Halloween Ghost Pizza is the ultimate in simplicity and taste. Its crisp crust is topped with a simple homemade pizza sauce, Parmesan cheese, and Mozzarella cheese, and finished with adorable Mozzarella ghosts. One bite of this classic pizza and you'll never opt for the store-bought pizza again!
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Making The Pizza Dough
I started by making the pizza dough consisting of bread flour, instant yeast, salt, olive oil, and water. The beauty of this crust is that the food processor does most of the work.
- I added the bread flour, yeast, and salt to the bowl of the food processor fitted with a steel blade. Then, I pulsed the ingredients 5 or 6 times to ensure they were well combined.
- Next, I added the olive oil and water and processed the dough until a rough ball formed. This took about 40 seconds. Then, after letting the dough rest for about 2 minutes, I processed it for 30 more seconds.
- I transferred the dough to a floured surface and formed it into a round ball. Finally, I placed it in a greased 4-cup measuring cup, covered it with plastic wrap, and let it rise until it doubled in size. This took about 1-½ hours.
Sometimes, I make the dough ahead of time. Rather than letting it rise, I roll it in olive oil, place it in a Ziploc bag, and refrigerate it until I'm ready to use it.
Making The Super-Simple Pizza Sauce
While the dough was rising, I made a super-simple pizza sauce consisting of tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, dried oregano, dried basil, onion powder, sugar, and salt.
I added all of the pizza sauce ingredients to my blender and puréed it for about 30 seconds. Then, I transferred the pizza sauce to a bowl, covered and refrigerated it until I was ready to use it. That's it!
Ingredients for Halloween Ghost Pizza
I used the following ingredients for the Ghost Pizza: Prepared pizza dough, olive oil, super-simple pizza sauce, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, shredded Mozzarella cheese, sliced Mozzarella cheese, and black olives.
Making the Ghosts
I did a fair amount of experimentation on how to best make the ghosts and how to best use them.
For making the ghosts, I settled on sliced Mozzarella cheese and a three ½-inch and a 2-inch ghost cookie cutter.
Without going into the experimentation, I placed a slice of Mozzarella cheese on a flat surface and used the large and small ghost cookie cutters to cut out the Mozzarella ghosts!
The cookie cutters that I used were of a perfect size to cut out a large and small ghost from one slice of Mozzarella cheese!
Again, through experimentation, I decided that cut-out black olives were the best solution to the eyes and mouths.
To do this, I used a #7 round pastry tip for the small ghost's eyes and a #12 round pastry tip for the large ghost's eyes. I used black olive scraps for the mouths!
With my experimentation with making the Ghost Pizza, I concluded that the best time to add the Mozzarella ghosts was when the pizza came out of the oven.
The pizza was hot enough to melt the ghosts somewhat but not hot enough to brown or distort them! Therefore I needed to have the ghosts ready to go when the pizza came out of the oven.
I wanted the ghosts to have eyes and mouths. Also, I wanted to know how to best position the ghosts.
Therefore, I drew a rough circle on a piece of parchment paper that approximated the size of the finished pizza. Then, I flipped the parchment paper to the other side and positioned the ghosts with their eyes and mouths as I wanted them on the pizza!
Putting the Halloween Ghost Pizza Together
First, I divided the prepared pizza dough in half. I refrigerated the half that I didn't use.
Then, I pressed and rolled the other piece of dough into an 11-inch round on a floured piece of parchment paper. Next, I greased a 12-inch cast-iron skillet with olive oil.
I placed the dough in the skillet and pushed the dough to the edges to completely cover the bottom of the pan.
Next, I spread about ⅓ of a cup of the super-simple pizza sauce over the surface of the dough. I left about a half-inch border around the edge (Photo 1).
Then, I sprinkled the grated Parmesan cheese over the sauce (Photo 2). After that, I sprinkled on the shredded Mozzarella cheese (Photo 3).
To give the crust a jump-start, I heated the skillet over medium heat for about 5 minutes until the outer edge of the dough was set (Photo 4).
Finally, I placed the skillet in a preheated 450° F oven for about 9 minutes until the edge of the pizza was golden brown, and the cheese was melted.
When I pulled the pizza out of the oven, I proceeded to place the ghosts around the top.
Once all of the Ghosts had been placed, I transferred the Ghost Pizza from the cast-iron skillet to a cutting board, and drizzled it with olive oil.
The Halloween Ghost Pizza was so cute that I hated to cut into it! However, it was time to eat, so . . . .
The Halloween Ghost Pizza was as delicious as it was cute. The crust was perfect with just the right amount of ooey-gooey cheese and pizza sauce. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can use store-bought pizza sauce in this recipe. However, the homemade is so much better and so easy to make. Bottom line, it's your choice.
