You don't need to be a zombie to enjoy eating a brain! That is if it's a Stuffed Pizza Brain made with garlic herb pizza dough baked around gooey mozzarella cheese, mini pepperoni, and blood-red marinara sauce.
How creepy is that???
If you are looking to gross out your friends and family this Halloween, bake them a Stuffed Pizza Brain.
It may look really disgusting but it tastes amazing! The brain-shaped pizza crust is coated in butter, olive oil, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning before it's baked so the crust tastes like a delicious Italian breadstick.
Hiding inside the pizza crust brain is lots of melted mozzarella cheese, mini pepperoni, and bloody pizza sauce.
Gross looking, huh?
But, believe me, it's really delicious. I made a lot of pizza brains before figuring out how to make it look so real, so we ate a lot of stuffed pizza this week. We loved every bite.
I wish I would have created this recipe to serve at our Zombie-themed Halloween party. My party guests would have loved it.
Let's make a pizza brain!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- red food coloring
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
- 14 ounces homemade pizza dough (or one tube of thick crust pizza dough)*
- ¼ cup mini pepperoni (or your favorite pizza topping)
- 1 cup Mozzarella Cheese
*Notes about pizza dough.
- You'll need approximately 14 ounces of dough to make one pizza brain.
- You can go the easy route and use a tube of store-bought pizza dough or you can make homemade pizza dough using my favorite recipe. Both work equally well.
- I actually used the tube of pizza dough to make my brains to save time. I made 4 pizza brains while experimenting so I didn't want to take the time to make homemade dough.
Special Equipment Needed:
- You will need one silicone brain mold.
- DO NOT USE a plastic brain mold that is meant to make gelatin brains. You need a mold that can be put into the oven.
- Below is a picture of the brain mold that I purchased from Amazon. If you use the link below to purchase your mold, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
- Note: The silicone brain mold is not a full brain. It's one half of a brain and it will sit flat on a serving platter.
Instructions:
Start by making blood-red pizza sauce.
bloody marinara sauce
- Stir a few drops of red food coloring into the marinara sauce to make it look like blood.
- Scoop out 2 tablespoons of the sauce and press through a fine-mesh strainer to get about a tablespoon or so of really thin bloody sauce to drip on your serving platter.
- Splatter some of the thin sauce onto a white serving platter. If it won't splatter nicely, then stir in a small amount of water to thin it out even further. Reserve the remaining sauce to put over the pizza brain.
- Stir the remaining thick sauce back into the rest of the marinara sauce and refrigerate until needed.
pizza crust and fillings
- Lay a large piece of tin foil on the bottom rack in your oven.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Melt the butter then stir in the olive oil, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese.
- Roll the pizza dough out to about 10 inches by 14 inches.
- Cut the pizza crust into about eighteen ¾-inch thick strips.
- Dip one strip into the melted butter mixture and shake off any excess butter.
- Lay the strip of dough in the brain mold, using the lines of the brain as a guide.
- Continue to dip strips of dough into the butter mixture and arrange them in the mold in squiggly patterns using the mold as a guide.
- Cut some really thin pieces and arrange them in the mold to create the Cerebellum.
- Once you have covered the inside of the brain mold with pizza dough, start adding the pizza toppings.
- Sprinkle half of the mini pepperoni over the crust then top with half of the mozzarella cheese.
- Spread two tablespoons of the pizza sauce over the cheese.
- Add one or two strips of butter-coated pizza dough over top.
- Then layer on the remaining pepperoni, cheese, and pizza sauce.
- Dip the remaining strips of pizza dough in the butter and seasoning mixture then layer them in squiggles across the top of the fillings.
- The entire brain should be covered with dough. There will be some holes and that is fine.
- Set the filled silicone mold on the tin foil over the lower rack in the hot oven.
- Bake for 30 minutes then cover the top crust with tin foil. If the center of the dough is not baked through then cut a hole in your tin foil then set the tin foil over the brain so that the hole is open over the middle of the brain.
- Continue to bake for add addition 12-18 minutes until the crust on top becomes golden brown.
- Remove the mold from the oven. I pulled it out and set it on a cutting board to carry it from the oven to my table.
