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.
data-pin-description=”You don’t have to be a zombie to enjoy a delicious brain! If it’s a Stuffed Pizza Skull, that is! These pizza brains will make a fun dinner for Halloween or a zombie party. #halloween #brain #zombie #pizza ”
These bloody brains would be hilarious to serve for dinner this Halloween but they’d also be fun to serve as a movie night snack when you are watching a zombie movie.
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
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
- 14 ounces homemade pizza dough (or one tube of thick crust pizza dough)*
- 1/4 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 3/4 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 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.
Video
Be sure to watch the video to see how to make this pizza brain.
Recipe
Brain-shaped pizza crust filled with gooey mozzarella cheese, mini pepperoni, and blood-red marinara sauce.
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- red food coloring
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese
- 14 ounces pizza dough (or one tube pizza dough)
- 1/4 cup mini pepperoni
- 1 cup Mozzarella cheese
-
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 3/4-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.
*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
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