How to make Heart Shaped Pizza with Cheese Stuffed Crust

Nothing says “I Love You” more than a homemade heart-shaped stuff crust pizza. Surprisingly not that hard to make, this post will show you How to make Heart Shaped Pizza with a cheese stuffed crust and pepperoni hearts! The ultimate Valentine’s Day meal!

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Valentine’s Day Heart Shaped Pizza

The entirety of Matt and I’s relationship we have never gone out to eat for Valentine’s Day, always opting to stay at home and make something instead, usually homemade pasta or pizza.

Well this year a vision of this pizza came into my head which in my opinion is the epitome of what a Valentine’s Day date at home should look like.

A delicious pizza with stuffed crust, shaped into a heart, topped with simple sauce, Italian seasonings, melty cheese, and heart shaped pepperoni. This dish really does say “I Love You”.

And even make the love flow a little more by pairing with a Rosé Strawberry Sangria and finish the meal off with Valentine Nutella Truffles or this adorable Vintage Heart Cake.

The best part while there is a few different components to make this pizza if you follow the recipe step by step I think that you really will find it quite easy to make!

Ingredients Needed to make a Heart Shaped Pizza

• Pizza Dough: For 1 pizza (although you will have enough other ingredients to make a 2nd regular pizza if you wish). I tested this will both a store bought dough found in the refrigerator section and my homemade pizza dough, both worked great but I definitely recommended store bought dough for convince.
• Kitchen Ready Tomatoes: Found with the rest of the canned tomatoes, look for a large can that says ‘Kitchen Ready’ usually also will say plum tomatoes. These canned tomatoes work perfect as an instant sauce. Feel free to use your own favorite pizza sauce if you want instead of the kitchen ready tomatoes.
• Low-Moisture Mozzarella Cheese: In a BLOCK, for the best pizza you do not want the pre-shredded stuff it does not melt as well. Look for an often square package that says it is low-moisture (not to be confused this the fresh mozzarella that comes in the tube shape and in a water solution). The low-moisture mozzarella usually comes in both whole fat and low-fat varieties, whole fat tastes better and melts better but both will work. Lastly it almost always comes in a 16oz (1lbs) package, you will only need at most half of this for the heart-shaped pizza.
• Pepperoni: I put exactly 11 on my pizza the first time I tested and the I fit 16 for the photographed version. Each pizza you make will have a slightly different size. So you probably want at least 20 slices of pepperoni on hand. The pepperoni can then be cut into a heart shape, which really isn’t too hard since you can make stacks and get a bunch cut at once.
• String Cheese: MORE CHEESE! While yes you could technically use the other mozzarella to stuff the pizza’s crust you just cannot beat the convince of the cheese stick. So grab a pack, you will probably need 7 to 9 though depending on size.
• Salt: You will use the salt and the following spices to make a quick Italian seasoning to flavor the pizza.
• Oregano: A classic Italian spice to add flavor.
• Basil: Another classic Italian spice to add flavor, often found in pizza sauces!
• Olive Oil: To really make this stuff crust amazing and not boring we will brush a little olive oil on the crust and then dust it with the Italian seasoning, trust me you don’t want to skip this step.
• Cornmeal: This isn’t actually going in or on the pizza but it is used for the crust on the prep surface and cooking surface so it doesn’t stick.

Now that you have everything lets make pizza!

How to make Heart Shaped Pizza

Begin by preheating your oven to 425ºF. If you have a pizza stone (which you should because it makes this 1000% better if you do) add the pizza stone to the oven while preheating so it can get hot.

Don’t have a pizza stone? That is okay I recommend using a sheet pan if that is the case!

You will start by prepping the seasoning, cheese, and pepperoni.

To make the seasoning simply mix together the salt, oregano, and basil in a small bowl. Set aside until needed.

Next shred the cheese. I have found that mozzeralla isn’t the easiest cheese to shred. But a few things to note: it seems to shred easier when cold straight from the fridge (opposed to sitting on the counter for a few minutes) and when it doubt if you are having trouble grating it, it pulls apart into small chunks really easily (like string cheese) so it can be used that way (I noticed it really varies by brands).

You can also prepare the string cheese, unwrap 7 of the cheeses and have 2 more on stand by incase your pizza is big enough to fit them, one of the string cheeses needs to be cut in half to make 2 short pieces.

Next thing to prepare is the heart pepperoni. If you happen to have a heart cookie cutter that is the correct size or close to the correct size use that! Otherwise you have 2 other options. First, stack about 6 pepperoni at a time, carefully using a sharp knife to cut a heart shape. Second, fold a pepperoni in half and cut a half heart shape to make a nice heart! Don’t stress if they don’t look absolutely perfect, the oven shrinks the pepperoni hiding some of the imperfections.

Now to get building your pizza.

Carefully roll out your crust into a large circle, the bigger the better but make sure the crust doesn’t get too thin, this pizza is heavy so it needs support. The nice thing is that since this piece is bring folded over an absolute perfect circle doesn’t matter, heck if it is a little triangle shaped that is good!

Next you need to prepare the work surface with a sprinkle of cornmeal. You will need to transfer this to the prepared pizza to the hot stone so a pizza paddle or an inverted sheet pan work best, get plenty of cornmeal underneath the dough so it can easily slide.

If you don’t have a pizza stone you can prepare the pizza right in the sheet pan you are planning on baking it on, so just a little sprinkle of cornmeal is necessary so keep it from sticking when done.

Now transfer the dough to the center of the prep area. Grab 4 or 6 of your cheese sticks, depending on your pizza dough size to make a ‘V’ starting at the bottom of the dough leaving just enough room at the bottom to pull the dough over the end of the ‘V’.

Grab 2 more of the whole string cheeses and make the top ‘V’. Now take the two halves that are left and connect the top ‘V’ and bottom ‘V’ on each side. Now you should have a heart shape!

Now to start the ‘stuffing’ you want to start at the top of the heart since it is the trickiest spot. Using a pizza cutter (or kitchen scissors) carefully cut from the center top down to about 1 inch below the top ‘V’. Now to successfully stuff this area of the pizza you will grab the top section of the section you just cut and pull it up and down onto the whole string cheese on that side of the small ‘V’, do the same for the other side. Next carefully pull the outside dough up and over the rest of the string cheese heart.

Now to make sure that cheese doesn’t leak out use your fingers to press the dough together, looking for any holes to cover with dough if needed.

Now it is time to getting topping. Start by brushing the Olive Oil onto the stuffed crust.

Next add the tomatoes to the inside of the pizza dough, spreading evenly.

Now sprinkle the Italian seasoning mixture on the olive oil and tomato sauce.

Next add cheese to the pizza, if you don’t use all of the cheese that is okay use just enough to cover the pizza.

Last add your heart pepperoni to on top of the cheese.

If you are keeping your pizza on the sheet pan transfer to the oven. Otherwise very carefully remove the hot stone from the oven. Top stone with a little sprinkle of cornmeal. Carefully transfer the prepared pizza to the stone. Once the pizza is on the stone transfer back to the oven.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes until cheese is bubbly and starting to darken.

Remove from oven and let rest 2-3 minutes before eating.

How To Cut Heart Shaped Pizza?

Great question.

I don’t think there is a correct way.

BUT I suggest cutting it in half (like a broken heart) and then slicing it from there into triangle-ish shapes.

Anyway you cut slice it it will be GREAT!

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