The idea for this chocolate dessert pizza comes by way of a local restaurant chain called Pizzeria Limone. They offer something similar to this recipe named the Divino pizza. It is delicious in its own right (and so are a lot of their other offerings – try it if you’re ever in the Salt Lake City, Utah valley area). It’s a great way to end a meal and treat yourself.

I hadn’t ever considered making it myself until we had a pizza night at our house one day. There was a small amount of extra dough and our group was discussing what pizza type to make. I was generally thinking of pepperoni or our cheesy garlic bread pizza. But my sister (who loves the Divino pizza) suggested a small dessert pizza.

So I took what I had in the pantry and made it work. And it turned out to be a sumptuous sweet treat to end the meal. I decided right then and there that I needed to go all in and make my own version of a delicious chocolate caramel dessert pizza.

And it doesn’t have to take a lot of effort either. This is a delicious, easy-to-make, and fun dessert that is sure to impress everyone who eats it.

What Is A Dessert Pizza?

Put simply, a dessert pizza is some kind of flat base with sweet toppings. Basically, a pizza but with sweet instead of savory toppings.

A lot of dessert pizzas use different bases instead of your typical pizza dough. I’ve seen cookie, graham cracker, and pie crust bases used for the crust in dessert pizzas. But regular dough or sweet roll dough are also common.

To fully fulfill the dessert part of a dessert pizza, you’ve got to fully load it with sweet toppings. These can include sliced fruits, chocolate, caramel, cookies, marshmallows, candy, peanut butter, Nutella, icing, cinnamon, and so much more.

Anything with a sweet flair could be a candidate for addition atop a dessert pizza. If you’re looking to create your own version of a dessert pizza, just let your inner child free.

How to Make A Sweet Pizza From Scratch

To make this pizza from scratch, we’ll go through the whole process from start to finish. Starting with making the dough to pre-baking then topping and finishing the chocolate dessert pizza. If you really want to speed things up, just buy some dough or a crust from the store and skip straight to prebaking and topping.

Just know that it won’t be quite the same experience as making dough from scratch.

As noted above, dessert pizzas can have many different things as their crusts. I decided to go with a kind of sweet roll dough that you might find with a cinnamon roll. This makes a rather sticky and at times kinda hard to work with dough. But trust me, it is worth it.

Begin by activating the yeast with the sugars and warm water. This will get the yeast all excited and ready to be the leavening agent in the dough.

Mix in milk, olive oil, and salt. Then add in the flour and mix it up. I used my KitchenAid stand mixer to whip together this batch of dough and used the dough hook attachment specifically to help mix and knead the dough. I just let the mixer run for a few minutes after everything had fully combined to knead the dough.

But this can all also be done by hand. After activating the yeast, just mix everything together until the flour is fully combined. Then pour it out onto a clean surface with a bit of flour and get to kneading by hand. Do so for 5 to 8 minutes.

Preparing the Dough

With the dough kneaded, we’re ready to give it a rise. Add the dough to a lightly greased bowl, loosely cover it with a clean towel, and let it sit in a warm spot for about an hour until it has doubled in size.

Note that if you are lacking a warm spot in your kitchen like I was this winter, turn your oven on for a few minutes and then turn it off. You don’t want it to be hot, but letting the oven preheat for a very short time should get it warm enough to help the dough rise.

After the dough has had a chance to rise, it is time to divide it and start shaping our pizzas.

Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Use a bench scraper or knife to cut the dough into two roughly equal portions.

Shape the two different portions into round balls by folding the edges away from you and pinching them together to create a sort of surface tension on the outside. Keep doing this and lightly rolling them in the palms of your hands until a smooth ball of dough forms.

Now begin shaping the crust for our chocolate dessert pizza by flattening the dough balls. With room to spread out, press down on the center of the dough ball to begin flattening it into a round crust. Then work outwards, pressing and shaping until you get a nice, thin crust.

We’ll be cooking one pizza at a time unless you have two pans and a decent amount of oven space.

