amanda macy hall

Halloween Pizza! Pinterest got the best of me and I bit off a spooky pizza that was a touch tricky, but really tasty. And super spooky cute!

MJ had fun with it, so I am declaring the Spooky Halloween Pizza a new seasonal tradition!

It’s fresh on my mind, so here is how it’s done! Plus, some tips for next time…

INGREDIENTS

• Pizza Crust, I used the Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash Frozen Pizza Crust*
• Pepperonis or Salami {MJ loves salami, so that’s what we used}
• Can of whole black olives
• Pizza Sauce**
• Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Sliced Provolone Cheese

*A quick word about the Trader Joe’s Butternut Squash Frozen Pizza Crust.

1. I thought it was super delicious. Great texture. Very crispy. Josh said the inside seemed interesting, but… I thought it was crispy and yummy throughout.

2. It took a total of 30 minutes just to prep {you heat both sides in the oven}. I thought that by purchasing a frozen crust I’d be saving myself a lot of time. But… not so much. Silver lining: I used every bit of that time to prep the toppings!

3. The package says it serves 6 people. That’s a fat lie. Both of my kids just ate the unused toppings and we still wished there was more. Yup, that means Josh and I ate an entire pizza. Next time, buy two crusts. Or choose another crust that is much larger. Then maybe I’ll encourage the kids to eat the crust too… I didn’t exactly push them to eat it, because I knew they just wanted the toppings and Josh and I wanted their slices 😉 Excellent parents.

** A quick word about the pizza sauce.

I forgot to buy it.

So I made a delicious pizza sauce by combining 1 can of tomato paste, 1 can of tomato sauce, 1 spoonful of fresh minced garlic {the jarred kind, save yourself some time}, 1 T olive oil, 2 T+ dried italian seasoning, and salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Combine and heat on the stove until needed.

HOW-TO MAKE SPOOKY HALLOWEEN PIZZA

Another thing about the pizza crust is that it is fragile and will have spent about 30 minutes in a 450 degree oven by the time it’s ready to be topped. HOT!

Not safe for kids!

So, while the crust baked. MJ and I ‘spotted’ the red and black spiders and the ghosts, so to speak. Using whole black olives, I cut some in half lengthwise for the spider’s body, and I cut some into fourths lengthwise for the legs.

MJ had fun counting out the legs and placing 8 on each spider body. Fine motor skills + counting/math! Woo!

Next we used this ghost cookie cutter to cut the slices of provolone cheese into friendly ghost shapes. I was able to get two ghosts on each slice.

When the pizza crust was finally ready to be topped, I spread on the pizza sauce and added some shredded mozzarella. Next, I made a layer of salami spiders.

Remember – the sheet pan was crazy hot. So MJ watched each step, but didn’t touch or actually do anything.

Next up, a few black olive spiders!

Then, into the oven it went for about 4 minutes.

Yup, without the ghosts…

Four minutes in that super hot oven would have melted our cheese ghosts into nothingness. So! After the shredded cheese, salami, and black olives had their special time in the oven, I added a few cheese ghosts.

You have two options at this point— Serve your spooky Halloween pizza now! Or, pop it back into the oven for no more than two minutes to let the cheesy ghosts melt just a little bit. I chose the latter option.

Here’s our final Spooky Halloween Pizza! Everything was warmed through and the ‘characters’ kept their shape. Boo!

I used a butcher’s knife to cut the pizza into triangle slices – I was worried about what a pizza cutter would do. And honestly… I’m not sure I still have a pizza cutter because I prefer using a knife for pizza. Cleaner lines. Crazy lady.

Turns out, only 3 ghosts ended up fitting on our pizza. But, the kids ate their pizza ‘deconstructed’, so the extra ghosts were gobbled up! {olives sliced into teeny tiny pieces for baby brother}.

They also had a pile of extra cheese from the ghosts, lots more chopped black olives, and sliced salami.

It was a fun dinner! I enjoyed making the Spooky Halloween Pizza with MJ and like I said before, this will now be a Halloween tradition for our family!

Do you have any food traditions with your family? I have a spider PB&J that I am hoping to try this week, too.

My mom used to create special seasonal/holiday foods for us {opposite day was majorly awesome} and it’s clearly been something that stuck with me so much that I wanted to recreate it for my family 🙂

Thank you for reading!

Amanda Macy Hall