Cheese-Stuffed Crusts: Pizza Hut's Mozzarella Magic

Pizza Hut's Original Stuffed Crust Pizza is a large pizza with warm, melty cheese baked directly into the crust. The pizza was first introduced in 1995 and has since become a staple in households across the globe. The pizza chain's stuffed crust is made with 100% real cheese made from whole milk mozzarella. However, the exact type of mozzarella used is a closely guarded secret, with Pizza Hut's cheese recipe being formulated for desired qualities such as melt, look, taste, and pull.

Pizza Hut's Original Stuffed Crust® Pizza is made with whole milk mozzarella

Pizza Hut's Original Stuffed Crust® Pizza is a large pizza with warm, melty cheese baked directly into the crust. The pizza was launched in 1995 and has been a favourite among customers ever since.

The pizza is made with whole milk mozzarella, which is stuffed into the crust of the traditional pizza dough. The cheese is 100% real and is made from whole milk. The dough is frozen and the cheese is added in-house. The cheese is placed along the edge of the crust, which is then folded over and sealed. This process ensures that the cheese is stuffed inside the crust, creating a warm and gooey texture.

The Original Stuffed Crust Pizza can be topped with Pizza Hut's classic marinara sauce and your choice of toppings. The pizza is then baked to perfection, resulting in a soft, golden crust stuffed with melted cheese.

The creation of Pizza Hut's Original Stuffed Crust Pizza is credited to Patty Scheibmeir, a former food scientist for the company. She wanted to make the crust more appealing, as people often left it uneaten on their plates. Her innovation took three years to come to fruition due to her bosses' initial scepticism. However, once it was introduced, it became an overnight success, generating over $300 million in sales in its first year.

The dough is frozen and the cheese is added in-house

Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza has been a staple in households in the U.S. and across the globe since its debut in 1995. The dough is frozen, and the cheese is added in-house. The process is quite simple. It all starts with the proprietary frozen dough, which is prepared by spraying a pan/cooking sheet with non-stick spray and then laying the dough in it and putting it in the walk-in freezer to thaw overnight. Once the dough is thawed and ready in the morning, employees can prep it for stuffed crust, hand-tossed, or other varieties of pizza.

To make the stuffed crust, Pizza Hut employees pull the edges of the hand-tossed dough past the cooking tray, add string cheese along the edge, and then fold it back over. The dough is stretched a little larger to leave room for the cheesy pizza border that gets wrapped around with a cylinder stick of mozzarella string cheese along the edges of the crust. This process results in a soft, golden crust absolutely stuffed full of warm, gooey cheese.

The cheese used in Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza is typically mozzarella, but the company has also introduced variations with multiple types of cheese. In 2013, Pizza Hut launched a three-cheese stuffed crust pizza with mozzarella, white cheddar, and provolone. In 2017, they took it a step further with their Ultimate Cheese Crust Pizza, which featured 16 cheese-filled pockets containing a mixture of mozzarella, provolone, white cheddar, Asiago, and fontina cheeses.

The cheese is stuffed into the crust of Pizza Hut's traditional pizza dough

Pizza Hut's Original Stuffed Crust® Pizza is a large pizza with warm, melty cheese stuffed into the crust of its traditional pizza dough. The pizza was first introduced in 1995 and has since become a staple in households across the globe.

The process of making Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza begins with its proprietary frozen dough, which is prepared by spraying a pan or cooking sheet with non-stick spray and then laying the dough to thaw overnight. Once the dough is ready, it is stretched out to make room for the cheese-filled border. This is achieved by placing sticks of mozzarella string cheese along the edges of the crust and then folding the dough back over, sealing in the cheese. The dough is then baked, resulting in a soft, golden crust stuffed with warm, gooey cheese.

The cheese used in Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza is typically mozzarella, although the chain has also introduced variations featuring multiple types of cheese. The original recipe, however, remains a closely guarded secret, with Pizza Hut being widely recognised for inventing crazy menu items over the years.

The creation of Pizza Hut's stuffed crust pizza is credited to Patty Scheibmeir, a former food scientist for the company. Scheibmeir's idea to make the crust more appealing by adding cheese took three years to come to fruition due to her bosses' initial skepticism. However, once it was introduced, it became an overnight success, generating more than $300 million in sales in its first year.

The stuffed crust was created by Patty Scheibmeir, a former food scientist for Pizza Hut

Scheibmeir's bosses initially thought she was crazy when she first spoke about the idea, and it took three years for stuffed crust to come to fruition because of their skepticism. However, once it was launched, it became the basis for Pizza Hut's continuous innovations.

Scheibmeir hit upon the idea of stuffing a pizza's crust with cheese after meeting with a group of Pizza Hut customers in the early 1990s. "I had an 'aha' moment when a guy in a focus group told us that he didn't eat his crusts and usually fed them to his dog," she told FoodBeast in 2016. "It was at that moment I realized that maybe we were putting too much emphasis on toppings and not giving enough love to the crust."

Scheibmeir's creation has sparked a lot of debate about who invented stuffed-crust pizza. Anthony Mongiello, a Brooklyn native, claimed he invented the same type of pizza in 1987 and sued Pizza Hut for $1 billion. However, a judge ruled against Mongiello, stating that owning the idea of cheese stuffed inside bread is impossible.

Despite the controversy, Scheibmeir's stuffed crust pizza has become a staple in households in the US and worldwide. It has also inspired many variations and innovations in pizza crusts, both within Pizza Hut and in other pizza chains.

The pizza was launched in 1995 and was an overnight success

Pizza Hut's Original Stuffed Crust Pizza was launched on March 25, 1995, and was an overnight success. The pizza was the brainchild of Patty Scheibmeir, a former food scientist for Pizza Hut. Scheibmeir's bosses were initially sceptical of the idea, and it took three years for the stuffed crust to come to fruition. However, once it was launched, it was a huge hit.

The Original Stuffed Crust Pizza features warm and melty cheese stuffed into the crust of Pizza Hut's traditional pizza dough. The cheese used is 100% whole milk mozzarella, in the form of string cheese. The dough is specially formulated so that it doesn't rise as high as the original, to accommodate the cheese. The pizza is then topped with classic marinara sauce and the customer's choice of toppings.

The launch of the Original Stuffed Crust Pizza was accompanied by a marketing campaign featuring Donald and Ivana Trump. The commercial showed the Trumps eating the pizza the wrong way by eating the stuffed crust first. This tagline of eating the pizza backwards was used in subsequent marketing campaigns for the pizza.

The success of the Original Stuffed Crust Pizza led to Pizza Hut's continuous innovations in pizza, with the company introducing multiple variations of the stuffed crust pizza over the years. The launch of the pizza also led to other pizza chains creating their own versions of stuffed crust pizza.

Frequently asked questions