Pellet Smoker Cooking: Applewood Smoked Popper Pizza & Apple Tart

Yesterday May 30th, was the true Memorial Day, and my son’s 40th birthday. We celebrated them both last Sunday. For last night’s supper we had pizza.

I was done with the bourbon pellets from BBQ Select; those pellets were growing on me.
I opened the bag of applewood pellets Adam had sent me to try. They are a mix of applewood & oak. I emptied the hopper down to the auger tube and loaded it with the applewood.

I have wanted to try a popper pizza since I seen it on a fellow blogger's site. Bacon wrapped poppers sliced & used on a pizza. For dessert I did an apple tart with cheddar cheese.

I first did up the poppers, stuffed with onion & garlic Philly cream cheese and wrapped in applewood smoked bacon. I did them on smoke 175 deg for 30 minutes then went to 325 deg. I did them about 30 more minutes turning half way through. I let them cool then in the fridge until pizza time.

Jalapenos & Cream Cheese

Ready for the Smoker

Poppers are done

After lunch I chopped my apples & cooked for the tart filling. I adapted a recipe from Saveur for the tart to do on the smoker. It called for cheddar cheese mixed in the dough. I used a store bought pie dough & just pressed some shredded cheddar into the dough before adding the filling & topped with a sprinkling of more cheese. I did the tart on smoke for 30 minutes then went to 325 deg to finish. I did it until the crust was starting to brown up 30 to 40 more minutes.

Apples

Crust with cheese

Tart is done

Printable Apple Tart Recipe

About 4:00 we had some shrimp cocktail for an appetizer. At 5:30 we ordered a pizza from Beer & Wine Depot, not all like jalapenos. I sliced up the poppers for the pizza and assembled it. Store bought thin crust, sorry about that, I am lazy. For my sauce I used Philly cream cheese cooking sauce, Santa Fe flavor, a layer of shredded cheddar & mozzarella mix; then topped with the sliced poppers.

I started my smoker about 5:05 then went to high, hoping it would be up to at least 400 deg at 5:30 for the pizza. It was at 440 deg. when I stuck the pizza in. I did it on a stainless cooking sheet for 20 minutes & just peeked quickly to see when it was done. I should have been looking closer, I burnt the crust some. It was edible but I was glad we also had the pizza from Sandman. The apple tart was good with some ice cream & I thought had a mild smokey taste.

The shrimp cocktail