Every Friday night for years, my parents played cards with the next door neighbors, the Snow’s. During those years(late 1960’s), we established a ritual where the parents played cards at one house, and the kids would hang out at the other house, eat treats and watch “Nightmare Theater”- a local Seattle weekend show hosted by a vampire “The Count” (who looked nothing like Edward Cullen). Nightmare Theater double featured scary movies like “The Thing” and “The Screaming Skull”. Every Friday night. Doesn’t that sound like fun? No wonder I won’t watch anything scary as an adult.
The food: Totino’s Pizza Rolls and boxed brownies. Serious. I LOVED this stuff. I have no logical explanation for this behavior. Totino’s Pizza Rolls? I know. What can I say? I haven’t had one of those for years, but I did have a serious love for those little greasy hot pockets of melted cheese, sauce and itty-bitty pepperoni pellets. Yes, the pepperoni looks like pellets (see photo left).
Enough about my food indiscretions. The SRC blog I was assigned this month is Lean Green Bean. Lindsay, the blog author lives in Ohio and studying to become a Registered Dietitian. She loves to cook and bake, is married and has a page on her blog devoted to her “furry family” (two dogs and two cats ).
When I saw her recipe for Pepperoni Pizza Puffs, I had a flood of Friday night childhood memories and knew I had to give them a try.
Jake loved these, and inhaled almost the whole tray himself. I subbed home made pizza sauce for canned, since it takes about a minute to whip up. Perfect appetizer for a casual party (football games) or kid gathering.
Pepperoni Pizza Puffs
Lean Green Bean
print recipe
3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup skim milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup reduced-fat (or regular) mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup turkey (or regular) pepperoni, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup pizza sauce (see recipe below for home made)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg.
3. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.
4. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 minutes.
5. Microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through, then stir in 1 tablespoon basil. Sprinkle the puffs with the remaining tablespoon of basil. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.
Pizza Sauce
1 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
dash hot pepper sauce
salt and pepper, to taste
Combine all ingredients in bowl.
Serve with pizza puffs.
Tips:
-Unless you are having 2 people over, I suggest doubling the pizza puff recipe.
Aimee says
Love the story that goes with this! 🙂 The photos are lovely. Would love to see a photo of the inside! Bet they tasted amazing 🙂
Barb, sfo says
Those look great–and I almost always have everything in the house to make them (unless the kids have invaded the pepperoni!) I like to make my own sauce too. I'm sure my family will love these. Thanks for the recipe!
Lindsay @ the lean green bean says
Yay!! So glad you and your family liked the recipe! It's one of my favorite party appetizers.
Isabelle @ Crumb says
Great story! It reminds me a little of the slumber parties one of my friends used to host, where her parents would order a bunch of pizzas and then we'd stay up really late to watch bad late-night horror movies. Fun times. 🙂
These pizza puffs sound positively delicious, and not nearly as guilt-inspiring as frozen pizza rolls. Great pick!
Ilke says
Oh i know my husband would love these for the beer making Saturdays with his friends! Definitely tripling the recipe for the group!
NO REASON NEEDED says
Mmmmm, I love pizza and these sound super easy to make.
Lisa says
I think I grew up on the packaged pizza rolls, and still get a hankering for them to this day! BUT, now I'd prefer to make them from scratch, and these pepperoni pizza rolls look INCREDIBLE! Awesome SRC choice, and what a lovely blog you have!
Lisa~~ says
How fun the memories! These look wonderful and so easy, I'm saving this recipe.
If you haven't already, I'd love for you to check out my SRC recipe this month: Welsh Cakes.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
Sara says
These look fantastic! What a great treat! 🙂
Carolyn says
Oh yummy! YOu picked a good one from your blog on the SRC. Pizza in muffin form, how can you go wrong?
sonsothunder says
Yeah, was probably all those Boris Karloff, and Vincent Price, movies that drove you to "Impulse Pepperoni Pizza Pellets"
I'm going to try this one…Love me some pizza, and bread.
God Bless You
paul
Colie's Kitchen says
Hi this is Nicole from Colie’s Kitchen I just discovered your blog and wanted to drop by and say hi. I am now a new follower. I would love to have you stop by Colie’s Kitchen if you get a chance. http://www.colieskitchen.com
Unknown says
I made these but I used ham, pineapple, pepper jack cheese and unflavoured almond milk (that is what I had). I also used regular sized muffin tins. My husband and I both thought they were delicious!
lindsay kjar says
These were delicious, poppable little morsels of pizza fun! Love the idea to try ham/pineapple…we'll have to mix it up and try them again. Thanks for always coming through with great recipes!
lindsay kjar says
These were delicious, poppable little morsels of pizza goodness! Love the idea to mix it up with different toppings. Do you think these would freeze and re-heat well?
Si says
Hi Lindsay, Im not sure. I would not try to freeze pineapple, but the pepperoni versions should do okay. Ty heating them up at about 400 directly from the freezer, no thawing. Or maybe even in the microwave on a paper towel for about a minute thirty seconds…let us know how it goes 🙂
lindsay kjar says
sorry i am goofy and replied twice- i thought it kicked me off the first time. thanks for your advice! i'll give it a try. ps- you are our fave, so thanks for posting so much great stuff! your recipes have really inspired me to cook better food for my family, so here's to you:)