Category: Pizza

Pizza Bites

1/31/2013

One last Superbowl snack before Sunday...pizza bites! When I saw this come up on one of my favorite blogs years ago, I had to make it that same week. And we're still eating them. Pizza bites are incredible...for lunch, a snack, or dinner. I make mine a little bigger than the original recipe indicates and place 3-4 pieces of pepperoni in each roll with a big hunk of mozzarella. The original recipe calls for 20-24 balls, and I can only try to get 12 out of mine.

Pizza dough isn't hard to make, and it rises pretty quick. This is my favorite and I actually make it all by hand now. I find it's much easier than using my big mixer. But feel free to grab some from the store or your local pizza place. I highly recommend you make these as soon as possible!

Pizza Bites
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For the dough:
6 ounces (about 1 cup) semolina flour
16 ounces (about 3 1/4 cups) bread flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
2 teaspoons salt
14 ounces (1 3/4 cups) warm water
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

For the bites:
About 40 pieces of pepperoni
3 pieces of string cheese
Olive oil
Italian seasoning
Grated Parmesan cheese

Combine the yeast, sugar, garlic, and water in a bowl and allow yeast to dissolve. Add flours and stir with a large spoon. Let the dough rest for a few minutes to give the yeast time to work. Add the oil and salt and stir. Place the dough on a floured counter and knead by hand until it's soft and elastic. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Let it rise about an hour or until it’s doubled in size. I like to cover my rising bread with shower caps that my friends pick up at hotels. They're easy to slip on and they're reusable.

Split into two pieces and shape or place in freezer bags to freeze and use late (you only need one ball of dough for this recipe).

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Divide one ball of dough into 12 pieces. Stretch the piece into a circle about the size of your palm. Place the pepperoni and cheese in the middle of the circle and stretch the dough around it and pinch to close. Place the balls seam side down in a greased 9-inch pie plate.

Brush olive oil on top of the balls and sprinkle the Italian seasonings and parmesan cheese on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. Serve warm.

Source: Annie's Eats

Pizza-Stuffed Mushrooms

4/22/2012

If you hate mushrooms, sorry about this one. But, I loooove mushrooms, and I love them on and in a lot of foods. Pizza is one of my favorites. When I saw this recipe on Lauren's Latest, I was stoked. I love cheese, pepperoni, and shrooms, and what could be better. The beauty of this recipe is that you really can customize it to your desire. Anything that you like on top of your pizza, just chop into small pieces and throw in the filling. I used red onions and pepperoni. The original recipe called for black olives, but I don't play that way. Ick. So I left them out. Easy peasy. We had these for the Final Four basketball games, but you could have these anyday. They're so good and easy to make.

Pizza-Stuffed Mushrooms
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12 white mushrooms (the larger they are, the more filling you can put in them!)
4 ounces cream cheese softened
1/4 cup grated mozzarella
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cups pepperoni, diced
2 tablespoons each of additional fill ins (onion, green pepper, olices, ham, sausage, etc.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a cast iron skillet or sheet pan and set aside.

Wash the mushrooms and remove the stem (they should pop out of the cap). If you run the mushrooms under water, make sure you drain any water out of the cap.

In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, mozzarella, and spices. Mix together until combined. Stir in the pepperoni and other fill-ins and scoop into the mushroom caps.

Place in your sprayed pan and bake for 20 minutes. After the time is up, switch your oven to broil and brown the tops.

Source: Lauren's Latest

Meatball Rolls

4/10/2012

As I've mentioned before, I love pizza dough because I can use it for so many different recipes. Last week I was trying to come up with something simple and quick for dinner. I had some pizza dough in the freezer, and I wanted to try something new. This recipe is pretty stellar because it tastes a lot like a meatball sandwich without all that mess.

Side note: You should never have meatball sandwiches when you're trying to impress someone. It's pretty hard to impress when you have cheese stringing out of your mouth and sauce dripping down your face. There's just no pretty way to eat meatball sandwiches or sliders until now.

