Beet Crust Dessert Pizza
This beautiful, ruby-hued dessert pizza is made with a gluten-free beet crust that is topped with whipped coconut cream, chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, and drizzled with melted chocolate and melted peanut butter.
This Beet Crust Dessert Pizza is simply decadent!
I used almost the same recipe I used to make the crust for this beet pizza and topped it with all the forms of peanut butter and chocolate I had on hand.
What are the ingredients to make this Beet Crust Dessert Pizza?
For the Beet Crust Dessert Pizza you will need the following 9 ingredients for the crust:
- Beets
- Almond meal
- Gluten-free flour
- Salt
- Baking powder
- Olive oil
- Egg
- Vanilla
- Granulated sugar
And these three ingredients for toppings:
- Chocolate chips
- Peanut butter chips
- Coconut whipped cream or some sort of whipped topping
On Valentine’s Day, heart-shaped candies, chocolates, and red roses will start flying off store shelves.
And, the day after, I will be scouring those shelves for discounted sales on the leftovers! Yup, sales fascinate me – almost as much as some of the theories behind Valentine’s Day itself.
Musings on Valentine’s Day…
One of the theories I have come across suggests that it was the actions of a Roman priest, named St. Valentine, that lead to any significance being associated with February 14.
As this theory goes… there was a Roman emperor called Claudias who, figuring that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers, prohibited the marriage of young people!
Along came St. Valentine, who was an advocate of marriage and who, (inspite of the prohibition by Cladias), began secretly marrying those people wishing to do so.
St. Valentine was eventually caught and imprisoned. And, while he was imprisoned and awaiting his sentence, he started having a visitor. A young lady. Who, turned out to be the daughter of “Asterius”, who was one of the men who was to judge him.
The theory goes on to say that, St. Valentine prayed with and healed the young lady of her blindness which led to Asterius himself reinstating his loyalty to Christianity. However, it doesn’t end there – this particular theory further goes on to say that St. Valentine was sentenced to torture and ultimately death – and, the last note St. Valentine sent to Asterius’ daughter was signed with these three words “from your Valentine”.
Now there are other theories and stories – but, this is one of my favorites.
When my daughter was in elementary school, it was customary to have little Valentine’s Day cards for every one of her classmates.
Even though each child took turns going around and placing a Valentine’s Day card/chocolate in other’s “mailboxes” while in plain sight of each other, my daughter never wanted to sign her name on the cards she gave out, instead she would simply scribble “from your Valentine” on the back!
While I wait for those discounted candies to go on sale, my daughter and I will be chowing on some Beet Crust Dessert Pizza!
A few notes about this beet crust dessert pizza
This beet pizza base isn’t too different from my past beet pizzas – but it does have one teaspoon of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla in it.
I baked the base first and let it come to room temperature.
Then I topped it with whipped coconut cream, chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, and melted chocolate and melted peanut butter.
This dessert beet pizza is quite popular at our home.
Variations
We have enjoyed this beet crust dessert pizza topped with whipped cream instead of whipped coconut.
One time, my daughter even insisted we top it with frozen yogurt and homemade hard-shell -and seeing she had a healthy dose of veggies in her dessert, I couldn’t argue!
Today, I am guest posting for a fellow Atlanta blogger – Lindsey over at American Heritage Cooking as she perfects her already ah-mazing baking and decorating skills at the International Culinary School in NYC!
Ingredients
For the Beet Crust:
- 2 medium to small beets
- 3/4 cup almond meal
- 1/3 cup gluten-free flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
Toppings:
- 1 1/2 cups Chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups Peanut butter chips
- 1/4 cup coconut whipped topping or any whipped topping you prefer
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Wash the beets, and cut off any roots and stems. Then, wrap the beets in aluminum foil and bake them for 45 minutes, or until tender.
- When beets are baked through, remove them from the oven and let them cool until they are okay to handle by hand.
- Then, unwrap the foil off the beets. Peel off any beet skin with a peeler. Then, place the beets in a high-powered blender. Blend on high until beets are puréed. This should result in about 1 and 1/4 cups of puréed beets.
- Then place the puréed beets in a large bowl. To the bowl, add the almond meal, gluten-free flour, salt, baking powder, olive oil, egg, vanilla, and sugar, and mix well with a spatula. The dough will be wet.
