Pizza Skulls

My husband has taken to calling them pizza faces!

How to make

These cheesy, saucy, festive Halloween treats are really super easy to make. I’ve been wanting to make them for you for a while now. You know how much I love Halloween. Check out my Mozzarella Skulls and Mushroom Skulls for more skull fun.

First, you’ll need to get a skull shaped mold pan. I recommend the Nordic Ware Halloween Bakeware, Haunted Skull Cakelet Pan. It has a great shape to the faces and a nice depth for adding pizza fillings into the skulls. You can see the Nordic Skull Pan results in my Skull Cakes and in my Skull Egg Bites. I own one of these pans, but right now I loaned it out to a friend, so I used a different set of skulls, one that had Jack o’ lanterns as well. It’s fun, and if skulls are too spooky for you, just know that other shapes work just as well, as long as they have large cavities in the pan so you can fit all that filling!

Be sure to scroll down for the full recipe with ingredients and instructions, but here’s the gist.

dough

Roll out the pizza dough nice and thin. You can use homemade pizza dough, Pillsbury thin pre-made pizza crust, or store-bought pizza crust. I find the Pillsbury canned ones to be easy to use, but have a slightly off flavor, so my choice for convenience is the store-bought dough. I usually find it in the deli section of the store; Trader Joe’s also often sells pizza dough.

Cut dough into sections, slightly bigger than the skull cavity, to allow enough dough to seal on the back of the skull.

Lay dough loosely over cavity, so it dips into the well. Gently push dough to sides of the skull mold. Be careful to not pull dough too thin or a hole might form. If you do create a hole, either pinch the dough back together or add a little piece of dough to cover the hole.

I also played around with layering pieces of dough over the skull to give it a cracked look. I think it looks pretty cool after it’s baked (there’s a picture of it in the post).

filling

Next, you’re going to layer the pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings in your skullzone (skull calzone). And, as always, I highly recommend using my homemade pizza sauce (recipe linked above). It’s thick and rich and only takes a couple minutes to mix up. It won’t make your pizzas soggy at all.

I give you rough amounts in the recipe card, but keep in mind if you have bigger or smaller skulls, you’ll want to size the fillings accordingly. You want to almost fill the skull cavity – remember, the pizza dough will puff up a bit, and you still have to seal the back with the dough.

Fold the dough up over the back and seal the pizza. Cut off any extra dough and fold the dough over the back of the skull so it is completely sealed. Gently press down on dough into the mold so it takes the shape of the face.

Using a pastry brush, brush the egg wash on the back of the skull to seal the dough on the back of the skull.

Repeat with remaining ingredients until all skulls are filled. Cover the pan and refrigerate 15-30 minutes to seal pizzas.

bake

Place the skull pan(s) on a baking sheet to catch anything that might drip over the sides. And don’t worry if the filling escapes a bit, it’ll just make the pizza skulls that much spookier.

Bake the calzone-like pizza pockets in the preheated oven for 20-30 minutes or until the dough looks slightly crisp and light brown on top (be careful to not over bake). Let cool 10-15 minutes and invert onto a cooling rack.

Be careful, these are very hot in the middle so be sure to cool on cooling rack until desired temperature is reached before serving. Serve with additional pizza sauce on the side, or any other dipping sauces you like, like garlic butter dipping sauce, or ranch dressing.

When serving, you may want to fill the eye sockets or the mouth with pizza sauce and let it drip down the side of the skull.

Make ahead and storage

These skulls are best served the day they’re made. But, if you want to make them ahead for a party, refrigerate the pizza skulls in an airtight container for up to 3 days, then reheat them in a 350° F. oven for about 15 minutes until heated through.

For longer storage, freeze them for up to a month.

Other filling options

Feel free to use your favorite pizza fillings here – pepperoni, vegetables, black olives, sausage, whatever you normally like on a pizza.

Or, go wild, with pesto, Alfredo sauce, or marinara.

Really, if you have a skull pan you can make all kinds of things. Stuff the pizza dough with Mexican fillings for burrito or enchilada skulls with enchilada sauce, pepper jack cheese, corn, and roasted peppers.

Make cornbread or any quick bread in the molds. Make chicken or veggie pot pies.

Just make sure the toppings are chopped up nice and small so they fit inside the skulls, and don’t over stuff the pan.