This has the mozzarella cheese tucked inside a flavorful meatball tucked inside pizza dough. It doesn't get much better or easier to eat than this. We had these for dinner, but they would make a great appetizer, too.

Meatball Rolls
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1/2 recipe pizza dough (recipe makes 2)
1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs
3 tablespoons fresh parsley
Pinch red pepper flakes
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 egg
2 tablespoons ketchup
2/3 cup grated parmesan
salt and pepper
1 pound ground beef
2 string cheese sticks cut into 12-14 pieces
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Italian seasoning
Grated parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease a 9-inch pie plate or cake pan.

In a large bowl, combine the bread crumbs, parsley, red pepper, garlic, onion powder, egg, ketchup, parmesan, and salt and pepper. Add in the ground beef and mix until everything is well combined.

Scoop out 1 tablespoon of the meatball mixture. Place a piece of cheese in the middle and roll the meat around the cheese so the cheese is sealed inside. Repeat until you have 18-20 balls. (You can form the rest of the meat into larger balls and freeze them to use later in spaghetti or meatball sliders.) Refrigerate the meatballs for 10 minutes.

Divide the pizza dough into 18-20 pieces. Take a piece of dough, place the meatball inside it, and wrap the dough around it, pinching the seams to seal. Place the balls seam side down in your pan. When you have all the balls in the plate, brush with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle italian seasoning and parmesan cheese on top. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meatballs adapted from Giada.

Pepperoni Rolls

3/28/2012

This is a recipe from the pizza and beer restaurant, Old Chicago. Up until 5 minutes ago, I thought Old Chicago was only in Colorado...apparently it's in a lot of states. If you're lucky enough to have been to one of the apparently many locations in the US, you might know what I'm talking about. These pepperoni rolls are on the appetizer menu, and whenever I go to Old C's, I get these as my dinner. Old C's has pretty good pizza, but these blow that out of the water.

Side note--I went on a blind date to Old Chicago once, and the guy texted his friends under the table the whole time. I'm not exaggerating. Every minute or so he would send a text, and this was before texting was super popular. Did he really think I couldn't see what he was doing? Did he think he was being less rude by doing it under the table? It was a very interesting "date." So glad that stage in my life is over! Thankfully we just met for drinks (although the pepperoni rolls would have helped the situation), but it was pretty painful. At least it was trivia night, so I had something to entertain me while he was constantly texting; to be honest, the trivia entertained me when he wasn't texting either! Ok, sorry about the tangent. Just want you to know a little about my super exciting single days.

These rolls are great, and let me tell you--they are not just another pizza roll. They have some interesting ingredients that give them a great, unique flavor. Pepper jack cheese instead of mozzarella, chives, and ranch dressing instead of pizza sauce all help to make these incredible. There's a little kick to them, but they're definitely not very spicy--it's more of a tang than a spice. I know they sound strange, but those ingredients just work. The hubs does not like ranch at all, but he loves these rolls. Gushes over them, which is rare. You should try them as an alternative to pizza on your next pizza night. They'll be a huge hit. Maybe they'll even keep a blind date from texting his friends all evening. Maybe.

Pepperoni Rolls
Makes about 8 rolls
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1/2 recipe pizza dough (recipe makes two)
1/3 cup ranch dressing
1 cup pepper jack cheese
1/2-3/4 cup pepperoni
1/3 cup green onions
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees. Roll or spread your pizza dough into a 15x8 inch rectangle (it doesn’t have to be perfect, just get the general measurements). Spread the ranch dressing over it. Sprinkle the pepper jack cheese on top of the ranch dressing and then place enough pepperoni over the cheese to cover completely. Spread the green onions and sprinkle garlic powder over everything. Roll up the dough from the long end (like cinnamon rolls) and pinch the seams to seal. Cut about 1/2-1 inch off the edges, and cut the rest into two-inch pieces (or so). Place cut side down into a greased pan. Let rest and rise for 30 minutes (if you have time). Bake at 475 degrees for 8-10 minutes until browned and then sprinkle parmesan cheese over the rolls. Serve with marinara or pizza sauce.

