Elote Inspired Pizza

Elote, aka Mexican Street Corn, is a crave-able street food that hits on all of the fresh, zesty, spicy, sweet, herby and salty buttons. It's a beloved combo that always delivers. This Elote Inspired Pizza combines fresh elote ingredients on a bed of chewy pizza crust with a few extra ingredients for the ultimate pizza recipe.

Jump to:

• A great pizza starts with a solid Pizza Dough recipe
• Elote Inspired Pizza Ingredients
• How to make Garlic Crema Pizza Sauce
• How to bake the Elote Pizza
• Tips for baking pizza in a home oven
• Tips for baking pizza in an outdoor pizza oven
• Tips for shaping pizza dough
• How to top Elote Pizza
• Recipe
• Comments

The recipe starts with the spirit of Elote and reimagines the flavors in pizza form. Bringing in a a few additional toppings that compliment the classic flavors. Fresh corn, chili spiced Garlic Crema Sauce, crumbly Cotija cheese, herbs, pickled red onions, sliced jalapeños and lime give this Elote Inspired Pizza its vibrant personality.

Summer corn goes with everything

There is no better time to enjoy corn that at the peak of summer. And luckily, there are a multitude of delicious ways to prepare fresh corn! Simply grill corn on the cob and slather it in butter, salt and pepper for a classic. Bake it into these savory and sweet Heirloom Tomato & Grilled Corn Galettes with Cheddar Crust or mix fresh corn into summery salads. And now, add this new summery favorite to your summer menu and scatter that corn atop this spectacularly seasonal Elote Inspired Pizza. 

Elote is a flavorful summer treat

If you’ve never had Elote, it's worth doing a little research to see if you can find some in your area. Elote is one of those living your best life foods. It’s equal parts messy and delicious.

First, fresh corn the cob gets a good grilling until it’s got some char going on. Then the corn is smeared and coated in a mayo and crema mix, sprinkled with crumbly Cotija cheese, spritzed with lime and spiced with chile powder. It’s often served on a stick and tastes especially satisfying when handed over straight from a street vendor on a hot summer day.

With this Elote Inspired Pizza recipe, you get all of that goodness but served up in a pizza pie. It's a tip of the hat to Mexican Street Corn but all spread out and cooked on top of a pizza instead of served on the cob.

A great pizza starts with a solid Pizza Dough recipe

Pizza Dough is always best when homemade, at least in my opinion. And wouldn’t ya know it, I’ve got a couple of pizza dough recipe options for you! My Quick and Easy Pizza Dough recipe comes together in 5 minutes and goes from rise to ready in under 2 hours. This pizza dough recipe is super solid, easy as can be and works like a champ every single time. Plus it tastes great and bakes up beautifully. 

If you are looking for something with a little more age and character, this 72 Hour Pizza Dough recipe is a fabulous option. Don’t let the 72 Hour name scare you, it mixes up quick and the bulk of that time is a slow fermentation process that mostly happens in your fridge. So, if you have the time and want a chewy crust with tons of character, go for the 72 Hour Pizza Dough! Either way, you can’t go wrong.

Divide the dough into 2 large pizzas, 3 medium pizzas or 4-5 personal sized pizzas

Both of these pizza dough recipes can be divided into 2 large pizzas, 3 medium pizzas or 4-5 personal sized pizzas. When I have friends over for pizza nights, I divide the dough into 4 or 5 dough balls so everyone can make their own pizza and top it as they please.

Elote Inspired Pizza Ingredients

A handful of fresh ingredients and some pizza dough is all it takes to make this fresh and flavorful Elote Pizza. It’s a simple mix of complimentary ingredients that vibrate with flavor. Fresh sweet corn is one of summer’s greatest gifts. It doesn’t need a lot of fuss and it only gets better when mingling with some salt and spice.