Move one of the pizza crusts to a round pizza pan (I absolutely LOVE these pizza pans from Le Creuset) or a baking sheet. Put the pan into the oven and pre-bake the crust for 4 minutes. Especially since we will be working with a lot of sugar in this dessert pizza, we need to pre-bake the crust so that the crust will be fully cooked through and the toppings won’t burn.

Sugar will burn quickly at high heat, so it is very important to partially cook the crust before topping it. After 4 minutes, take the crust out.

Chocolate Dessert Pizza Toppings

After making the dough and pre-baking it, we’re ready to top our pizza with sweet goodness.

Remember that the recipe calls for toppings for two pizzas, so be sure to split the amounts in half for each pizza. To be honest, though, the amounts are mere suggestions. Just top each pizza with as much as feels right for you.

Though do note that pizzas tend to need fewer toppings than it seems. At least for my greedy eyes. Similar to over-filling my burritos, I just want to add all of the toppings onto a pizza. But it can be too excessive. Remember that things will melt and spread as they cook.

Start by placing down the white chocolate chunks, dark chocolate chunks, and mini marshmallows. Just try to get an even spread around the top of the pizza so that every bite is full of chocolatey sweet goodness.

Now, drizzle on the chocolate sauce and the caramel sauce. I usually have my sauces in plastic squeeze bottles for easy drizzling whenever I need it. But you could just as easily use a spoon to pick up some sauce and drizzle it out. Just be a bit careful with the spoon to not drop a ton of sauce in a single spot.

The only ingredient that won’t go on before baking is powdered sugar. This is just for sprinkling on top at the end and is mostly for a fancy look and isn’t really needed. It just gives it that nice extra flair. I put a little powdered sugar into a small mesh strainer and tap it while holding it over the chocolate pizza.

Where to Find Ingredients

Because this recipe is so focused on the toppings (especially the chocolate), I think it is very important to source some quality ingredients.

For the chocolate and caramel sauces, I suggest making your own. I recently made a post on how to make chocolate syrup in preparation for making this chocolate dessert pizza recipe. It is fast and easy. And a while ago I posted my salted caramel sauce recipe that I think works well here.

You could also buy store-bought dessert sauces.

For the chocolate chunks, I admittedly used some very fancy stuff. I used the same Callebaut Belgian white chocolate chunks from my white chocolate chunk cookies. I had leftovers so it seemed like a good use. The Valhrona dark chocolate I used is currently not available but I have also used this fancy Callebaut chocolate before.

You don’t need to use as fancy a chocolate. You could also use some decent-quality white and dark chocolate bars from the grocery store and just chop them up. Just keep in mind that chocolate is the central flavor of this recipe when buying ingredients.

Now that you’ve got all of the necessary ingredients, you can start preparing your dessert pizzas.

How to Cook Chocolate Dessert Pizza

Now comes the final bake of the pizza.

With the toppings perfectly spread out, put the pizza back into the oven at the same temperature. Bake it for 5 to 7 minutes until the dough has cooked through.

The mini marshmallows will puff up and brown, and the chocolate will begin to melt down (though they will roughly contain their shape and not fully puddle down). The edge of the crust should just start to become golden brown.

If anything starts to burn and/or smoke, then remove it from the oven immediately! Sugar is in high danger of getting too hot and burning. When it is finished baking, remove it from the oven and let it cool a little before slicing and serving. Repeat the process with the second pizza.

Remember the sugar will be very hot right out of the oven. Trust me, I’ve been burned.

For an especially delightful presentation, drizzle a bit of chocolate and caramel sauce onto a plate before serving a slice on it.

How did yours turn out?

I’d love to hear when you try out this triple chocolate caramel dessert pizza! Take a pic of your food and share your success with me by adding it to your Instagram stories or feed, and tagging me @doyouroux, or by using #doyouroux.

Plus, leave a rating to let me know how you liked the recipe. It helps me out a lot to know how things worked out… or didn’t.

Tempting Triple Chocolate Caramel Dessert Pizza

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: DessertDifficulty: Intermediate

Servings

12

servings

Prep time

40

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Rise Time

1

hour 

Total time

1

hour 

50

minutes

For chocolate lovers, this triple chocolate caramel dessert pizza recipe is just what you need! A delicious, decadent, and tempting dessert that you’ll love. Note that this recipe makes two decently sized dessert pizzas.

