During a little special appearance on TVNZ’s ‘The Great Kiwi Bake Off: Celebrity Treasure Island Edition’, I was given the challenge to bake something inspired by my time on Celebrity Treasure Island.
So in remembrance of when I spent our hard-earned money on a pizza, I made a cookie pizza complete with black licorice 'olives', velvet oreo 'pepperoni', and white chocolate ganache “cheese”.
Ingredients:
Cookie Pizza Crust
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened slightly
- 1/2 cup Extra Fine Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 cup packed Light Brown Sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 egg white
White Chocolate Ganache “Cheese”
- 4 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons of cream
Pizza Toppings
- 1/2 cup strawberry Jam/sauce (for tomato paste)
- 6-8 Red velvet oreo biscuit rounds for pepperoni
- 2-3 small green gumdrop candies or taffy, cut into small strips for green peppers
- 1 stick of soft black licorice (about 2-inches long), cut into slices with holes for olives
- Chocolate-coated rice cereal nuggets for meat bits
Method:
- Preheat oven to 180 Degrees
- Spray a 12-inch round pizza pan with baking spray. If you plan to remove the cookie pizza from the pan before serving, line the pan with a baking paper
- Prepare Cookie Crust - Mix flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Mix in egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat until well combined. Stir wet mixture into flour mixture just until incorporated.
- Pinch off about 1/3 cup of dough. Press the remaining dough into the pan in an even layer. Brush egg white around the top edge of the cookie. Roll reserved dough into a log and arrange it around top edge of the cookie, smoothing out any seams
- Bake cookie crust on the bottom rack of the oven for 16-20 minutes until centre is baked through and the edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside to cool
- Prepare White Chocolate Ganache “Cheese” - Combine white chocolate and cream in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat on high power for 1 minute. Allow the bowl to sit in the microwave for 2 additional minutes. Remove and stir until smooth. If needed, heat for 10-second bursts of high power, stirring after each until melted
- Assemble Cookie Pizza - Spread strawberry (pizza sauce) over the cooled pizza crust. Drizzle white chocolate ganache (cheese) over top. Cut pizza into 8 slices.8
- Arrange oreo pepperoni (pull apart from cream), green candy peppers, and black licorice olives over the top of the pizza slices. Sprinkle chocolate-coated rice cereal nuggets over the whole pizza creating the look of sausage. Serve and enjoy!
