Sweet Potato Pecan Pizza

A sweet potato maple syrup mash stands in for marinara sauce atop a zesty whole-wheat crust in this playful pizza. The whole family can have fun decorating the dough with cheddar cheese, toasted pecans and citrus slices. This recipe comes to us from Kathy of Healthy, Happy Life.

Ages 8-11

Serves 8

For the whole wheat pizza dough*:

• 1 cup water
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons yeast
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• a little olive oil for brushing the dough and pan
• 1 1/2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
  1 teaspoon garlic powder

To complete the Sweet Potato Pecan Pizza:

• 1 large sweet potato
  2 tablespoon olive oil
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  1 tablespoon maple syrup
  juice from 1 clementine
  3 clementines or tangerines
  3/4 cup cheddar cheese
  3/4 cup chopped roasted, unsalted pecans
  a drizzle olive oil or maple syrup, to top**

*Whole-wheat pizza dough is sold in stores, but if time allows, we suggest making your own with the recipe below.

**Optional

To make the whole-wheat pizza dough:

Together: Place the water, salt, sugar, olive oil, whole wheat flour, all purpose flour and yeast together in a bread machine set to its pizza dough setting. Place the ingredients in the order indicated in the bread machine’s manual.

Adult: Process the pizza dough according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If the dough appears too wet or too dry, add a little flour or water to the dough, 1 tablespoon at a time.

To complete the Sweet Potato Pecan Pizza:

Together: Whether you are using store bought pizza dough or made your own dough, fold the olive oil and dried Italian seasoning into the pizza dough.

Together: Prepare a pizza pan or baking tray with a layer of oil or nonstick cooking spray. Roll or hand-stretch the dough into a large disc shape or pizza shape of preference. Let the dough rise in its pizza shape for 30 minutes.

Adult: Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Prick the sweet potato several times with a fork. While the pizza dough is rising, bake the sweet potato in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until tender. Set the sweet potato aside and turn the oven up to 415 degrees.

Kid: Prick the pizza dough several times with a fork. Brush the top of the pizza with a little olive oil. Sprinkle the pizza dough with the garlic powder.

Adult: Bake the crust in the 415 degree oven for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Together: Peel the sweet potato and place in a large bowl. Add the olive oil, clementine juice and maple syrup. Season with the salt and mash well with a potato masher or fork.

Kid: Spread the mashed sweet potato over the partially baked crust as you would a traditional pizza sauce.

Adult: Peel the clementines or tangerines and slice into rounds, removing seeds whenever possible. Cut the cheddar cheese into thin slices.

Kid: Sprinkle a thin layer of pecans over the top of the sweet potato. Top with the Clementine rounds and cheddar cheese slices.

Adult: Top with an extra drizzle of maple syrup or olive oil, if desired. Bake at 415 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the pizza is cooked through and the edges begin to brown. Cool for a few minutes, cut into 8 slices and enjoy!