Ingredients

• Sweet Pizza Dough

• 175 grams warm water (3/4 cup)

• 7 grams active dry yeast (1/2 tablespoon)

• 30 grams brown sugar (3 tablespoons)

• 50 grams honey (2 tablespoons)

• 70 grams milk (1/4 cup)

• 18 grams olive oil (1 tablespoon)

• 4 grams salt (1/2 teaspoon)

• 400 grams flour (2 and 2/3 cups)

• Dessert Pizza Topping

• 1 cup white chocolate chunks

• 1 cup dark chocolate chunks

• 1/2 cup mini marshmallows

• 4 tablespoons chocolate sauce

• 4 tablespoons caramel sauce

• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Directions

• Sweet Pizza Dough
• Stir together the warm water, yeast, brown sugar, and honey in the bowl of the stand mixer if you will use that or in a regular mixing bowl if by hand until well combined
• Let the yeast mixture sit for about 10 minutes until the yeast has activated and the mixture has foamed up a bit
• Mix in the milk, olive oil, and salt
• Slowly add in the flour while mixing with the dough hook on a stand mixer or with a mixing spoon by hand – keep adding the flour and mixing until it is all used and fully combined
• Knead the dough in a stand mixer for 5 minutes, or by hand for 8 to 10 minutes
• Pour the dough out into a lightly greased bowl and let rise, covered with a towel in a warm place for about an hour until it roughly doubles in size – then the dough is ready for the next steps
• Dessert Pizza Topping
• Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C)
• Place the risen dough onto a work surface and use a bench scraper or knife to split it into two roughly equal portions
• Shape both dough portions into balls by pulling the edges towards each other, shaping and pinching them together, and smoothing out the dough into a ball by rolling them in your palms or on the work surface
• With each dough ball, form a flat circle by pressing down in the center of the ball and then slowly pressing down and working from the inside out to get a nice, flat crust
• Place the dough onto a pizza pan or baking sheet and pre-bake the crust for 4 minutes, then remove it from the oven
• Evenly top the pre-baked crust with half of the white chocolate chunks, dark chocolate chunks, and mini marshmallows, then drizzle half of the chocolate sauce and caramel sauce over the toppings
• Place the baking pan into the oven and bake for 5 to 7 minutes until the dough is cooked through and just begins turning golden brown on the edges
• Let it cool for a few minutes, sprinkle the powdered sugar on top for a decorative touch, and then serve
• Repeat steps 5 through 8 with the second pizza

Notes

• It can be helpful to warm the milk for the dough in the microwave for 30 seconds or so before adding it in
• If you need a warm place for the dough to rise, heat your oven for a few minutes and then turn it off before placing the dough inside

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Growing up we always called these caramel brownies. But honestly, they aren’t really like brownies in texture at all. The flavor might be similar, but they’re more like German chocolate caramel bars. And so the name has changed to better reflect the true recipe.

The main part of this is much denser than a brownie. And it involves multiple layers. The first layer is a dense German chocolate cake mix which is then topped with chocolate chips and melted caramel and finally topped with another layer of German chocolate cake mix.

At some point in my teenage years, this became the go-to dessert for my family for a while. And then once I left home I kind of forgot about them for a while.

But these were a staple in the house – especially around the holidays when we would make and give them away to friends and neighbors. And, of course, when I say we I really mean my mom and my older sister would tend to make them.

Until now! I have finally learned the secrets. The gooey caramel and chocolate secrets.

Rolling Out the Dough

In order to make this recipe, we’ll start off by melting caramels with sea salt and evaporated milk.

Next, begin mixing the German chocolate cake mixes together with just enough liquid to turn it into a sort of dough. Almost like playdough. Or, to me, it kind of looks like what tootsie rolls would be made of.

This will then be used to make both the bottom and the top layers of the caramel bars. Originally the recipe only called for one cake mix and my mom would just press half the dough into the bottom of the pan. Then for the top layer kind of hand press the dough together and lay it on top in sections.

