Description
Celebrate the holiday season with this festive Pull-Apart Christmas Tree Pizza. Made from homemade pizza dough layered with tangy tomato pesto, mozzarella, parmesan, and your favorite toppings, this visually stunning and delicious treat is perfect for sharing as a fun appetizer or a cozy date night dinner. The tree-shaped dough is twisted to create pull-apart ‘branches’, topped with cherry tomatoes as ornaments and a dough star for a charming finish, then baked to golden perfection.
Ingredients
Scale
Pizza Dough
- 1 batch homemade pizza dough (see A Loaves Collection recipe)
Pizza Toppings
- Tomato pesto or other tomato sauce, as needed
- Mozzarella cheese, shredded, about 1 to 1 ½ cups
- Parmesan cheese, grated, about ½ cup
- Cherry tomatoes, halved, about 10-15
- Fresh basil leaves, a handful
- Olive oil, for drizzling
- Salt, to taste
- Black pepper, to taste
- Dried oregano, to taste
- Red pepper flakes, optional, to taste
- Any additional pizza toppings you like (e.g., pepperoni, olives, mushrooms), optional
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Set your oven to 500ºF to get it ready for baking the pizza to a perfect golden crisp.
- Prepare Dough: After allowing the homemade pizza dough to rise, place it onto a floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal parts and gently shape each into rectangles by hand. Set one aside for later use.
- Roll Out Dough: Place one rectangle on parchment paper sprinkled with corn flour. Roll it into a long rectangle about twice as long as it is wide. Repeat with the other rectangle, making both roughly the same size.
- Design Triangle: On the first rolled rectangle, use a knife to lightly score a large triangle shape into the dough without cutting all the way through. This serves as a guide for toppings placement.
- Add Sauce and Toppings: Spread tomato pesto evenly within the triangle boundary. Sprinkle with mozzarella and parmesan cheese, season with salt, pepper, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Add any other desired toppings.
- Layer Dough: Carefully place the second dough rectangle directly on top of the first, encasing the toppings inside.
- Cut Triangle & Save Scraps: Use a sharp knife to fully cut through both dough layers along the scored triangle. Keep any leftover scraps to create a star and additional mini pizzas.
- Create Branches: Slice strips along both sides of the triangular dough to form ‘branches.’ Twist each strip away from the center to give the tree its pull-apart shape.
- Add Decorations: Place the dough star on top of the tree, arrange halved cherry tomatoes around as ornaments, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle fresh basil over the top.
- Bake Pizza: Transfer the pizza on parchment to a baking tray or pizza stone and bake in the preheated oven for 5 to 10 minutes, until the dough is golden brown and cheese is bubbly.
- Cool and Serve: Allow the pizza tree to cool slightly before serving. It pairs wonderfully with warm marinara sauce for dipping.
Notes
- This festive pizza is perfect as a shareable appetizer at holiday gatherings or a romantic date night meal.
- Feel free to customize the toppings to suit your taste or to include seasonal flavors.
- Leftover dough scraps can be shaped into mini pizzas or additional decorations.
- Watch the pizza closely during baking—high oven temperatures can brown the crust quickly.
- Use parchment paper sprinkled with corn flour to prevent sticking and for easy transfer.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 pizza tree (approximately 150g)
- Calories: 280 kcal
- Sugar: 4 g
- Sodium: 430 mg
- Fat: 12 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 6 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 32 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 12 g
- Cholesterol: 25 mg
