Apple Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza
This apple cinnamon streusel dessert pizza is so tasty and adaptable, you just might forego the pepperoni and head straight for this!
Dessert Pizza? I think I love you.
Since we tend to make a habit of homemade pizza every Saturday night, dessert pizza was an inevitable creation, especially since my kids have been begging me to make it at home after they tried some at a local pizza joint during our long hotel stay a few months ago.
Some recipe creations are absolute disasters (trust my firsthand experience on this one), but the triumph that is dessert pizza has successfully redeemed me from all my past failures.
The tender, lightly sweet crust is topped with a cooked apple and cinnamon mixture and then topped again by cinnamon streusel, all of which is drizzled with a creamy, sweet glaze.
Please sit down while taking your first bite. Swooning may occur.
I’m just so, so happy about all of the possible dessert pizzas in our future (since the fruit topping is seriously adaptable – see the note in the recipe).
If I said I’ve dreamed about dessert pizza more than once in the last week or so, would you judge?
Thanks for loving me despite my issues. Now go and make some dessert pizza!
Apple Cinnamon Streusel Dessert Pizza
Ingredients
Pizza Crust:
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 tablespoon instant yeast
- ¼ cup (53 g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 3-4 cup (426 to 568 g) all-purpose flour
Cinnamon Streusel Topping:
- ½ cup (106 g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (71 g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons (57 g) butter, softened
Apple Topping:
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) butter
- 2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Glaze:
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
- ⅓ cup milk
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 cups (228 g) powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and position an oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
- For the pizza crust, combine the water, yeast, sugar, salt and oil. Add the flour until a soft dough forms and pulls away from the sides of the bowl (this can be done by hand or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer). You may not need to add the full amount of flour – or, you may need to add more than the 4 cups, it will depend on many factors. The goal is a soft, smooth dough so judge by texture and feel and not by exact flour amounts. Knead for 2-3 minutes. Cover the dough lightly and let it rest while preparing the other components.
- For the cinnamon streusel topping, stir together the brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add the soft butter and mix with a pastry blender or your fingers until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is well-distributed.
- For the apple mixture, heat the butter in a 10- or 12-inch skillet until melted. Add the chopped apples, brown sugar and cinnamon, and cook, stirring often, until the apples are tender (but not mushy) and the mixture is thick and bubbly, 4-5 minutes.
- Press the dough into a 16-inch pizza pan (or it can be stretched into a rectangular baking sheet if that is all you have). The dough should be about 1/4-inch thick. Scoop spoonfuls of the apple mixture over the dough. It won’t cover the dough completely, just distribute the apples as evenly as possible. Sprinkle the cinnamon streusel over the top of the apples. Let the pizza rest for about 10 minutes to allow the dough to puff slightly.
- Bake the pizza for 12-15 minutes, until the edges are browned and the pizza topping is hot and bubbly. While the pizza bakes, prepare the glaze by heating the butter and milk in a medium saucepan until melted. Add the vanilla. Mix in the powdered sugar gradually, whisking to combine until the glaze is smooth.
- Let the pizza rest for 10 minutes before drizzling the glaze over the top (you can also drizzle glaze on each individual piece as it is served). Serve the pizza warm. Leftovers can be refrigerated and reheated briefly in the microwave.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
I did this recipe as written and it was very delish , I’ll share it with friends its a keeper
This is a delicious change from apple crisp or apple pie. I used a different pizza crust, drizzled the baked pizza with salted caramel instead of the glaze, and added nutmeg and cardamom to the filling. Instead of chopping the apples I thickly sliced them and arranged the slices on the crust in an overlapping circular pattern to add depth to the filling. The topping is quite sweet. When making again I’ll omit the sugar from the filling. Great recipe!
Flour by weight is 1 cup = 120g
It all depends on the source. I test all my recipes using 1 cup = 142 grams (that’s the same measurement that America’s Test Kitchen uses).
This looks delicious! But I’m a little confused why this is in the main dish section? Have you done this for dinner?
Just an error in categorizing. Or rather, I only have pizza listed under main dishes, so since this is categorized as a pizza, it shows up there. 🙂
Very tasty. Best when warm out of the oven! I would drizzle the glaze and serve. I agree that it takes less flour. I would suggest starting with 2 1/2 c flour and adding more if needed. But with 3c it was a bit dry.
This is so good!! I made it exactly according to the directions with no issues. Will definitely make this again – the family loved it:)$
Greetings,
I made this last night (6/30/2020) my boyfriend and my boys, gave it 5 out of 5 stars! It was delicious!
Thank you!
This was such a delicious dessert pizza recipe. Thank you for sharing!
I’ve made this three times in a week! A definite favorite in our family and the people who’ve been over for play dates and lessons are big fans too! A quick note—I gave this recipe to one of my friends and she made it a couple of days ago. We both had the same problem with 3 cups of flour being a bit too much. I made it today with probably 2 3/4 cups flour and it was just right. So yeah! Definitely watch the flour when adding it. This recipe is so easy and delicious!
Thanks for the feedback!
This was awesome. I used a pre-made dough. I used three apples instead of two and kept back 1/2 cup of sugar as we didn’t want it too sweet. Whole family loved it, and will certainly make again!
I’m glad it worked out with the changes. I haven’t made this one in a long time, I will have to make this one again soon!
Have you ever made this on your pizza stone?
I haven’t but I bet it would work fine!
So is there an exact amount of time you should let the dough proof for?
It really depends on the temperature of your kitchen, but maybe 1-2 hours.
have you ever cooked this on your pizza stone like you would homemade pizza?
I haven’t, but I’m sure you could.
