I don’t know about you but I keep seeing breakfast pizzas everywhere. In restaurants, blogs, cookbooks and on tv. But I just cannot wrap my head around the whole egg-on-top-of-a-pizza thing.  I mean I don’t get it.  How do you eat it? It’s an interesting concept, but I just cannot see myself rolling out pizza dough for breakfast.

On the other hand, I do love over-the-top breakfast so I thought maybe I should try it.  I researched this further but then I came across Paula Deen’s dessert pizza and I got distracted.  Now that was a good-looking dessert.

Paula’s pizza had everything imaginable on it: brownies, ice cream, chocolate, caramel, nuts, fruit, and more.  It looked delicious but I wasn’t exactly sure if my teeth could handle it.  So I decided to take a different route with my dessert pizza. I scratched the whole breakfast pizza idea and opted for something light and sweet instead.  I made an oreo crust, orange-vanilla pastry cream and sprinkled fresh fruits on top.  The end product was very festive and it was extremely fun to put together.  This was a successful experiment and so delicious.  It’s so much fun turning a savory dish into a dessert. I should try it more often.

Oreo Dessert Pizza (Adapted from unegaminedanslacuisine.com and Sherry Yard’s The Secrets of Baking):

Make the oreo dough by following the directions here (up to the point where the dough is ready to shape): http://unegaminedanslacuisine.com/2011/02/homemade-oreos.html

After beating the dough wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.  Line a pizza pan with parchment paper and spray with baking spray.  Take the dough out of the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 375°F.  Quickly spread the dough onto the pizza pan into a 12 by 12 circle.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the oreo dough is no longer shiny. Take it out of the oven and let cool completely before assembling.

To make the pastry cream, bring 2 cups milk, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 1/2 tsp. finely chopped orange zest, and 1/2 split and scraped vanilla bean to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Meanwhile, sift together 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour, and a pinch of salt onto a piece of parchment paper.  Whisk 5 large egg yolks (chilled) in a large bowl.  Add the sifted dry ingredients and whisk until fluffy. When the milk comes to a simmer, remove from the heat and ladle out 1/2 cup of the hot milk.  Drizzle it slowly into the eggs while whisking.  Once the 1/2 cup milk is incorporated into the eggs, pour the mixture back into the hot milk, whisking constantly. Immediately begin to rapidly whisk the pastry cream.  In less than 1 minute, it will boil and begin to thicken.  Continuing to whisk for about 3 minutes, or until it has the consistency of pudding.  To test the cream for doneness, tilt the saucepan to one side. The cream should pull away from the pan completely.
Strain the pastry cream through a fine-mesh strainer back into the bowl.  Add 1 tbsp. unsalted butter (softened) and stir until it is melted and incorporated. If the cream seems grainy, pulse it in a food-processor until smooth.  The cream can be cooled to room temperature and refrigerated for up to 3 days.

To assemble: spread the pastry cream on top of the pizza.  Next, you will need about a cup of blackberries and 10 to 15 strawberries. The amount will depend on how much fruit you want on your pizza.  Slice the strawberries and enough of the blackberries to assemble like this:

Sprinkle the rest of the sliced strawberries and whole blackberries in the middle. Finish with some powder sugar and slice. In my opinion the pizza tasted best when it had some time to chill in the fridge.  Enjoy!