It’s almost Valentine’s Day. A day to show your special bae or boo how much you appreciate them, but you can’t think of anything to get them. How about giving them the gift that everyone loves, homemade pizza, but not just any homemade pizza, a very special heart-shaped pizza.
C’mon, anyone can buy chocolates or flowers, but homemade pizza really shows you care. You care about filling your loved one’s belly with delicious pizza. If your love language is acts of service, and by service, I mean feeding those you love, you will love our heart-shaped pizza.
Forming the Dough
So first, you need to make a ball of homemade pizza dough. We have a few recipes you can try here. You can choose between fast-rising within an hour or if you have more time to prepare you can do an overnight rising.
If you want to make something special but don’t have the time to make homemade dough, you can probably find pizza dough at your local grocery store, and many pizzerias even sell their dough.
Ok, so you have some dough, and you are ready to get started. First, you will want to decide whether to make a large heart-shaped pizza or a few smaller personal pizzas. If you opt for one larger, you can look for a heart-shaped baking dish. Mini heart-shaped pans make excellent personal pizzas if you have a few loved ones to bake for.
You can roll out your dough and place it in the pan. If you like a deep-dish Chicago pizza, you can leave enough on the sides to make a deep dish, or if you prefer a thinner crust, lay the dough in the pan and cut off the excess dough. Press the dough into the pan and add some sauce.
Next, add a spoonful of marinara pizza sauce. Make sure not to cover the edges and leave a little space for the crust. Next, you can sprinkle in the mozzarella cheese. If you use grated mozzarella, sprinkle a healthy amount of cheese as a base so your heart-shaped toppings can shine.
If you like a Neopolitan pizza and prefer to use fresh mozzarella slices, you can cut slices of mozzarella and then use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to create mozzarella hearts.
Heart-Shaped Pizza Toppings
For your heart-shaped pizza, you will need heart-shaped toppings. There are a few different ways you can decorate your heart-shaped pizza. We like to cut pepperoni or salami slices into heart shapes.
It’s easy just fold over the slice and make a heart just like you used to in elementary school. A good paring knife or kitchen sheers will work best for this.
If your bae has simple tastes and a pepperoni pizza is the way to their heart, you can stop right here. But if your honey is a vegetarian or likes a more distinct pizza pie, you can try out a few other ideas to make your heart-shaped Valentine pizza perfect. This is the fun part where you can really get creative.
More Toppings Ideas
- Use olives slices to add details or make smaller hearts.
- Cut green peppers into slices and put the curved parts together to make little hearts.
- Add cut sun-dried tomatoes around the edges of the pizza to make a heart outline.
- Take pineapple pieces and form hearts.
- Grill eggplant on a skillet without oil, and when they are cooked, use the cookie-cutter heart to make heart-shaped eggplants.
- Use a white sauce instead of marinara sauce and only use red toppings like red peppers or sun-dried tomatoes to keep the pizza a red and white Valentine theme.
- If your bae likes puns, use artichokes hearts or hearts of palm.
- Cut red onions in heart shapes.
Helpful Tips
- When using a heart-shaped pan instead of a pizza stone, make sure to prebake the pizza dough before adding the toppings. This helps the pizza dough cook properly and not get too soggy when adding your toppings.
- Add the cheese first, so the heart-shaped toppings don’t get covered.
- Lining the pizza pan with parchment paper or a sprinkle of cornmeal/semolina will ensure the pizza doesn’t stick in the pan.
- Whenever you try a new recipe, always do a test run and make it first, so you don’t make any mistakes. You don’t want to have a kitchen disaster as a Valentine’s gift. Especially if you usually use a pizza stone but opt for a heart-shaped pan instead.
Don’t Forget Dessert
Of course, Valentine’s day wouldn’t be complete without a sweet treat to indulge in. And why not use your heart-shaped pan to make something sweet. A delicious sweet treat is a sweet strawberry and chocolate pizza.
Yes, you read that right, a dessert pizza. A dessert pizza is made with a sweet doughing crust and topping with sliced strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate, or if you really like chocolate like we do, then it can be more chocolate than just a drizzle.
The trick here is to keep it light. If strawberries won’t make your sweetie pie’s eyes light up, thinly sliced pears will work well here too.
The crust of a dessert pizza is more like a cookie than a crust. You make cookie dough and bake first in your heart-shaped pizza pan.
When the cookie has cooled, add the sliced fruit. We like to use dark chocolate, but milk chocolate or white chocolate will work too.
Here is a great cookie dough recipe to use as a base:
- 2 ¼ cups of flour
- 1 cup softened butter unsalted
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
Mix the dry ingredients first then add the wet ingredients. Press the dough into the heart-shaped pizza pan and bake for 10 minutes at 375ºF. Make sure to add the fruit only after the sweet crust has cooled.
Your honey bunny will feel so loved to get a savory and sweet pizza for Valentine’s day. Steal their heart by filling their belly. Pizza really is the best gift. It beats roses any day.
What’s your favorite Valentine’s treat to make?