So excited to make this recipe! Yet I was wondering how would you adapt it to other fruits? Especially cherry.
You could definitely experiment – so far the apple version is our go-to!
For those Gluten free they can use Udi frozen Pizza Crust and it works well and can always you prepared apple pie filling in a can.
Can you use prepare pizza dough/
Sure.
Do you think certain apples work better than others in this recipe? What kind did you use? We’re going to try this tonight, looks amazing!
Firm apples versus ones that get kind of mushy are probably best. I like using Fuji, honey crisp or even granny smith.
The apples are cooking as I type this.. made my own dough ( secret recipe i worked on for a longgggg time) . We’ll see how it comes out.
I made a slightly altered version of this recipe last night using a pizza dough recipe from the back of a yeast package because I was also making a mushroom/pineapple pizza at the same time. I used canned spiced apples drained well in lieu of sliced apples and skipped the glaze. I follow the rest of the directions except I only had a 12″ pizza pan so I made a 12″ crust.
The results: absolutely delicious!!
Note: I plan to use the streusel topping recipe over and over for this and other fruit dishes because it came out exactly like the apple crisp topping I grew up with.
Can I make this ahead of time and refrigerate until I am ready to bake it, or would it get soggy?
Amy – It kind of depends on how long you want to refrigerate it – I haven’t tried it but I probably wouldn’t make ahead more than an hour.
Looks delicious! Cant wait to make it for new years!
Do you make any changes to the recipe if you use cherries, cherry pie filling?? In want to make this for my husbands bday on Friday. He loves cherries.
Bambi – if you use cherry pie filling, you can probably just omit all the “filling” ingredients and steps in this recipe and just stick with the crust and streusel and put the cherry pie filling in for the apples and cinnamon.
I have grown to where I just hate to cook. Sad but true. I get Papa Murphy’s dessert pizza. One day I thought to myself this would be so flipping easy to make. I then thought of apple streusel and you know what it sounds wonderful but really I have grown to where I hate to cook and I have no apples any way so if some day in the future or for some off the wall reason I have that need to be domestic and have a few gal pals over I will try your pizza . My mom always told me to never try a recipe for the first time on company and since I don’t listen I am trusting you. I will let you know when this mission has been accomplished. I really want oatmeal cinnamon apple streusel breakfast pizza. But, as I said I have grown to where I hate to cook so would you try this and let me know how it turned out.
Thanks for posting! I have been searching all over for a desert pizza crust recipe that wasn’t made from cookie dough, but was more suitable for desert ingredients than my homemade pizza crust. I look forward to making this and it’s many variations!
Awesome recipe. We will definitely be making these again. We were short on time, so we used pitas for crust.
May I know if you let the dough rise, if so, for how many minutes? Thanks!
Hi Ela – you only need to let the dough rest while you prepare the other ingredients.
I finally made this today. Everyone was on a weird eating schedule, so I felt I could put my usual dinner prep time into this instead. It was SO good! My in-laws were so impressed, my kids devoured it, and my husband, who could take or leave dessert (or most food, really. I know.) LOVED it! I will be making this again! And again, because wow. And then I’ll have to try the variations. 😀 I’d love to know what you try with this next! Thanks for sharing.
This pizza would be great to serve for breakfast. I’ll have to try this.
Wow – I’m bowled over. This is awesome!
My husband insists on ordering Godfathers Pizza every now and then solely for the dessert pizza. We suffer through pizza neither of us care for just to get to their amazing cinnamon dessert pizza.
Totally skipping the subpar pizza and making my own next time!
Yum – these look delicious! We love anything with apple, so I can’t wait to make these!
I worked at Papa Murphy’s as a young buck and these are seriously tasty! We also used to mess around and make our own flavors. Cherry and Apple/Pineapple were a hit. 🙂
Oh, gracious, don’t even get me started on what we used to put on the breadsticks. Mmm, to be young with that insane metabolism again…
My youthful metabolism was slow in arriving and s!ow in leaving. In my 40s, I moved to Saint Louis. I love to cook and come from a restaurant family. My first close friends in the StL area, loved my cooking and once asked why I wasn’t as big as the house, since I could cook so well. They knew that they would be. Well I was still doing landscaping and showing young men that it can be done. But really that too was a byproduct of my unusual metabolism. Late blooming in my teens had turned into prolonged youth. Lastly, if you haven’t tried combining apples with Mandarin oranges …. do so. Top a pizza with them! Put some lemon zest in the glaze.
streusel AND glaze–right on! happy holidays, mel!
These dessert pizzas are so much fun to make. I love making them and just having a blast with the topping.
Merry Christmas & Happy Baking 🙂
Unrelated to this post, just wondering if you had a recipe for ketchup? My kids have become little addicts. 😉 would love to hear what you do in your house. Merry Christmas!
Dessert pizza? Where has this been all of my life? I have never had dessert pizza, and I can’t wait to rectify that- this looks amazing!
Sounds so good! I might make this for a dessert for my New Year’s party!
I worked at Papa Murphy’s for many years, and this looks very similar to their dessert pizza…only better because of the addition of sugar in the crust. It sounds delicious and I can’t wait to try it!
Mmm dessert pizza. Our favorite. We love crushed Oreos with a cream cheese frosting “sauce” 🙂 delicious!!
Ive never had dessert pizza! Ill definitely have to try this though!
I love apple pies and crisps. I will be trying this soon!
I love dessert pizza. . .this will be making an appearance at our next pizza night!
This looks very tasty. I have been wanting to try dessert pizza for a while now. Our local pizza joint makes great dessert pizza as well. The apples are a nice addition. Thank Mel!