• Pizza Dough, homemade pizza dough is lovely but store bought is also a great option if you're short on time.
• Garlic Crema Sauce serves as a white sauce pizza base. It’s creamy with a garlic undertone and a hint of warm chili spice.
• Mozzarella is not typical to Elote but it is a pizza staple. Turns out, mozzarella goes great with the classic elote flavors. So this Elote Inspired Pizza gets a hefty shower of freshly grated, low moisture mozzarella. Offering classic creamy cheese elements and the ultimate opportunity for a stretchy cheese pull.
• Cotija cheese is a crumbly Mexican cheese with a texture similar to Feta. This salty cheese gives the Elote Pizza that classic Mexican Street Corn energy.
• Fresh corn is the highlight of this pie. The corn kernels are cut from the cob and sprinkled over the pizza. In a hot oven the corn will even take on a hint of char, just like Elote. Peak of the season summer corn is obviously best but work with what you’ve got!
• Jalapeños just make sense on this Elote Inspired Pizza. The heat and spice add flavor and flair. This is an optional ingredient but it's strongly encouraged.
• Pickled red onions add earthy zing. Another ingredients that isn’t served on Elote but is also a welcome addition to the flavor story happening in this Elote Pizza. Thinly sliced red onions also work great too.
• Cilantro & green onions are sprinkled on right as the pizza comes out of the oven, adding a super fresh and herby finish!
• Olive oil isn’t necessary but adds serious dimension and a nice glisten when drizzled over the pizza crust. I like to give the whole pizza a nice glossy hit of olive oil just before serving too. 
• Fresh lime spritzed over the entire pizza just before serving really livens up the elote spirit of this pizza. It’s such a fresh way to finish off the pizza.

This Elote-inspired pizza is a fresh alternative to a red sauce pizza

My deep love and commitment to all things tomatoes has deemed me a red sauce fiend for life. It may be a borderline tomato addiction, to be honest. See also my recipes for my Heirloom Tomato Pimento Cheese Tart, Roasted Tomato Whipped Feta Dip, Cherry Tomato Confit, Heirloom Tomato & Grilled Corn Galettes with Cheddar Crust and Cherry Tomato Cobbler with Cheddar Everything Biscuits to name a few tomato centric recipes!

However, this Elote Inspired Pizza often has me craving a white sauce pizza over a red sauce based pizza. Which is saying a whole lot for this recipe and me! While I think of white and red pizzas as two different pizza camps entirely, this elote pizza situation offers another category altogether! It’s fresh, bright, sweet, spicy, cheesy, earthy, herby and oh so craveable. 

How to make Garlic Crema Pizza Sauce

Elote traditionally gets smeared in a messy mix of crema and mayo. Instead, this Elote Inspired Pizza reaches towards a classic white pizza sauce with a quick homemade Garlic Crema Sauce. For this recipe, I omitted the mayo and added a few flavor enhancers in its place.

Garlic Crema Pizza Sauce ingredients

• Crema, the Spanish word for cream is a slightly thickened cream with a tangy flavor. It's similar to sour cream and they can be used interchangeably. So, if you can’t find crema, know that sour cream is a suitable substitute.
• Garlic gives this crema sauce character. Made with 2 whole garlic cloves that get minced and mixed into the crema. The garlic gives the pizza a classic white sauce nod.
• Lime zest and juice brighten the Garlic Crema Sauce with citrusy zing. Layering in both the zest and the juice brings a boost of brightness.
• Chili Powder adds warm spice and smoky flavor to the Crema Sauce. I use Ancho Chili powder here but really any chili powder will do. 
• Salt turns up the volume of the other flavors happening in the Garlic Crema Sauce. You just need a dash to enhance the garlic, lime and chili taste.

Make the Garlic Crema Sauce ahead of time so the flavors can meld

That’s it! It all just gets stirred together and you are good to go. I do recommend making the Garlic Crema Sauce at least an hour beforehand, if not longer. The flavor develops more when it has a chance to sit and all of the ingredients can mingle for a bit.

How to bake the Elote Pizza

If you are making your pizza dough from scratch, it makes sense to prepare the Crema Sauce once you've prepared your pizza dough. Then it can marinate and meld together while the pizza dough rises. But, if you don’t have time, it’s still great freshly mixed too!

Like all pizza recipes, there are many different baking methods for baking the Elote Inspired Pizza. It comes down to what resources you have available and personal preference. Nowadays there are all kinds of pizza oven options. While just a standard home oven can easily do the trick, cool gadgets like a Baking Steel or an Ooni Pizza Oven will have you cranking out Neaoplotan style pizzas in minutes!

In order to get that chewy, charred and bubbly pizza dough, a rippin’ hot oven is a requirement. Professional pizza bakes up quick in a hot hot oven. Like, upwards of 1000°F hot. While that is extreme, you can still get similar results at home.

