Papa Murphy's Pizza Awesomeness

This past weekend we opted to try a new pizza place.  We drove to Hickory North Carolina to visit Papa Murphy's Take 'N' Bake Pizza.

What does that mean?  "Take N Bake?  Well, it means what it sounds like.

We arrived pretty late (about 8:40pm) and after much discussion about their awesome menu, decided on two medium pizza's.  The first a "Herb Chicken Mediterranean dLite" pizza and the second a "Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza".

We ordered and watched them make each pizza.  While we waited I explored their counter cooler and looked at their dessert pizza that they had out (a "Smore's" pizza...YUM!).

Raw Mediterranean Pizza

After a short five minute wait both our pizzas were ready.  Yes, BOTH pizzas.  But how can that be?  Well, the kicker to this place is that they send the pizza home with you WITHOUT cooking it.  Yes, that's correct, you will be driving home with uncooked dough and un-melted cheese, only to arrive home and have to cook it yourself.

So, back to our experience.  After about five minutes, both our pizza's were ready.  The cashier came around the counter and handed us our cling wrapped pizzas and asked if we had ever been to "Papa Murphy's" before.  "No" we replied.  She then gave us great instructions on food safety and cooking.  And to our great surprise she said "I saw you eyeing that dessert pizza, we have to close soon, would you like to take it home?".

Cooked Mediterranean dLite Pizza

They gave us a FREE dessert pizza. (Insert a vision of me doing a happy dance like Carlton from "Fresh Prince of Bell air" right there!)

We headed home to get the oven going.

When we got home it was about 9:45 and we were hungry.  The oven got pre-heated and the first pizza went in.  We cooked the "Mediterranean dLite" pizza first.  It was a thin crust chicken, and vegetable pizza with garlic cheese and roasted bell peppers.

It was done after about 20 minutes.

Cooked Chicago style stuffed pizza

After this pizza we decided to go ahead and cook the second.  The "Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza" which was a deep dish stuffed pizza with lots of meats.

It was pretty good.  But the Mediterranean was the winner of the pizza's for the entrees.

Then we set to cooking the dessert pizza.  This pizza was a "Smore's" pizza that consisted of pizza crust, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and brown sugar.

Cooked Chicago Stuffed

Again AMAZING!  But although this was one of my favorite desert pizzas I have ever eaten, by this time we were so full, we could only eat about a half a piece each.

All went back into the fridge to face the re-heating for lunch test over the next few days.

And I'm happy to say that yes, the pizzas (all three) were good re-heated...which proved true ALL weekend (i.e. pizza for breakfast and lunch and snacks).

cooked dessert pizza

If you get a chance, try these guys out (yes, I may be biased because I received a free dessert pizza...I love free food, especially dessert)!  It's definitely fun and new.

Side note: All the pizza's come with instructions on cooking and food safety.  Make sure to follow the directions, no need to get sick from eating raw dough or other uncooked foods on the pizza's.

yum re-heated dessert pizza