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At first glance, charcoal pizza dough looks like you forgot about it in an overeager oven! But this spider Halloween pizza with black charcoal crust isn’t burned. Instead, this pizza with black olive spiders uses charcoal powder for the colouring. If you are looking for Halloween pizza ideas or something for your Halloween dinner menu for adults and kids, you need to give this a try!
Nope it’s not burnt, it’s Halloween-themed! Look at those cute black olive spiders! This charcoal pizza is PERFECT for Halloween!
More Halloween favorites include witch hat cookies, Halloween pot de creme desserts, cheese stuffed pumpkin bites, and colorful Halloween pancakes.
If you’re looking for Halloween pizza ideas, this is certainly a spooky Halloween meal! Making this black-bottomed pizza with black olive spiders is quick and easy. And who can resist delicious homemade pizza?
Charcoal Pizza Dough Ingredients
You only need 7 ingredients to make a spider Halloween pizza with black charcoal crust. Flour, water, yeast, oil, salt, and sugar go into the mixture, along with activated charcoal powder. Decorating this spooky Halloween meal after baking the crust is the fun part and you can get creative with it.
Use tomato sauce and then add shredded cheese and sliced rounds of cheese topped with ‘olive spiders’. I like to add pepperoni too. The spiders are easy to make. Just put one black olive half in the middle of a round of cheese then cut the other half into legs and press those on too.
What is Activated Charcoal Powder?
You probably haven’t cooked with this ingredient before but it makes great charcoal pizza dough for black crust pizza! Activated charcoal is the simplest way to prepare a spider Halloween pizza with black charcoal crust.
Activated charcoal is a finely ground powder without any smell or flavour. It’s sometimes used in the Emergency Room in the case of overdoses, but recently it’s been finding its way into recipes with black pizza dough. Add a spook-tacular look to your Halloween dinner menu for adults or kids by adding charcoal.
Recently this powder has shown up in various dishes. Perhaps you’ve seen black ice cream, charcoal pizza dough or black latte online. Black pizza has been popular in Indonesia, Japan and the UK as well as Canada for a few years now. It’s still largely unknown in the US though.
Make sure you buy food grade activated charcoal, not the charcoal briquettes you use on the grill!
How to Make Charcoal Pizza Dough Like a Pro
The first step in this pizza with black olive spiders recipe is preparing the dough. A stand mixer makes light work of this. Add the yeast, sugar and warm water in the bowl and let the mixture ‘bloom’ for a few minutes.
Once it looks foamy you can stir in the flour, olive oil, charcoal powder and salt. After mixing you might find it’s too dry or too wet, so you could add more oil or flour, if needed. You can knead it with either your hands or in the mixer with a dough hook attachment. Then let it rise for an hour. Put it somewhere warm like on top of the refrigerator or just on the countertop.
Next shape it into a circle using your hands. Don’t worry if it’s not a perfect certain. Very few Halloween pizza ideas require a perfectly symmetrical crust. A little ‘rustic’ is also fine!
Finally add your choice of toppings then cook this pizza with black olive spiders on a pizza stone, pan or baking sheet. This spider Halloween pizza with black charcoal crust takes about 15 minutes to cook depending on your oven. You’ll be able to see when it’s done. The crust will be cooked through while the toppings will be hot and any cheese melted.
Spider Halloween Pizza with Black Charcoal Crust Variations
There are plenty of ways to change up this spooky Halloween meal. After all it’s always great to get creative with a Halloween dinner menu for adults and kids. You might like to swap some of the black olives for green ones or use green instead. Use slices of orange coloured cheddar underneath the olive spiders instead of mozzarella. Orange and black are perfect for Halloween.
Spice up this spooky Halloween meal with some jalapeño slices or a sprinkling of red chilli flakes. You can also serve the chilli flakes on the side. More Halloween pizza ideas include making ghosts. To do this, add some cheese in the shape of a ghost and add 2 eyes and a mouth made of black olive pieces.
You can also make scary faces by shaping the crust like a face and adding ingredients on top for eyes, nose and mouth.
If you like this pizza with black olive spiders, you might also like Spooky Halloween Monster Eye Pretzels, Halloween Buffalo Chicken Jack-O-Lantern Stuffed Peppers or Halloween Monster Eye Crinkle Cookies.
Halloween Pizza with Black Dough Recipe
Spider Halloween Pizza with Black Dough
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 Cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 Cup water, warm
- 1 1/2 Tsp. active dry yeast
- 2 Tbsp. activated charcoal powder , food grade
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1 Tsp. salt
- 1 Tsp. granulated sugar
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, yeast, and warm water. Stir together gently then let the yeast mixture bloom for 5 to 8 minutes.
- Once the yeast has bloomed and looks foamy, add in the remaining ingredients and mix together until combined and no more white from the flour is showing. If the dough seems too wet, add flour, if it seems too dry add a little more olive oil.
- Continue to knead the bread either by hand or with the stand mixer for a couple minutes, then using your hands shape the dough into a ball and lightly grease the bowl. Return the dough to the greased bowl and cover with a light towel.
- Let dough rise for about 1 hour, until it has doubled in size.
- Preheat your oven to 475 degrees F.
- When dough is ready, turn it out onto a greased surface and shape into a large circle.
- Transfer your pizza dough onto your choice of baking pan (cookie sheet, pizza pan, pizza stone, etc.)
- Top your dough with your favorite toppings, such as, marinara sauce, pepperoni, black olives, mozzarella, and provolone.
- Bake your pizza at 475 degrees F for approx 15 minutes or until the crust is cooked through and the top is golden.
- Remove from the oven and let sit for 5to10 minutes before cutting.
Notes
Nutrition
I am definitely making this spider Halloween pizza with black charcoal crust this Halloween. Pizza is already a favourite of mine but this pizza with black olive spiders takes things to a spook-tacular new level!
If you are look for other Halloween recipe ideas, you might also like Easy Candy Apples, Easy DIY Caramel Apples or Colourful No Churn Halloween Ice Cream.
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
This Halloween pizza was such a fun hit! Everyone loved the charcoal crust and spooky vibe.
This Halloween spider pizza is so cool! The black crust and olive spiders are a fun touch!
Love it
When I was learning to cook I accidentally made a pizza that looked just like this (well without the spiders) and that was definitely an oops moment! Your recipe intrigued me so I made it and it was really good. I love pizza and always add different toppings. This is so good for Halloween and you can’t taste the charcoal. It’s funny because it looks like it’s been cremated and tastes perfect! Happy Halloween from us here in Wyoming. Elenor.
Saving this for Halloween. So cute!