When I was in high school through my first year of college, I worked at a pizza place. It’s a chain, so I won’t tell you the exact name, but in order for this story to make any sense at all, you have to know that it was a pizza place that doesn’t bake pizzas. Like you go there to buy an uncooked pizza, you take it home, and then you bake it. It’s not frozen, it’s just not cooked yet.
So I actually really liked working at the pizza place. I was friends with everyone who worked there, and it was always really busy. So time went by fast. Which I liked because before that, I had worked at a dollar store, and I didn’t have much to do. So it was really boring and felt like every shift lasted forever. I like staying busy.
Related: Next up try our Deep Dish Pizza recipe.
Anyway, there were only two drawbacks to working at the pizza place.
1.) Your clothes, and especially your shoes, would always end up smelling like cheese and sausage. It was pretty gross. So you basically had to have one pair of shoes that were “work shoes” so that the sausage smell didn’t work its way into your entire closet.
2.) Since our pizzas were uncooked and the place didn’t have ovens (Why would they? They don’t bake pizzas, after all.), snacks where a tough thing to come by. There were no oh-someone-didn’t-pick-up-this-pizza-so-now-we-can-eat-it moments.
The lack of snacks could be a little demoralizing at times. I mean, it was a bunch of high school kids working from right after school let out to just after 9pm when the pizza place would close. So we got hungry and often didn’t remember to bring snacks (the obvious solution).
Luckily, there was another pizza place next door. That’s right, we had a competitor just steps away from our pizza place and they had one major difference…they had ovens. They baked their pizzas.
Now whether our manager would have actually been upset with us or not, we all felt it was important that if we did cross over into enemy territory to get a cooked pizza, we had to be stealthy about it.
We couldn’t just walk over there in our uniform, pick up a pizza, and then stroll through the front door so our customers could see that we were supporting our rival. Oh no—it was a top secret affair. And more often than not, the group voted to buy a chocolate chip pizza.
Which was basically a giant chocolate chip cookie baked on top of a pizza crust. It was divine, although I suspect part of the appeal was the “forbidden fruit” aspect of the whole thing.
I have many fond memories of eating chocolate chip pizza with my fellow pizza slingers. It was our secret, and it was delicious. I was immediately transported back to that era when I took my first bite of this homemade version.
This is how I love chocolate chip pizza. It is, in my humble opinion, the best kind of dessert pizza. I hope you will agree. 🙂
Chocolate Chip Pizza, serves 8-10 (as a dessert).
For the crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (you can replace up to 1/2 cup with whole wheat if you like)
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
big pinch (approximately 1/8 teaspoon) sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon olive oil
Dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Then sprinkle the yeast over the top. Allow that to sit and activate for 5 minutes. The yeast should begin to look kind of foamy, a good sign. That means it’s doing its job. If your yeast doesn’t seem to change at all (doesn’t foam), check the expiration date on your container of yeast.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, yeasty water mixture and olive oil until a soft dough ball forms. Sprinkle your counter with flour and knead 3-4 times. Lightly oil your bowl (you can use the same one) and return the dough ball.
Cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free spot for about an hour or until it has nearly doubled in size.
1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips (I used a mix of crushed Heath bar and mini chips.)
Cream together the butter and sugar. The mixture should begin to lighten in color. Stir in the egg and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use it.
Once the (crust) dough has risen, roll out until very thin. Bake at 375°F for 5 minutes while you get the cookie dough ready. It’s good to give the bottom crust just a little head start like this because we’ll be adding a dense, moist top layer to it with the cookie dough so it allows the inside to bake some before then.
I also think a pizza stone comes in really handy for this recipe, as it helps the bottom crust stay crispy. But if you don’t have one, that’s OK too.
Use your clean hands to smash the cookie dough into a large disc, just smaller than the crust. Do this on a piece of plastic wrap. Once the crust has baked for 5 minutes, remove from the oven and carefully flip the cookie dough over the top, peeling off the plastic wrap before popping it all back in the oven.
Bake for another 18-20 minutes until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before slicing into it.
