Pizza Pocket

I've made variations of this before.  Always, always, ALWAYS with messy results.  And can I just say that I really hate dealing with egg wash?  Does that make me a bad cook?  If so, so be it.  But the egg wash makes the edge slimy, so they're difficult to seal.  And then they never actually do seem to seal because my filling starts to leak out.  And then there's the vent holes, which never seem to do their job.  Oh they vent the steam alright, along with half the filling.

So yeah, I haven't made pizza pockets too much because they're just frustrating for me to deal with.

Until now.

Pizza Pockets
Recipe from Jeff Mauro

All-purpose flour, for dusting
1 pound pizza dough, divided into 4 balls [NOTE: Buy this in the store or make it yourself.  Whichever is easiest for you]
2 cups shredded  mozzarella
12 ounces pepperoni, thinly sliced
Grated Parmesan, to taste
Marinara or pizza sauce

1.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

2.  Roll out the dough balls on a lightly floured surface into 4 equal rounds. On half of each round, layer some mozzarella, and then some pepperoni slices.

I like to add a little cheddar and pizza seasoning to mine too

3.  Fold in half, covering the filling, and then fold the outer edges up and crimp the edges with your fingers to seal.

No messy egg wash!!  Just fold the bottom up and over the edge, crimping as you go.

4.  Place the pockets on a baking sheet, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with grated Parmesan. Bake until golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve with your favorite marinara or pizza sauce on the side.

Yummy yummy!

Oh my goodness gracious are these good!!  And SOOOO EASY TO MAKE!!!  It seriously just takes a few minutes to put them together, and then they can just hang out on the pan until you're ready to bake them.  My next step with this is to see how they freeze.  Looooove a Get Ahead opportunity!!

p.s. Remember when I made that jam?  Put a tablespoon or two of that with mozzarella cheese in these; dip into a roasted tomato dipping sauce.  Feel free to call me when your taste buds have recovered to tell me how awesome that flavor combo is. ;)

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Have you ever had a hankering for just a little taste of something?  Not a whole huge helping or anything, but just a bite or two would totally satisfy.

I love all the flavors in my pizza seasoning

If that little something tends to be pizza, then these are totally up your alley.

Truth: I just eyeball the amount of cheese.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs
Recipe adapted from Rachael Ray
 
3/4 cup flour 
3/4 tsp baking powder 
3/4 tsp pizza seasoning (or Italian seasoning, or dried oregano with a little crushed red pepper mixed in)
3/4 cup milk 
1 egg, lightly beaten 
2 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1/2 cup) 
2 oz cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1/2 cup) 
4 ounces turkey pepperoni, chopped (about 1 cup) 

1.  Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, seasoning, and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the cheeses and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.

Make life easier: use a melon baller or cookie scoop for this

2.  Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.

Aren't they cute??

These adorable little puffs are good enough to nibble on as-is.  But if you feel like taking this up a notch, heat up some marinara sauce for dipping. Soooo good!

Pepperoni Pizza with Beer Pizza Dough

Pizza and beer.  Beer and pizza.  This is one of life's perfect pairings right?  Well why not truly bring these two together closer than ever before?

The foundation for an AWESOME pizza crust

If I have the time and energy, I like to make my own pizza.  I started playing around with making pizza when I was probably 10ish?  I can't remember my exact age but I know we were living in MD at the time so that does narrow the time frame a bit.  At first it was just messing around with toppings, finding that perfect cheese-meat-vegetable ratio.  I would always use a premade crust though.  Making pizza dough was just waaaay too hard, right?  Then a couple years ago I realized that making my own dough wasn't really as hard as I'd made it out to be.  Up until that moment, any kind of bread recipe that involved using thermometers and/or kneading was just way too much for me.

