbq
sauce; as long as it is extra cheesy!
Press dough into a muffin pan.
Brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and Italian seasonings if desired.
Spoon sauce onto each dough cup, and spread up the sides.
Top with shredded cheese.
Pile on the toppings!
Bake and top with a sprinkling on Parmesan cheese.
Mini Deep Dish Pizzas
Yield: 9 mini deep dish pizzas
Ingredients
- 10 oz. refrigerated pizza crust dough
- olive oil, for brushing pan and dough
- garlic powder and Italian seasonings, optional
- 1/2 cup sauce (pizza sauce, bbq sauce, pesto sauce, etc), more as needed
- 1/2-3/4 cup toppings (pepperoni, chopped bbq chicken and red onion, veggies, etc)
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or cheese blend of choice), more as needed
- garnish (Parmesan cheese, red pepper flakes, fresh cilantro, etc), optional
Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Brush 9 wells, of a standard size muffin/cupcake pan with olive oil.
Roll
out pizza crust dough to desired thickness. Use a large biscut cutter (or
rim of a peanut butter jar) to cut out 9 circles of dough, and press into bottom
and up sides of muffin pan. Brush dough with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic powder and Italian seasonings, if desired.
Spoon a scant tablespoon of sauce onto each dough cup, and spread up the sides. Top with shredded cheese and toppings of choice.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges start to turn golden brown. Transfer to wire rack for 2-4 minutes before removing from pan. Serve warm.
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Here is a photo tutorial of an alternative way to make these, where I added the cheese on top of the toppings, instead of the toppings over the cheese, to really stuff these pizzas full of as much bqq chicken as possible! I made BBQ chicken pizzas for the recipe below, but you can use this technique for any kind of pizza variation.
Brush 9 wells, of a standard size muffin/cupcake pan with olive oil. Roll out pizza crust dough to desired thickness, dough will expand during baking (I stretched my dough pretty thin). Use a large biscut cutter (or rim of a peanut butter jar) to cut out 9 circles of dough, and press into bottom and up sides of muffin pan.
Spoon a scant tablespoon of sauce onto each dough cup, and spread up sides.
Add chicken and finely chopped red onion or desired "toppings".
Top with shredded cheese. I like a lot of cheese on my pizza, so I really piled it on, but you can use as much as you like, depending on your preference.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until edges start to turn golden brown.
Top with chopped fresh cilantro and transfer to wire rack for 2-4 minutes before removing from pan. Serve immediately.
Serve and enjoy!