Pizza Crown

This was fun to make and looks super cool when it comes out of the oven. Appetizer or a meal!
Prep Time: 30 minutes; Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients

• Cornmeal (or flour) for dusting the pan
• 1 pound pizza dough*, store bought or homemade, brought to room temperature
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup marinara or pizza sauce
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• ½ cup chopped pepperoni
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¾ teaspoon dried parsley
• 8 pepperoni, left whole

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  Cover the 12' pan with cornmeal

• 

  Shape the dough to fit the pan

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  Starting from the center, make 8 triangle slices, stopping 3' from edge

• 

  Spread the tomato mixture around the dough

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  Take each triangle and wrap around the filling an under the edge of the dough

• 

  Complete the crown

• 

  Brush with the herbed butter

• 

  Bake for 10-15 minutes, remove from oven and add pepperoni. Return to oven for 5 minutes

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  Finish by brushing with remaining butter. Slice and serve

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
2. Dust a 12-inch round pizza pan or cookie pan with the cornmeal (or flour)
3. Shape the dough to fit the pan.
4. Using a pizza cutter or knife, start at the center of the dough and cut 8 small triangular slices from the center on out, stopping about 3 inches from the edge (so the outer rim is intact).
5. In a bowl, combine ⅔ cup mozzarella cheese, the marinara sauce, 3 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese, the chopped pepperoni and the Italian seasoning.
6. Spread the pizza filling on the uncut 3-inch border of dough, leaving about a ½-inch border from the edges.
7. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella cheese on top of the filling.
8. Lift up the center of each triangle and wrap over the filling and around the outer edge, securing the point underneath the dough.
9. In a small bowl, combine the melted butter, garlic powder, and dried parsley.
10. Brush the top of the crown with half of the melted garlic herb butter.
11. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, or until the dough turns golden brown.
12. Remove the crown from the oven (do not turn the oven off) and place the whole pepperoni slices on the openings between the triangles of pizza dough, where the melted cheese is showing through.
13. Return to the oven and bake with pepperoni on top for the last 5 minutes, until the pepperoni begin to curl.
14. Remove from the oven and immediately brush the top with the remaining garlic herb butter and sprinkle with the rest of the finely-grated Parmesan cheese.
15. Cut into 8 pieces and serve warm.

* Trader Joe’s herb dough works great, too. If you use this, you can eliminate the parsley and garlic powder, just use melted butter.

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