Cup O' Pizza

Marie: "You live here? Oh, it's nice. Did you decorate it?"
Navin R. Johnson: "Yeah, I got all this stuff from teh old Cup o' Pizza place before they tore it down.
Marie: "Godd pizza." (the two are eating pizza in a cup)
Navin R. Johnson: Oh, this is the best pizza in a cup ever. This guys is unbelievable. He ran the old Cup o' Pizza guy out of business. People come from all over to eat this."

My selection came down to two choices from classic comedies - Monty Python's "Crunchy Frog" and Steve Martin in The Jerk and his favorite food - Cup o' Pizza. Playing with chocolate and yummy crunchy stuff got nixed since I have just started a diet (Boooo.......Hiss.......). So we embarqed on the quest of taking a flat round food item and smooshing it all into cup form. First I tried to think like our good friend, Navin. But I came up blank......

So then we thought to build deep deep dish pizzas in a muffin pan.



To do this you will need:

Any kind of pizza dough - home made, frozen or refrigerated - I used the refrigerated kind in a can. Your favorite sauce, any variety of pizza toppings, and your favorite cheese.

We used home made spaghetti sauce, onions, veggie pepperoni, squash, and Anaheim chili peppers, and of course our veggie cheese.



Preheat the oven to 375. Then oil the muffin tin (we just hit it with some spray oil). Roll out your pizza dough and using a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter cut the dough into individual rounds and lay these in the cups of the pan.

Top with a spoon full of sauce,



Then pile on any of your favorite toppings.



We had a great time with this and everyone got to make their own unique Cup o'Pizzas.



Top generously with cheese and then into the oven for about 15-20 minutes - you will see the edge of the crust start to brown and the cheese get all nice and melty.



Let cool, loosen with a knife, pop them out and start munching!!! The kids - big and small thought this was the bomb!!



Since doing this for the photos we have had it a couple more times (as I said it was an instant hit with the kids) and have tried all sorts of toppings - we did these with pesto instead of tomato sauce, and a round with refried beans rather than sauce. Next on my list is a white sauce and hide yucky stuff like spinach and artichokes in it.

Then, once perfected we are gonna put that muffin tin pizza guy down the road outa business!!!