Pizza Gypsy Lemon Drop Pizza

[FornoBravoNews]

Here's a great dessert pizza recipe featured at this year's Expo by The Pizza Gypsy.

Pizza Gypsy Lemon Drop Pizza

This recipe is reminiscent of a "lemon square" dessert. It's both sweet and tart.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. dough ball
• Mascarpone cheese - room temperature
• 2-3 whole lemons, completely zested of all rind, then sliced extremely thin
• 2 TBLS sweet butter
• Approx 1.5-2 heaping cups of confectioners' sugar

Steps:

• Prepare your dough ball into a 12"-14" pie.
• Spread a thin layer of mascarpone cheese across the entire pie, leaving a thin edge of the pie exposed at the outer circumference (just like you make a traditional pie). You don't need much cheese; you're simply using it as a binding agent for the lemons.
• Now layer your thinly sliced lemons. Starting at the center of the pie and, building outward, create a spiral and cover the mascarpone cheese. You'll likely need 2.5 lemons to cover the pie.
• Cook your pie in your screaming hot oven. It should take 90-120 seconds.
• Now brush a thin layer of butter onto the pie, covering all of the lemons.
• Now for the insanity: Using a flour sifter, gently sift confectioners' sugar throughout the surface of the pie. Cover it with a good amount. Don't be shy, but don't "dump it on." Completely cover with a single layer, then wait. You'll notice that the sugar will appear to "melt." It will look like a liquid. That's good. Now repeat the process of covering the pie with another layer. Repeat this process - it will take at least 4 layers (perhaps more) - until the sugar no longer liquefies, but instead starts looking like powder.
• You're done. Slice and serve. Enjoy!

Variations:
One could add pickled ginger and/or thinly julienned fresh mint.

Source:
The Pizza Gypsy of Santa Cruz, Calif.: Home Page

[Lburou]

I want to try that one

[mfiore]

That looks awesome!

I just wanted to clarify. Instructions stated to zest all of the rind, yet the photo seems to show whole lemon slices, peel and all. Am I mistaken?

[Tman1]

We tried this last night. My wife zested the rind, but she thought that she would cut it all off the next time we try it. We tried it two ways... first time we pre-baked the crust which made it easy to spread LOTS of marscapone on. The second time we used a fresh dough which made for more difficult cheese spreading. It soaks up LOTS of icing sugar for sure. The only downside was how sogy it got in the middle. The lemon juice comes out along with the melted marscapone making for lots of moisture. Looking at the picture they must not have used near as much cheese as I did, even on the fresh dough.

[mfiore]

We made this twice now. While it tastes great, we also had difficulties. The resultant pie looked nothing like the photo above. I found the Marscapone to be difficult to spread. The best we could do was "dollop" it on. The dessert came out very, very watery. The lemons, when cooked at such a high temp, did not look like neat little wheels, as in the photo, but more of a pile of lemon mush!

Everyone loved the way it tasted, though!

[Tman1]

I concur that the lemons turn to mush, and everyone is hesitant at first but all like the taste. We bake the crust (untopped), let it cool slightly, then top it, put it back in the oven for 20-30 seconds, then wash with butter and sift icing sugar.

[mrchipster]

We were at the conference and I can say this desert clinched the deal for my wife to approve of me being able to build the WFO in our back yard. The key to the lemons seems to be cutting the slices very thin and leaving the skin on. The Gypsy crew turned out several of these all looking the same as the one shown.

Still at the block stage here in Minnesota, I will be starting a thread soon.

Chip

[Tman1]

Mine looks like that before I cut it too..... got a pic after it's cut?

[ksm]

We tried this tonight and loved it, too. Thought I'd report about our experience and post a pix of what the inside looked like.

We made this after doing two pizzas and one calzone, so the floor was about 500 degrees.

Following the advice above, we par-baked the "crust" -- for about 40 seconds.

We let it cool only for the time it took to get from the WFO to the kitchen. Thus, the crust was still pretty warm, which made spreading the mascarpone easier. It would have been even easier had I remembered to bring it to room temp first, of course! Following Tman1's lead, we spread on more than just a "thin layer."

Then we layered on the sliced lemons (2 lemons worth) and back into the WFO until the edges were browned and the top bubbling. We lifted the pie up to the top of the oven for a few seconds at the end to brown some of the edges of the lemons.

Back to the kitchen to sift over the powdered sugar. (Once again, I messed up and forgot the butter. Too bad as it probably adds a nice layer of flavor.) However, the pie would only take about 2/3 cup of sugar.

So we were worried that it would be too tart, but it wasn't.

Next time I'll remember to have the mascarpone at room temp and will remember the butter. I'll also try to slice away all but a wafer-thin bit of the rind. Though we used a rasp grater to remove the zest and as much of the rind as we could, the pie doesn't cook long enough for the rind to soften. And since my knife skills aren't stellar, some rinds were thick enough to make them hard to bite through.

As you can see from the "inside" pix, the pie has an almost custard appearance. As others have said, it is juicy, but oh, so tasty!

[ksm]

Aargh! The pix didn't post. Let me try again.