You could serve this with a scoop of ice cream, whipped cream or chocolate sauce drizzled on top for an even more decadent presentation. I personally think it’s just perfect as it, but that’s just me. 🙂
Give this a try some time when you have friends over—it’s seriously such a fun treat! xo. Emma
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Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour (you can replace up to 1/2 cup with whole wheat if you like)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon active dry yeast
- big pinch (approximately 1/8 teaspoon sugar)
- ½ cup water (warm)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
For the cookie dough
- ½ cup butter (softened)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Dissolve the sugar in the warm water. Then sprinkle the yeast over the top. Allow that to sit and activate for 5 minutes. The yeast should begin to look kind of foamy, a good sign. That means it’s doing its job. If your yeast doesn’t seem to change at all (doesn’t foam), check the expiration date on your container of yeast.
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, yeasty water mixture and olive oil until a soft dough ball forms. Sprinkle your counter with flour and knead 3-4 times. Lightly oil your bowl (you can use the same one) and return the dough ball. Cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free spot for about an hour or until it has nearly doubled in size.
- Cream together the butter and sugar. The mixture should begin to lighten in color. Stir in the egg and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use it.
- Once the (crust) dough has risen, roll out until very thin. Bake at 375°F for 5 minutes while you get the cookie dough ready. It's good to give the bottom crust just a little head start like this because we'll be adding a dense, moist top layer to it with the cookie dough so it allows the inside to bake some before then. I also think a pizza stone comes in really handy for this recipe, as it helps the bottom crust stay crispy. But if you don't have one, that's OK too.
- Use your clean hands to smash the cookie dough into a large disc, just smaller than the crust. Do this on a piece of plastic wrap. Once the crust has baked for 5 minutes, remove from the oven and carefully flip the cookie dough over the top, peeling off the plastic wrap before popping it all back in the oven. Bake for another 18-20 minutes until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before slicing into it.
Looks wonderful, gonna try it for sure!
I am obsessed with pizza this post has honestly made me so happy. I am defiantly going to make this.
This is amazing! Definitely adding this to my list of things to make. Thanks!
Amanda | thedeerandthewolf.com
This looks so delicious! Two of my favorite things.. pizza and chocolate! I can’t wait to try it!
http://lifeandeverythingnice.com/
Omg that looks good!! Definetly one to try this weekend x
http://bonbongirls.co.nz
YUMMM:D
CHOCOLATE CHIP PIZZA?! You don’t realise how much I want to eat this right now.
Goody goody now that’s what I call an inspired recipe! Will definitely be making this for family nights, a vegan version of course 😉 Loved your story by the way 🙂
Brings back so many childhood memories 🙂
Latest Post – Opinion of a Fit Girl Part Part 3: Group Fitness Apps, Skipped Food Diaries, and Protein Bars
This story was hilarious and even more so – I NEED to try this!
www.iridescentplaces.blogspot.co.uk
OH MY LORD this looks amazing! I’m definitely going to make one of these for myself soon 🙂 xx
I can’t eat regular pizza because of the cheese but this looks so amazing. I’m addicted to chocolate!
Oh wauw, this looks so guilty delicious! One question: did the “enemy” find out, you guys worked in another pizzeria and bought their piza’s ? :p
i love hearing about the story behind this recipe! i will most likely be making this this weekend, yummy! hope you are having a good week xx
Erika | Just That DIY
I….would like to eat this. Right now.
Mmm, this looks delicious!
Oh my gosh! This sound delish! I’m going to try it for my sons birthday this Friday!
Yum! The best is when you pull one of these hot out of the oven, scoop ice cream on top and then dig in with a bunch of friends!
I loved the story in this post! I worked at a pizza chain as well, but we baked our pizzas (surprise, surprise!) and we had a really good garlic sauce and that is what always lingered on me… yum, garlic!
I’d much rather smell like a chocolate chip pizza – is that possible?
Monica – Mocha and Moccasins
OMG yes!!!! i love choco chip cookie pizza!!!!
XO Ellen from Ask Away
www.askawayblog.com