This homemade pizza recipe comes in little bite-size pieces; A pizza recipe for bread filled with pepperoni and cheese. Homemade pizza recipe.
I’ve been trying to reduce my intake of carbs. No white bread, I said. No cheese, I said.
Aaaaand then I went and made this.
My BFF saw my picture on Instagram and asked me why I was making bread. As if I had an answer. “Torture!” she said. “No doubt,” said I.
I’m kind of a sucker for cheesy bread, especially when it involves garlic. Garlic might be my kryptonite. Who can resist something like that? When the cheese is all stringy and you can pull it for miles before it breaks? It’s completely irresistible. Admit it.
The other inexplicable thing about my making these pizza bites was my timing. Normally we’re an eat-dinner-late kind of family, but Robb came home early, and needed to leave again, and I figured we had better get while the gettin’ was good. So the pizza bites came out of the oven about the same time the veggies went onto the stove. The kids thought the pizza bites were dinner.
They wish!
I’ll tell you the truth… I’m not a big fan of making bread. All the kneading and waiting for it to rise and hoping your yeast is still good is just too much for me.
But I will do it on occasion when the recipe is right. And folks, this recipe is RIGHT. Very little waiting is involved, and I let my stand mixer do all the kneading for me. It was awesome.
Putting these little pouches of pizza goodness together was pretty easy too. I rolled out the dough, and cut 3-inch circles. Each circle got some of these cute-as-a-button mini pepperonis and a chunk of string cheese. Pinch them together and place them pinched side down in your cake pan or pie plate. Bake. Enjoy.
Easy.
Wish I could say the same for this diet.
 StuffedMushroom Cups |
 ChunkyTaco Dip |
 Pulled PorkTortilla Cups |
- 1½ cups warm water
- 2 T. sugar
- 1 T. yeast
- 1 tsp. salt
- 3½ cups flour + more for rolling
- olive oil or butter
- Italian seasoning
- garlic salt
- mini pepperoni
- 6-7 sticks of string cheese, quartered
- Combine warm water with sugar and yeast. Let sit 5 minutes.
- Add salt and flour, mix well. Knead until dough is smooth. Let sit 10 minutes.
- Roll out dough on a well-floured surface, into a circle about 18 inches in diameter.
- Cut 3-inch circles. Place 5 or 6 mini pepperonis and a piece of cheese in each circle. Close dough around cheese and pepperoni, and pinch the ends together to seal.
- Place pinched side down in a 9-inch cake pan or pie plate, placing pieces close together to fill the pan. You should get 24-26 pieces in one pan.
- Brush tops with either olive oil or butter, and sprinkle with Italian seasoning and garlic salt.
- Let rise a few more minutes while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
- If there is any dough left over, you can roll it, cut it into strips, brush with garlic butter, and bake for 12-15 minutes to have fun homemade garlic sticks.
If you enjoy this recipe, you might also enjoy:
Puff Pizza Pinwheels from My Kitchen Experiments
Pizza Dip from Closet Cooking
Homemade Mini Pizza from Faux Martha
homemade pizza recipe
If I had to choose between living a few extra years or spending my life eating delicious food like this, guess which one I’d choose! I’d die a plump yet happy woman. Your pizza bites look ohmahgawd ah-may-zing, Jen! Did your kids pull the old “I’m so full of pizza bites I can’t possibly eat any veggies” trick? I totally would’ve.
These bites look amazing, I would just snack on them all day long!
Hello Jen..
I have a question..if i made a double batch of your pizza bites, could they be stored in the freezer for future use, and if so, how is the best way to store them and for how long? Thank you for your time and for bringing us scrumptious recipes..i love your blog!!
Valerie
Valerie, they’ve never lasted long enough to freeze at my house! That being said, I don’t see why you couldn’t freeze them. If you are talking about baking them first, be sure they are completely cooled before you wrap them in a freezer bag, or freezer-grade plastic wrap, removing as much air as you can. I’m guessing you would probably want to use it within 2-3 weeks. To thaw it, keep it in its wrapping and set it out at room temperature for 3 hours or so.
If you’re wanting to freeze the dough, you should let it rise, then freeze for an hour or two, then remove from the freezer, quickly package it, and return it to the freezer. (Same as before, in freezer grade material.) This way it should last more like 2-3 months. You let it thaw and rise before baking, which could take 4-6 hours. Hope that helps!