Source: Slightly adapted from Suburban Utopia

Pizza Dough and Sauce

3/27/2012

If you read any food blogs, you’ll see that almost everyone has their favorite pizza dough recipe. This is mine, and boy do we love it. The mix of semolina flour and bread flour gives it a crispy brown crust with a chewy interior. Pizza is a very easy thing to make from scratch, and it tastes so great. We hardly order pizza anymore. There are so many things you can do with pizza dough. We love to make pizza, calzones, pizza rolls, pepperoni rolls, breadsticks, and garlic knots. The beauty of most pizza dough recipes is that they make enough for two pizza pies or a lot of calzones and even more rolls and breadsticks. You can stick the extra dough in the freezer, and it becomes an easy weeknight meal. All you have to do is pull it out of the freezer in the morning and let it thaw and come to room temperature.

It’s best to weigh the flours so you get exact amounts. If you don’t have a scale or don’t want to buy one, the dough should be slightly sticky/borderline tacky (your finger barely sticks to the dough when you touch it), so keep adding more flour or water to get it there.

The sauce recipe is my favorite because it tastes so fresh and you don’t have to precook it. If you’re a little weirded out by the lemon juice, don’t be. I was skeptical because I am not a lover of lemon, but it adds such a great fresh and bright taste to the sauce. It’s incredible. You’ll love this sauce recipe.

Pizza Dough
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6 ounces (about 1 cup) semolina flour
16 ounces (about 3 1/4 cups) bread flour
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon yeast
1/4-1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
2 teaspoons salt
14 ounces (1 3/4 cups) warm water
3 tablespoons olive oil

You can make this dough in a stand mixer or by hand. I usually start it in the hand mixer and finish it by hand.

Combine the yeast, sugar, garlic, and water in a bowl and allow yeast to dissolve. Add flour and mix to combine. Let the dough rest for a few minutes to give the yeast time to work. Add the oil and salt and mix to combine. Mix using the bread hook until it’s soft and elastic OR knead by hand until the dough is soft and elastic. I've found that the oil keeps you from being able to fully knead the dough, so I usually plop the dough on the counter, add a touch of flour, and knead it for a couple of minutes until it's smooth. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Let it rise about an hour or until it’s doubled in size. I like to cover my rising bread with shower caps that my friends pick up at hotels. They're easy to slip on and they're reusable.

Split into two pieces and shape or place in freezer bags to use later.

Pizza Sauce
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt, to taste

In a medium-sized bowl, combine all ingredients and mix well. Store in a covered container in the fridge for one week or store what you don't use in the freezer.

To Make the Pizza
While the dough is rising, move an oven rack to the top rung, place your pizza stone on it (if you have one), and preheat your oven as high as it will go (usually about 550 degrees). This will give you the best tasting pizza. It comes at a price, though, because your house probably will smell like you just cleaned your oven. At least mine did. So now I bake it at 530 degrees. The pizza toppings don't get as crispy and brown, but it’s a nice compromise. You’ll want to let the oven preheat for at least an hour.

Stretch the dough into a 10-12 inch circle with thicker edges using plenty of flour or cornmeal for dusting. I put my dough onto a floured piece of parchment paper that I can slide on top of my pizza stone. Add sauce, cheese, and any other toppings. Slide the pizza onto the stone or place your baking sheet into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes until browned and bubbling. Make sure to let it cool first so you don't lose a layer of skin from the roof of your mouth!

Source: Pizza dough barely adapted from Cook Street Cooking School. Sauce recipe barely adapted from Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day

Welcome!

Cooking is fun and easy at high altitude, but baking can be frustrating. About 90% of my recipes work everywhere, but some are adjusted so us mountain dwellers can enjoy baked goods from scratch. I hope you find great recipes on here for your family, and I'll let you know if any are adjusted for high altitude.

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