DiGiorno’s pizza is my go-to dinner on nights when “Mommy is too busy to cook,” or sometimes, “Mommy has gone to a dark place.” So I’m quite familiar with the DiGiorno product line, specifically the DiGiorno croissant crust.
Now, at the request of no one, DiGiorno has decided that it needs to break into the breakfast market and create a sweet pizza. This is hardly unprecedented: Pizza Hut sells an Ultimate Chocolate Cookie that could claim the title of “Dessert Pizza,” plus you can find recipes for them on various food blogs. But this is an indulgent breakfast pizza! Does this really go with your morning coffee, or is it just weird?
It’s an attractive, if unusual, dish. The light dough-colored balls taste vaguely like cookie dough, and the dark swirls are pockets of cinnamon goodness. The rest of the pizza topping is made up of what I will call “sugary gunk,” a highly technical term used by professionals.
Okay, so I felt lazy leaving it at that and looked up what the sugary gunk is. According to DiGiorno’s website, the topping includes cinnamon cream sauce, cream cheese crumbles, and churro pieces. The cream cheese crumbles are likely those little bland pieces, in which case this component is really missing the tang of cheese. The churro pieces did not make much of an impression.
The pizza really does taste a lot like a cinnamon roll, though, and the fact that it’s a flat pizza means a much higher sugary-stuff-to-bread ratio, making it arguably better than most cinnamon rolls. I get this information from my husband, who hits the Cinnabon at every rest area on the highway, so he knows his stuff.
What doesn’t quite work here is the DiGiorno croissant crust. I would be happily eating my faux-cinnamon roll when I would get some of the crust in my mouth and suddenly be reminded of a sausage-laden Supreme Pizza, and it led to a weird feeling of disconnection with the product. The sweetness is strong enough that it’s not that noticeable for most of the pizza, but when you get to the end crust, it doesn’t seem to go with what you’re eating.
Now did I have this problem because the crust genuinely clashes with the flavor profile, or is it just because I have such strong associations with the DiGiorno crust? I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure the crust is something DiGiorno can improve, at the very least. Another crust-related problem was the fact that the croissant crust did not fully expand in the oven; however, this may be because of how we cooked it. After nearly destroying my oven with one of these pizzas (to the point where my Dad had to come by with professional-grade tools to clean it), I wasn’t taking any more risks, and I put this thing on a tray in the oven, as God intended. So you probably will get a crispier, flakier crust if you follow the directions and put the pizza straight onto the rack. That is, assuming the pizza doesn’t bend while cooking, pour its tasty filling onto the bottom of the oven, and rapidly become carbonized sludge. If you want to attempt it, you’re braver than me.
When it’s not destroying kitchen equipment, the Croissant Cinnamon Roll Pizza is a largely successful breakfast outing for DiGiorno, and I recommend giving it a try. Just keep in mind there’s definitely room for improvement here.
Purchased Price: $9.99
Size: 21.5 oz
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1/4 pizza) 460 calories, 20 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 550 milligrams of sodium, 60 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 17 grams of sugar (15 grams of added sugar), and 6 grams of protein.
What does it mean when a pizza “bends” in the oven? It’s like… A flat bottom on a rack. How can it bend?
Guessing it seeps through the slats of the rack, but just surmising here.
For the few commenters worried about it being a full pizza, take it out of the freezer and let it sit for a few minutes, then use a large sharp knife to cut it into smaller portions. Then put it back in the freezer. I’ve done this with frozen pizzas for years since they never make personal sizes in the varieties I want.
Ha! Glad to know that I’m not the only one! I started doing this a while ago because I never get through all of the leftovers before I’m tired of them and also when I would freeze the leftovers to reheat at future date I would end up forgetting about it. And it’s much more economical to buy the full size vs personal and the personal pizzas are just too much bread and don’t give me the satisfaction of a slice of pizza.
That looks really gross.
I’ve had the sausage and gravy one and it is easily my favorite Digiorno so far. I had previously hated the croissant crust, but the gravy “sauce” and spiciness is a perfect balance to the crust on that one.
I live alone so have been hesitant to get the cinnamon bun one despite loving cinnamon buns because that’s just way too much dessert pizza for one person. Glad to see I’m not missing out on much.
Try baking your frozen pizza with a sheet of parchment underneath instead of a pan, you get the crispy crust and coverage for spillage
That looks INSANELY sweet; oof!
Granted, as I’ve said on here, numerous times: I am generally *not* a person who likes sweets, very much, and instead loves salty stuff…so, yeah, take my original comment with a grain of salt (pun fully intended). 😉
Lives up to its name of cinnamon roll, i suppose! 🙂
The problem here is that this is still a full size pizza! Who the hell wakes up in the morning and just eats an entire pizza? Why didn’t they make this a personal size pizza??? I’ll just stick with my favorite Breakfast Hot Pockets!
(well…as with all frozen pizzas of this size, it’s not a single-serve item…and also, as with any meal, there is a concept knows as storing and saving the leftovers for later…)
I did not see where it could be purchased.
Not bad for a try buy but at 8.49+ (Meijer) I will not purchase again as the other two breakfast pizza were much better, it was the crust I didn’t care for as it might of been better on a regular crust lol! …. and for 7.99 I can get cinnamon bread from most pizza joints.
Where did you buy it? I’ve been looking to try it for some time.