Now we use two cake mixes and we use parchment paper to help roll both the top and bottom layers of these German chocolate caramel bars.

Just cut out two large pieces of parchment paper, place about half the dough between the two pieces, and then roll and flatten it out. Get it into approximately a rectangular shape about the size of the 9 x 13 baking dish. Place that into the baking dish.

Repeat again for the second half of the dough and use it as the top layer after putting down chocolate chips and melted caramel.

Hints for Chocolate Caramel Bars

It took a long time for me to find the caramels for this recipe. I almost resorted to trying to make my salted caramel sauce and maybe cook it to a different stage to get the right consistency. My mom ended up finding some and bringing them to me. But try looking for caramels in either the candy section or the baking aisle near the chocolate chips.

Or you can even look into buying caramels online.

You’ll want to have milk ready for this.

It is a sugary, gooey, chocolatey treat that just begs to be paired with a glass of milk to wash it down. Trust me. Or, even better, maybe pair warm chocolate caramel bars with creamy vanilla bean ice cream.

And you can add nuts to the caramel bars as an option at the same time as adding the chocolate chips to the baking dish.

How did yours turn out?

I’d love to hear when you try out these German chocolate caramel bars! Take a pic of your food and share your success with me by adding it to your Instagram stories or feed, and tagging me @doyouroux, or by using #doyouroux.

Plus, leave a rating to let me know how you liked the recipe. It helps me out a lot to know how things worked out… or didn’t.

Super Gooey German Chocolate Caramel Bars

Recipe by Marc PetersonCourse: DessertDifficulty: Intermediate

Servings

15

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

20

minutes

Total time

40

minutes

Gooey caramel and chocolate chips layered between German chocolate cake mixes make delicious chocolate caramel bars nobody can resist

Ingredients

• 17 ounces unwrapped caramels

• 1 cup evaporated milk, divided

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

• 2 boxes German chocolate cake mix, 15.25 ounces each

• 6 tablespoons butter, melted

• 1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C)
• In a small saucepan over low heat, melt together the caramels, 1/3 cup evaporated milk, and sea salt while stirring occasionally until fully melted
• While the caramel is melting, combine both cake mixes, 2/3 cup evaporated milk, and melted butter in a mixing bowl and mix until fully combined into a dough
• Roll out half of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to about 9×13 size
• Place the rolled out half into the bottom of a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake for about 4 minutes until slightly puffed
• Remove the baking dish from the oven and sprinkle it with the chocolate chips in an even layer
• Pour the melted caramel mixture on top of the chocolate chips as evenly as possible
• Roll out the other half of the dough between two sheets of parchment paper to approximately 9×13 size
• Place the rolled out dough on top of the caramel, put it in the oven, and bake it for an additional 15-18 minutes
• Remove the chocolate caramel bars from the oven and let them cool completely so that the caramel can set before cutting them into squares and serving

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A few years back, my wife and I went to a World Market store to peruse the shop. We may have had some goal in mind, but I can’t recall. A smaller, more square-ish than normal little cookbook caught my eye with a photo of pancakes dripping with a deeply purple blueberry syrup.

I flipped through a few pages but ended up leaving the store without it. A couple of months later I opened a birthday present to find that little cookbook. It turns out my wife saw that I enjoyed it and went back later that same day to get it for me.

So very thoughtful of her.

The Cookbook That Could

That little cookbook is Pancakes, Waffles, Crêpes & French Toast: Irresistible recipes from the griddle. Obviously, the book focuses on breakfast items. But the single recipe that I have used the most is one for salted caramel sauce. The book basically opens right to that page if you open it up. Though last time it was stuck together with a little residual caramel.

The funny thing is, the sauce isn’t even a recipe unto itself in the book. It is a recipe for a kind of waffle and the sauce, to be used in combination. But I’ve only ever made the caramel.

The photo of it was so enticing that I just could not resist. I had never tried making caramel before. I thought it was too complicated.

But those photos.

So I just set out and attempted it one Saturday morning for brunch and deliciousness ensued. Since then I have made the sauce many times, and then eventually adapted and updated it with my own variations.