If you'd prefer, you can use store-bought pizza dough in this recipe. One pound of pizza dough will make two pizzas.
When I make this pizza dough ahead of time, I form it into a ball, coat it in olive oil and place it in a quart Ziploc bag as soon as it is processed in the food processor. I then store the pizza dough in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours and up to 16 hours.
I like to go ahead and cook the pizza as indicated above. Once it has cooled, I cover it tightly with aluminum foil and place it in the freezer for up to a month. Then, I heat the pizza as suggested by Cook Illustrated above.
If you like the idea of using a cast iron pan to make a pizza, then you should check out my Cast-Iron Skillet Pizza Margherita. It's amazing!
Also, if you're looking for some more savory recipes for Halloween, check out these:
Recipe
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Halloween Ghost Pizza
Ingredients
Pizza Dough
- 2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons (11 ounces, 312 grams) bread flour
- 1-⅛ teaspoons instant or rapid-rise yeast
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- ¾ cup (6 ounces, 177 ml) filtered water
Super-Simple Pizza Sauce
- 16 ounces (2 8-ounce cans) tomato sauce
- 6 ounce can tomato paste
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1-½ teaspoons dried oregano
- 1-½ teaspoons dried basil
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon onion salt
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Ghosts for Pizza
- 6 slices (4 ounces, 113 grams) sliced Mozzarella cheese
- 1 Tablespoon sliced black olives
Halloween Ghost Pizza
- 8 ounces Pizza Dough, room temperature
- 1-½ Tablespoons olive oil
- ⅓ cup Super-Simple Pizza Sauce
- ¼ cup (.75 ounces, 22 grams) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 1-½ cups (6 ounces, 170 grams) shredded Mozzarella cheese
- 1 teaspoon olive oil, for drizzling on cooked pizza
Instructions
Pizza Dough
- Add bread flour, yeast, and salt to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Pulse 5 times to combine. Add olive oil and water. Process until a rough ball forms, 30 to 40 seconds. Let rest for 2 minutes. Process an additional 30 seconds. Transfer to a lightly floured surface; knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball. Place in a large, lightly greased bowl; cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 1-½ hours. (See Note 1) Yield: 1 pound of pizza dough - enough for two pizzas.
Super-Simple Pizza Sauce
- Add all ingredients to the blender. Purée for 30 seconds, or until all ingredients are well combined. (See Note 2) Yield: 2-½ cups.
Ghosts for Pizza
- Trace an 11-inch circle on a piece of parchment paper. Flip to the other side. Set aside.
- Using ghost cookie cutters, cut out ghosts from sliced Mozzarella cheese. Position on parchment as you want them to appear on the finished pizza. (See Note 3)
- Cut out eyes and mouths of black olive slices, and place them on the ghosts. Set aside until the pizza comes out of the oven. (See Note 4)
Halloween Ghost Pizza
- Preheat oven to 450° F.
- Brush 1-½ Tablespoons of olive oil in bottom of 12-inch cast-iron skillet; set aside.
- Divide pizza dough in half. Press and roll one piece of dough into an 11-inch round. Transfer to prepared cast-iron skillet; gently push it to the corners of the pan. Spread ⅓ cup of super-simple pizza sauce over surface of dough leaving ½-inch border around the edge. Top with ¼ cup of the grated Parmesan cheese and 1-½ cups of the shredded mozzarella cheese.
- Set skillet over medium heat and cook until the outside edge of the dough is set and the pizza is lightly puffed, about 5 minutes. Transfer skillet to preheated oven; bake until the edge of the pizza is golden brown and the cheese is melted, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove pizza from oven; position the ghosts on the hot pizza. (See Note 3)
- Remove pizza from cast-iron skillet. If desired, drizzle with olive oil, and serve.
- Yield: 1 11-inch pizza (See Note 5)
Video
Tips/Notes
- Alternatively, the pizza dough can be refrigerated for at least 8 hours or up to 16 hours. If only making one pizza, refrigerate the remaining dough for another use.
- Super-Simple Pizza Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week, or frozen for up to 1 month.
- I use a 3-½ inch ghost cookie cutter for the large ghosts and a 2-inch ghost cookie cutter for the small ghosts.
- I used a #7 round pastry tip to cut out the eyes for the small ghosts, and a #12 round pastry tip for the eyes for the large ghosts. I just used scraps of the black olives for the mouths.
- Through a lot of experimentation, I concluded that the best time to add the ghosts was when the pizza came out of the oven, but was still hot.
- If you don't want the hassle to making your own pizza, you can still make an adorable Ghost Pizza with a store-bought cheese pizza. Cut out the ghosts, eyes, and mouths as described. Bake the pizza according to the package directions. When the it comes out of the oven, position the ghosts on the still hot pizza.
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