Pizza-stuffed pumpkins: Pillsbury biscuits, ricotta and a kitchen-twine trick
Halloween dinner, sorted. Delish's Pizza-Stuffed Pumpkins turn one tube of biscuit dough and a bowl of ricotta into 16 golden, pumpkin-shaped snack balls, each one brushed with garlic butter and finished with a pretzel-stick stem.
The recipe is a proper fake-out: the "dough" is Pillsbury Grands Southern Homestyle Biscuits, cut into 16 pieces and rolled into rounds by hand. Two teaspoons of a ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan, salt and pepper filling goes into the centre, gets sealed and pinched shut, then pressed into a flat-bottomed ball and chilled for about 20 minutes so it holds its shape in the oven.
"This pizza-stuffed pumpkin recipe delivers all the classic flavors of pizza but with an adorable fall look," Delish writes. That look comes from the only fiddly step: each stuffed ball is wrapped in kitchen twine, criss-crossed six times like a ribbon on a gift, then baked at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown.
The one mistake that ruins the tray
"Be careful not to tie the twine too tightly," the recipe warns. "When the dough expands in the oven, the bread will crack, causing all the cheese to leak out." Loose knots press the pumpkin ridges into the surface without trapping the rising dough, so the filling stays put.
Straight out of the oven, the bites get brushed with melted butter that has been warmed with chopped garlic, parsley and paprika, then cool on a wire rack while the twine is carefully cut away. A thin pretzel stick poked into each top becomes the stem, and warm marinara sauce sits alongside for dipping - pizza's classic partner.
Despite the fancy look, the ingredient list stays short: ricotta, mozzarella, Parmesan and butter are the base, with the biscuits, garlic, parsley, paprika and pretzels doing the rest of the work. The full batch yields 16 bites with 45 minutes of prep and about two hours total, which is plenty for a Halloween spread or any fall snack table until the season winds down.
