Who said pizza has to be savory?  The crisp crust and gooey topping that make the Italian-bred pie an irresistible choice for lunch or dinner are equally tempting in a sweet variation like this S’more pizza.  You just need to approach it with an open mind.

Think of it as the traditional campfire treat minus the usual risk of losing your marshmallows in the fire.  This S’more has the extra attraction of Nutella, one of my most serious junk food addictions.  On top are crunchy hazelnuts and marshmallows so light and airy they’re likely to slip off a toasting fork and into the flames.

The recipe was inspired by the new baking stone I recently brought home.  I was so pleased to have the essential tools for making pizza again that I came up with this fanciful version in celebration.

I’d never thought much about leaving my pizza stone behind when we moved from our Ben Lomond house in May.  It was big, fragile and hard to pack.  So I decided to let it go, along with a lot of other kitchen equipment, gadgets and cookbooks I gave away rather than haul them to Portland.

Not until I was preparing to put a homemade pizza in the oven a couple of weeks ago did I even notice it was missing.  It was bad enough that the new oven could barely crank up to 500 degrees and the racks were too small for my round pizza pan.  But without a stone, we were stuck with a pale and flabby pie.

That night’s sad excuse for pizza sent me out in search of a new stone.  There are plenty on the market, but I couldn’t find any at an affordable price that would match the large size and 1/2-inch thickness of my reliable old stone.  Several of the more expensive ones were glazed, which is good for clean-up but not so good for browning crusts.  Eventually I settled for an inexpensive unglazed stone from a discount chain.

Imperfect as the new stone is, the difference it makes is remarkable.  The next set of pizzas had nicely blistered, crisp crusts that turned a beautiful golden brown.   It probably helped that I also preheated the stone for an hour at the oven’s highest temperature.

Normally, I assemble the pizza on a piece of parchment paper atop a long-handled peel or cookie sheet before I slip it into the oven.  After a minute or two, I pull the parchment out to allow the crust to cook directly on the stone.

I followed the same process in pre-baking the crust for this pizza, but I decided to leave the parchment in for the second baking since melting marshmallows have a distressing habit of oozing onto the stone.  Take my word for it, the result is a major mess that’s almost impossible to clean up.

Consider this recipe as more of a guide than a prescription.  Although I’ve listed quantities for the ingredients, it’s just fine to eyeball it according to your tastes.  Be forewarned, though, that too much Nutella or too many marshmallows are likely to lead to an oven catastrophe.  For the same reason, it’s best to keep your pizzas small and manageable.

I prefer a whole wheat crust to get a little of that graham cracker character. Homemade dough is ideal but I’ve had very good results with refrigerated dough from the market.  For the best flavor, I like to use Whole Foods’ large but delicate “Very Vanilla Bean” marshmallows.

One bite of this pie may very well change your ideas about pizza.