- Using the spatula, smooth out beet crust to about 1/3 inch thick onto a parchment-lined baking tray.
- Turn the oven to 375 degrees F and bake for 25 mins.
- Remove the beautiful beet crust from the oven and turn the oven off.
- Let it cool
- Then, top that gorgeous beet crust with coconut cream or whipped cream, some of the chocolate chips (about 1/2 cup approx), and some of the peanut butter chips (about 1/2 cup approx).
- Melt the remaining cup of chocolate chips by placing the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwaving on high for 30 seconds. If not melted, repeat another 30 seconds, stirring between. Then drizzle the melted chocolate over the pizza.
- Repeat this with the peanut butter chips and drizzle the melted peanut butter chips over the pizza.
- Then slice and enjoy!
As a Roman history buff, I have to applaud your references here! I, too, was just reading up on our buddy Valentine the other day. What a crazy character! Almost as crazy as this beet crust pizza. I can only imagine how much fun you had making this pizza. It looks like a mess. A crazy, awesome, delicious mess!
There are so many different stories bout Mr.V – but I think the mystery is part of the allure 🙂 Yup-this pizza was fun to make-even more fun to eat! Thanks so much David!
Now that’s not a story with a happy ending! I didn’t know that story of St Valentine but it’s a good one. I think your beet dessert pizza is very pretty and totally fitting for Valentine’s Day xx
Charlie – every story I have heard about St. Valentine was tragic! Yikes! Btw – thanks so much! xx
oh i just love a good story and colorful food! wow, you need to change your blog need to Beets with Love! haha. i’d eat it all! <3
Haha – Thanks so much Lindsay! :Beets with Love” – does have a nice ring to it…I didn’t realize how much beets my daughter and I actually ate till I started blogging about them!
This is gorgeous! Love the beets in that crust — so perfect for Valentine’s! I am definitely waiting for the discount candy too… Lol
Thanks Ashley!!!
I used to love giving and exchanging all the little valentine cards in elementary school!! So much fun 🙂
This pizza has me drooling! Heading over to check it out!
Thanks Ashley!
I heard that story about St. Valentine, and I’m definitely a fan 🙂 Also.. I’m not even kidding that I was thinking about dessert pizza this morning. I can’t even remember the last time I had one, which means I probably need one in my life -stat-.
Happy Wednesday, lovely lady!
I am convinced that dessert pizza makes these chilly winter mornings more bearable! 😉
Thanks lovely lady – hope you are having a great weekend!
I totally love the after holiday sales too and the story behind St. Valentine 🙂 And this pizza is gorgeous! You are seriously the queen of beets! I’m loving the sound of all those toppings too! Hopping over to grab the recipe!
Thanks so much Kelly – I hope y’all are having a wonderful weekend!
Wow, this is the prettiest pizza that I have seen…love the dessert version and yes, perfect for Valentine’s day…
Thanks for the idea…hope you are enjoying your week Shashi 🙂
Thanks so much Juliana! Hope you are enjoying your weekend 🙂
This is such a genius idea! And so perfect for V-day! That color of the crust is insanely gorgeous!
Thanks Chris!
Gorgeous, Shashi! You are the queen of beets!!
Thanks so much Marissa!
Interesting about the origin (possible origin?) of Valentine’s Day.
We are pretty much past the whole school celebrations and I’m not really sad.
Oh my gosh, Kim – those 20+ Valentine’s day cards and the decorated tissue “mail box” used to keep us up past my bedtime during my daughters elementary school years!
I love everything you do with beets!
Thanks so much Melanie!
Yeah, we always buy the discounted candies, too. Of course we also buy them before Valentine’s Day! 🙂 This looks like a terrific pizza — going to read the recipe right now . . .
Haha – I need to find me a store that sells those candies discounted before Valentines Day too! Thnks so much KR!
You and your beets…how come we are still friends Shashi? Like seriously…
And just for the record: I hate St. Valentine’s Day
😉
Oh quit being a Valentine’s scrooge, Mike! 😉
Dude … if memory serves me well – didn’t you have a “beet juice” recipe on your blog last year??? 😉
Definitely heading over to get this recipe! This is a gorgeous pizza! The beets give such a great color.
Thanks so much Ashley!
It’s tea time over here and I wish I could grab one simply off from the screen! They look amazing!
Thanks so much Angie!