Pudding may not be the first pairing you think of when it comes to pizza, but it’s not exactly the craziest thing to ever have been conceived as a topping. Smooth and spreadable, and versatile, it opens up a world of possibilities as a sweet post-bake base for crumbled graham crackers, sliced fruit, and caramel or butterscotch drizzles. To maintain its pleasant consistency, however, it’s best applied after cooking the dough (using a blind bake with ice cubes or a thin, wide-rim metal pizza pan in the center) and allowing it to cool briefly post-bake.
This recipe was developed as part of a Brooklyn Blackout Dessert Pizza featuring a cocoa dough. It taps into approaches used by Bon Appétit and The New York Times to approximate the pudding used in the original cake, adapting elements from several recipes to make it more friendly to a dessert pizza. It could just as easily be used on your favorite savory pizza dough, or even as a dessert dip for pizza crusts.
Note: If you’re concerned about lumps, you can press the pudding through a fine mesh strainer.
Featured in: Brooklyn Blackout Pizza: A Labor of Love and Nostalgia
Arthur Bovino is Ooni’s Head of Pizza Content. Arthur is the founder of the 101 Best Pizzas in America and author of “Buffalo Everything: A Guide to Eating in ‘The Nickel City’” and “The Buffalo New York Cookbook: 70 Recipes from The Nickel City.” You can follow him on Instagram @nycbestpizza.
