Fancy Apricot & Cheese Dessert Pizza

Total Time: 1 hr 40 mins Preparation Time: 1 hr 15 mins Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 teaspoons honey (or sugar)
• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 teaspoon sunflower oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 4 cups low-fat small-curd cottage cheese
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 cup raw milled sugar (or 1/8 cup sun crystals)
• 10 dried apricots, chopped into pieces (approx)
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate (two 1-oz baking squares)
• 1/4 cup blanched slivered almond

Recipe

• 1 proof the yeast in the warm water with the honey or sugar for 8-10 minutes or until foamy.
• 2 add the flours, oil, and salt and knead well, about 2-5 minutes.
• 3 if the dough seems not elastic enough, dust your hands with some flour and knead again.
• 4 grease a pizza pan or pie pan with cooking spray, and roll the dough out onto it. i use a pizza roller for this to curl it up at the edges and make sure it's nice and flat and even in the middle.
• 5 poke holes in the dough with a fork and bake at 400f for 5 minutes.
• 6 while it bakes, make the cheese mixture in a blender/food processor to give it a smooth consistency closer to ricotta cheese, and disperse the flavors. and cut the apricots, about 8-12 of them, into pieces. also run your chocolate squares over a hand/box grater to get fine chocolate shavings.
• 7 extract the pizza pan from the oven and spread the cheese mixture evenly over it. arrange the apricot pieces on the pizza evenly too.
• 8 bake at 350f for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese mixture has thickened up, at least 20 minutes.
• 9 move the pizza onto a wire cooling rack and refridgerate for at least 30-45 minutes.
• 10 after it has cooled, add the chocolate shavings and almond slices.
• 11 cut into 8 standard slices, or cross-wise into several pieces to have as little hor d'oevres.