Tips for baking pizza in a home oven

• Let er rip! Most home ovens top out around 500°F - 550°F. To get a similar effect, you want to get your home oven as hot as it’ll go. Cranking that heat to the max and letting it warm up for 30 minutes to an hour helps create a nice and hot environment for your pizza. 
• Steel the show with the magic of a Baking Steel. A ¼” thick slab of steel and the heat of a home oven can create a pizza baking habitat that churns out pizzeria style pizzas from the comfort of your own kitchen. This product changed my entire home baked pizza perspective. Because steel is such a strong heat conductor, the Baking Steel holds in an incredible amount of heat and cooks up bubbly, charred pizzas in 90 seconds. It's remarkable.
• Hot sheet is a method that involves baking the pizza right on an overturned baking sheet. This allows the pizza dough to slide smoothly on and off the sheet, serving as a pizza peel almost. Again, get that home oven rippin as hot as it'll go for the best results.

While I have made many a pizza in my home oven, now that I have an outdoor Ooni Pizza Oven, this Elote Inspired Pizza, with it’s summery ingredient list, just makes sense to bake and serve al fresco. It takes the mess of pizza making outside and encourages a fun hang with friends while churning out a long line of pizzas from that hot little oven.

Tips for baking pizza in an outdoor pizza oven

• Feeling hot hot hot! Heat is the magic ingredient in the outdoor pizza oven experience. Mimicking a classic Neapolitan style pizza oven, home pizza ovens can climb up near 1000°F. That hot, hot heat will cook a pizza in the 60-90 second range and create that bubbling, puffed pizza crust with charred edges and a desirable leoparding pattern on the crust.
• The appeal of the peel. A pizza peel is pretty much mandatory for successfully launching a fresh pizza into a hot pizza oven. A wooden peel is my preference for shaping and launching pizzas. While I like using a thinner, metal pizza peel for rotating and removing pizzas from my outdoor pizza oven. However, a metal peel works great as an all purpose option. 
• Semolina saves. A little sprinkle of semolina flour on your pizza peel will help keep your pizza dough from sticking to the peel. Since semolina flour is coarsely ground, it works similarly to ball bearings. Keeping space between the pizza dough and the peel, allowing the pizza to slide right off the peel and launch with ease into the hot oven.
• Deftly maneuver. Confidence and quickness are key to pizza making. By quickly building your pizza on the peel and confidently launching the pizza into the oven without hesitation, you are more likely to have a smooth experience. 
• Heavy rotation. Since those pizza ovens get so rippin’, a heavy rotation is necessary for an even cook. I generally let the pizza bake for the first 60 seconds or so, then give it a few good spins while it continues to cook in order to ensure an evenly cooked crust and bubbled toppings. 

Practice makes perfect pizza

No matter what method you use for cooking pizzas, it takes a while to get in the groove. However, once you’ve developed a system and that pizza making muscle memory sets in, you’ll be slinging pies like a pro. Shaping and stretching pizza dough just takes a little getting used to. But there are some simple tips to keep in mind.

Tips for shaping pizza dough

Check out my Quick and Easy Pizza Dough recipe for loads of pizza making and shaping tips. If you have a good understanding going in, you'll be armed with confidence when making pizzas at home! However, you want the dough to be thin enough that you can almost see through it when you hold it up to the light.

And remember to be patient, don’t get flustered and always have an extra dough round in case things go awry. It may be wonky the first few times, until you get the hang of it. Like the first pancake of the batch, it takes time and practice to find your groove. And, if all goes smoothly, make an extra pizza with the remaining dough round and save it for lunch the next day. Because leftover pizza is always a good plan.

How to top Elote Pizza

Topping the Elote Inspired Pizza is simple. Once your dough is stretched and ready, you'll simple spread on the Garlic Crema Sauce. Then, add some shredded mozzarella. Top with the fresh corn, layer on pickled onions and sliced jalapeños. Then crumble on some Cotija cheese. Easy, cheesy and ready to hit that heat!

Finish and serve the summery Corn Pizza

Right after the Elote Pizza comes out of the hot oven, drizzle some good quality olive oil over the entire pizza with a little extra focus on the crust edges. This gives the pizza added richness and a sexy glistening sheen. Then sprinkle on the freshly chopped cilantro and green onions for an herby, fresh finish!

If you want to switch up your pizza game, I highly recommend baking an Elote Inspired Pizza right away. It is an experience all it’s own and tastes particularly special outside on a summer night. And as unconventional as it may sound, this pizza pairs pretty perfectly with a side of chips and guac and a salted Margarita chaser! Cheers and enjoy the Elote Pizza experience.

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