Making Salted Caramel Sauce

Caramel sauce is easier to make than I guessed it would be.

Caramel is essentially sugar that is slowly melted and heated until it browns and develops that signature flavor. Combine that with cream and you’ve got a caramel sauce. Some other ingredients help lend flavor – salt, vanilla, butter, etc. But that is the gist of it.

There are also two main methods for making caramel – wet and dry methods. The dry method is melting sugar by itself in a pan. The wet method is melting the sugar with water. The dry method is more traditional and is generally more difficult during the initial melting phase to let the sugar evenly melt. With the wet method, it is easier to melt the sugar but you have to wait for that water to evaporate and my research shows that it may be more prone to crystallization.

This recipe uses a form of the wet method by melting butter with the sugar at the start. Looking around at other caramel sauce recipes, I don’t seem to see many that add butter at this stage. But that is the way I first tried it and how I tend to do things.

Even though caramel is sticky and can get messy, it actually cleans up real easy with hot water. So don’t be afraid of cleaning the saucepan or the counter after cooking.

I recommend using high-quality butter, cream, and vanilla in this recipe for it to reach its fullest potential. Sometimes it is worth the splurge.

I have heard of issues with caramel crystallization, but haven’t had a whole lot of issues with this recipe. It seems that melting the butter with the sugar really helps keep those issues at bay. Who knows. If you are having any issues with the sugar crystallizing, let me know in the comments and we can try to work it out.

Caution – melted sugar is extremely hot and dangerous, especially to a person with a penchant for sneaking tastes while cooking.

Steps and Stages

I will walk through the stages that I see while cooking, referencing the image below with the numbers on how it tends to look throughout the different steps.

First add the butter and sugar to a saucepan to melt together (stage 1). The butter will melt first. Whisk it together with the sugar (stage 2) until it is all melted and combined. Continue to cook the sugar mixture and it will start to bubble and foam up (stage 3). Then the mixture will kind of look like it is dried out and clumping together (stage 4).

Continue stirring as you heat the mixture and the butter will start to separate, almost like oil and water (stages 5 and 6). Keep it on the heat, stirring occasionally, and the clumped sugar will melt underneath the butter and start looking like a melted caramel under butter (stage 7). At this stage, cook the sugar until it reaches the level of caramelization that you want. Shorter time for a lighter, sweeter, more buttery caramel. Slightly longer for a deeper flavor with some almost burnt notes. If it starts to smoke at all, immediately remove it and move to the next steps. It may be a little burnt, but it might not overpower the flavors yet.

Add the cream into the sugar mixture and whisk together (stage 8) – note that it will bubble up violently when adding the cream. Also add the vanilla and salt at this stage. Now the caramel is made, but you can continue cooking to get it to the consistency you want. For a more runny sauce, take it from the heat immediately. For a thicker sauce, continue cooking for a few more minutes to cook out some liquid (stage 9). Let the sauce cool a bit before using (stage 10).

Uses for Salted Caramel Sauce: Topping ice cream, pancakes, or buttermilk waffles, whisking into hot chocolate, filling a cake, drizzling over cupcakes/frosting, mixing with whipped cream, or just eating a straight spoonful

Buttery Salted Caramel Sauce

Course: DessertDifficulty: Moderate

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

5

minutes

Cooking time

15

minutes

Total time

20

minutes

Buttery and sweet or a little bitter and biting, this salted caramel sauce is versatile, quick and easy to make for topping almost anything

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 tablespoon large flaky salt

Directions

• Melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has melted and is no longer clumped together
• Once the sugar is melted, continue to cook the sugar until it reaches the level of color and caramelization you want (less time for a sweeter, lighter sauce and more time for a more bitter, darker sauce) – if it starts smoking at all, move immediately to the next steps
• Whisk the cream into the sugar mixture until they are fully combined – it will sputter and bubble up when first adding the cream
• Add in the vanilla and salt
• Cook it to the desired consistency then remove it from heat and let cool before using – cooking longer will release moisture and lead to a thicker sauce

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