Halloween Pizza

Halloween pizza is the kid-party answer to oranges-and-candy fatigue. Two 10-inch rounds of bread dough get topped with a quick tomato sauce, a double-cheese pull of mozzarella under cheddar, and decorated with pepperoni borders, olive slices for eyes, and green pepper strips arranged into eyebrows, noses, and grinning mouths.

The trick is composing the faces before the pizza goes in the oven. Once everything is down, the melted cheese bonds the toppings in place. Lay pepperoni in a chain around the rim first, then drop two olive eyes, and finally place the bell pepper strips for features. Don’t overthink it; lopsided faces look the most charming on a Halloween table anyway.

Use thawed frozen bread dough for the lazy version, or any homemade pizza dough you already trust. The 325°F (160°C) bake is lower than typical pizza heat so the toppings don’t burn before the crust browns through.

The whole thing comes together in under 45 minutes. Parents do the rolling and saucing; kids handle the face design. Half the fun is the construction.

Pro Tips

• Brush the dough with oil before saucing. The oil seals the crust so the tomato sauce doesn’t soak in and turn the bottom soggy.
• Pat the pepperoni dry with paper towel before placing. Wet pepperoni leaves orange grease puddles on the cheese; dried pepperoni crisps up better.
• Press toppings down gently after placing. Loose features tend to slide during baking; cheese-anchored ones stay put.
• Slice straight after baking with a pizza wheel, not a knife. Knives drag the toppings across the face design.

Variations

• Use black olives sliced into rings for spookier “vampire eyes” instead of round halves.
• Make ghost-shaped pizzas instead of jack-o'-lanterns by stretching the dough into ghost outlines and topping with a single olive eye.
• Sub turkey pepperoni or veggie sausage rounds for kids who don’t eat pork.