Dessert pizza is all in the dough and the butter

EPHRATA - If pizza is a natural platform for tomato sauce and cheese and vegetables and meat, which it is, it should be a natural platform for dessert. So, what would make a good dessert pizza?

Well, butter is one ingredient. Lots of butter. And a base of cinnamon and brown sugar if it's a cinnamon roll pizza, or crushed Oreo cookies if it's an Oreo pizza. And more butter on the Oreos.

Then swirl some homemade frosting on the cinnamon roll pizza and frosting and a little chocolate sauce on the Oreo pizza.

Actually, the critical ingredient in any pizza, whether it's four-cheese or pepperoni or Oreo, is the crust, according to the owners and staff at Reel Pizza in Ephrata. The pizza place is part of the Lee Theater, 347 Basin St. NW.

"It's the crust. Make it fresh," said owner Lanith Whetstone. Employees make fresh dough every day, said Auti Gill, who's worked at the pizza place for more than a year.

Gill made a cinnamon roll pizza to show how it's done. The fresh dough is perforated with a roller first, otherwise "it just blows up like a balloon," Gill said.

Then the butter, drizzled and brushed on the crust. "We spread butter all over it. That's why it's so good," Gill said.

Then a layer of cinnamon, and brown sugar. For an Oreo pizza the cookies are crushed, "so they're basically just Oreo dust," Gill said. The Oreo pizza gets an extra drizzle of butter. When the base layer is done the pizza goes in the oven.

The desserts grew out of a brainstorming session to broaden the menu, especially stuff kids like to eat. "Who doesn't like Oreos?" Gill said.

The frosting (and chocolate sauce on the Oreo pizza) is added after the pizzas run through the oven. Lanith Whetstone makes the frosting. "And it's so good," Gill said.

The dough recipe is "pretty basic," Gill said, a mix of flour, yeast, sugar, salt and canola oil. Non-dessert pizzas range from the classic pepperoni to bacon chicken ranch and cheeseburger.

Dessert or otherwise, the art to making pizza is in getting all the proportions just right, Gill said. "You think of your pizza in slices when you're making it," she said, and the cook should work to ensure there's plenty of flavor on each slice.

Gill braids the edge of her pizzas while making them. "I like pretty pizzas," she said.

The pizza place is open from 4 to 9 p.m., and customers can order pizza for pickup, have it delivered in Ephrata - and even reserve a booth in the theater and watch the movie in style, with pizza at the table.

Friday and Saturday are the busiest nights of the week, Manager Mandolin Hope said.

People who want to order a pizza can call (509) 754-0103.