- Then set either a large cake spatula or another cutting board over the pizza.
- Hold onto the spatula and the mold and carefully flip the pizza over.
- Slide it onto your blood-splattered platter.
- Dribble the remaining thin marinara sauce over the brain.
- I spooned the thin sauce into a squeeze bottle and piped it over the brain in some of the deeper crevices. You can see how I do that when you watch the video.
- Heat the remaining thick marinara sauce and serve it as a dipping sauce with the pizza brain.
Video
Be sure to watch the video to see how to make this pizza brain.
Recipe
Stuffed Pizza Brain
Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
40 mins
Brain-shaped pizza crust filled with gooey mozzarella cheese, mini pepperoni, and blood-red marinara sauce.
Course:
Appetizer, Dinner
Cuisine:
American
Keyword:
brains, cheese, gross halloween food, halloween food, pepperoni, pizza
Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- red food coloring
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
- 14 ounces pizza dough (or one tube pizza dough)
- ¼ cup mini pepperoni
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese
Instructions
-
Lay a large piece of tin foil on the bottom rack in your oven.
-
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
-
Stir a few drops of red food coloring into the marinara sauce.
-
Scoop out 2 tablespoons of the sauce and press it through a fine-mesh strainer until you squeeze out about 1 tablespoon of really thin sauce.
-
Splatter some of the thin sauce onto a white serving platter and set aside.
-
Reserve the remaining thin sauce to put over the pizza brain.
-
Stir the remaining thick sauce back into the rest of the marinara sauce and refrigerate until needed.
-
Melt the butter then stir in the olive oil, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and Parmesan cheese.
-
Roll the pizza dough out to about 10-inch by 14-inch rectangle. Cut the pizza crust into about 10-inch by ¾-inch strips (18 strips).
-
Dip one strip into the melted butter mixture and shake off any excess butter.
-
Lay the strip of dough in the brain mold, using the lines of the brain as a guide.
-
Continue to dip strips of dough into the butter mixture and arranging them in the mold in squiggly patterns using the mold as a guide.
-
Cut some really thin pieces and arrange them in the mold to create the Cerebellum.
-
Once you have covered the inside of the brain mold with pizza dough, start adding the pizza toppings.
-
Sprinkle half of the mini pepperoni over the crust then top with half of the mozzarella cheese.
-
Spread two tablespoons of the pizza sauce over the cheese.
-
Add one or two strips of butter coated pizza dough over top.
-
Then layer on the remaining pepperoni, cheese, and pizza sauce.
-
Dip the remaining strips of pizza dough in the butter and seasoning mixture then layer them in squiggles across the top of the fillings.
-
The entire brain should be covered with dough. There will be some holes and that is fine.
-
Set the filled silicone mold on the tin foil over the lower rack in the hot oven.
-
Bake for 30 minutes then cover the top crust with tin foil. If the center of the dough is not baked through then cut a hole in your tin foil then set the tin foil over the brain so that the hole is open over the middle of the brain.
-
Continue to bake for add addition 12-18 minutes until the crust on top becomes golden brown.
-
Remove the mold from the oven. I pulled it out and set it on a cutting board to carry it from the oven to my table.
-
Then set either a large cake spatula or another cutting board over the pizza.
-
Hold onto the spatula and the mold and carefully flip the pizza over.
-
Slide it onto your blood-splattered platter.
-
Dribble the remaining thin marinara sauce over the brain.
-
I spooned the thin sauce into a squeeze bottle and piped it over the brain in some of the deeper crevices. You can see how I do that when you watch the video.
-
Heat the remaining thick marinara sauce and serve it as a dipping sauce with the pizza brain.
Recipe Notes
*Notes about pizza dough.
You'll need approximately 14 ounces of dough to make one pizza brain.
You can go the easy route and use a tube of store-bought pizza dough or you can make homemade pizza dough using my favorite recipe. Both work equally well.
If you make homemade dough and don't have a scale, just use enough dough, following the instructions below, to make one pizza brain.
If you enjoy this Halloween recipe you might also like these recipes...
PB&J Brains filled with peanut butter fudge and
Cake Ball Brains
filled with chocolate cake and raspberry sauce blood
Hi, I'm Beth Jackson Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com
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