Mmmm...beer and butter

But I found a basic pizza dough recipe in a magazine; it was only four ingredients long and didn't look too bad.  So I started making it, and I enjoyed doing it, but I was still required to somewhat babysit the dough.  Gotta bloom the yeast, mix up the dough, knead the dough, let it sit and rise....  Meh, not terrible but my life is getting busier as my son gets older.  And then the epiphany came.... I discovered that my breadmaker, the one I've had for almost 8 years now, has a dough setting.  (!!!!!!!)  To the internet!!

Your house will smell amazing while this rises

I found this pizza dough recipe on one of my favorite go-to sites for recipes, made it, and haven't moved on to trying any other recipes.  I'm having too much fun with it!  I love how it not only uses beer as the main liquid (loooooooooooooooove cooking with beer), but it also encourages you to add herbs and seasonings to truly customize the dough to your tastes.

Beer Pizza Dough for Breadmaker
Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com

[Note: you will want all of these to be room temperature.  Forget to pull stuff out?  Use the delay option on your breadmaker for at least 1 hour before it will start mixing and kneading the dough]
1 cup of semi-flat beer
2 tbsp butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
2 1/4 tsp yeast (or 1 of those handy packets)

UPDATE: Lately I've been using EVOO instead of butter, and swapping a 1/2 cup whole wheat flour for the same in white flour.  Love it!  I also love the flavor combination of 2 tsp garlic powder and 1 tsp dried rosemary.  

1.  Coat dough container with non-stick spray.  Put all ingredients in breadmaker according to manufacturer's specifications.  Select dough setting and hit Start.  On my machine the dough setting is about 90 minutes long.

Prepare to be mixed!

2.  Remove dough from bread machine, with lightly floured hands, when cycle is complete. Roll or press dough to cover a prepared pizza pan, or roll out on lightly floured parchment paper.  Use the flour; yes, the dough is sticky.

If you like thinner crust, this makes a rather large pizza

3.  Preheat oven to 400.  Spread sauce and toppings on dough and bake for about 23-25 minutes.

So that's my favorite dough recipe.  Now on to the pizza!  We're pretty basic at my house; Rob likes pepperoni.  Gavin likes cheese.  (Mama likes all kinds of strange combinations and vegetables so it's just easier when I'm making a family pizza to say I like pepperoni also.)  I usually end up doing pepperoni over most of the crust and leaving a meat-free section  for munchkin.

Now I could say that I just add sauce, meat, and cheese but that's not really my thing.  If I'm going to make a pizza, I'm going to Make A Pizza.  And that Pizza will have Flavor at every level.  

Pepperoni Pizza
Exact concoction from Jeanna's head

1 recipe beer pizza dough (see above)
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1 tbsp pesto 
Turkey pepperoni
Mozzarella cheese
Cheddar cheese
Parmesan, grated


1.  My pizza sauce is a wonderful little trick I think every busy cook needs to know about: 1 can of tomato sauce with approximately 1 tbsp of pesto.  Stir together and voila!  You have pizza/marinara/breadstick dipping sauce in about 30 seconds. 

Every summer I make pesto and freeze it in ice cube trays.

2.  Spread a layer of sauce around the pizza dough.  Don't slather on too thick or the crust will be soggy. 

 

3.  I cannot tolerate a lot of grease, which is why I get turkey pepperoni instead of regular.  Since I get a lower-fat meat, I feel better about loading up the pizza the way I know Rob likes.  So I put a first layer of pepperoni on the sauce, generously sprinkle on some mozzarella, and then add a second layer of pepperoni. 

See the little section for Gavin?

4.  Sprinkle on a little more mozzarella, a little cheddar for color and flavor, and finally some Parmesan to get that lovely crispy brown topping. 

5.  You can bake the pizza at this point, but why stop the flavor here?  I have this awesome herb pizza  topping that I love.  However I've also used just dried oregano too (or use some dried Italian seasoning).  Just a little sprinkle on top for that final bang of flavor.

There's red pepper flakes in this too; love that spicy kick!

6. Bake pizza and let sit for about 5 minutes before slicing.  Enjoy!

Golden, cheesy, meaty deliciousness