NILES — There is still time to help Niles New Tech students’ authentic pizza recipe win a national contest and a place on the Cottage Inn’s menu.

Dubbed the Transylvania Twist, the authentic pie is loaded with cheese, garlic, tomatoes and chicken and was created by 11th-grade Niles New Tech learners as part of a world studies class project and community business partnership in October. Learners Lily Jesswein, Maddie Crocker, Taran Shirk, Sarah Dunnen and Kyler Cole came up with the recipe.

The pizza was sold on Cottage Inn’s menu for a temporary time and became so popular that Gary Sherman, the president and co-owner of the Niles Cottage Inn, decided to enter the Transylvania Twist into the company’s national competition, which allows Cottage Inn locations to debut a new flavor and compete with one another to see which restaurant can obtain the most sales. Customers cast their votes by purchasing the Transylvania Twist. The pie with the most sales by Aug. 31 will win the competition. The winning pizza will be placed on the menu for a temporary time at Cottage Inn locations across the country.

In July, the Niles Cottage Inn sold 85 Transylvania Twists.

“This is a good showing for a new product to sell that many in an opening month,” Sherman said. “We hope to more than double that number in August.”

Sherman said the pizza was in second place as of early August and could have a shot at moving into first place.

The world studies class where students were assigned the project is taught by Nicholas Hawley, Emily Krassow, Maria Culbertson and Kristin Adams-Bondy.

To teach students to create an authentic business model for a product, while learning about the origins and history of the spice trade, teachers tasked students in October with creating their own pizza. Learners were assigned a spice to build their recipe around. The project finished with a pitch, in which learners tried to sell the pizza to representatives from Cottage Inn Pizza or Pizza Transit, depending on which class they were in. After their pitch, restaurant officials sampled learners’ recipes.

Hawley said the project emphasizes the hands-on learning that Niles New Tech intends to teach. He said he has been proud to watch the project go as far as it has.

“To see this continue from our project which started last fall and see the continued development —it’s pretty sweet,” Hawley said.

Throughout the summer months, Hawley said he had been in touch with students who created the Transylvania Twist and sharing the pizza’s progress. He said students were excited to find out that the pizza had a shot at having a place on the menu nationally.

Sherman said he was also proud of the tenacity demonstrated by students on this project. He said the pizza’s success speaks for itself.

“Because it is a really, really good pie,” Sherman said. “They did a great job creating this thing. The product they made has the potential to be sold throughout the franchises [and it] is a pretty big deal. Hopefully it encourages other students to get involved and expand their mind.”