Pizza Bites

I'm still on the fence with this one. While it was a cool technique it was nothing special and would probably be better as an appetizer.

You may have gathered, I considered this more a technique than a recipe. I say this because you can put any toppings you want in the dough and you can use any dough recipe you want.

So, what did I do? I started with a box of jiffy pizza dough. I followed the directions on the box. I used a flour-dusted board and a glass to make circle-shapes pieces of dough. I stuffed the dough with 2 pepperonis, as much cheese as I could fit, and a sprinkle of olives. I used regular pizza sauce for dipping.

How to improve? First of all, make sure you grease the pan really well. It was my bad...I was using stoneware so it stuck a little. Second, cover the whole dough bite with the butter topping. Maybe even melting the butter first would have been better. I think a sprinkling of some garlic powder, oregano, and salt would have been good. Also, one box of jiffy won't get you very far. It wasn't even enough for the two of us (Addi wasn't interested in eating any pizza bites). I would suggest 2-3 boxes to fill a bundt pan. Last, you don't have to fill them all the same. Fill them with your favorite pizza toppings!!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 4 Tbsp butter
• 2 lbs pizza dough (I used this recipe because it makes enough for two pizza)
• 6 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into small cubes (you'll need ~48 pieces)
• 48 slices of Turkey pepperoni (from 1 package)
• 2-3 cups marinara sauce, warmed, for serving

Instructions

• Heat garlic and butter over medium heat just until the garlic begins to brown. Remove from heat and let sit.
• Lightly brush the inside of a bundt pan (or other oven-safe dish) with garlic butter.
• Pull off large marble-sized balls of dough and flatten (a kitchen scale makes this very easy). Top with a slice of pepperoni and a cube of mozzarella.
• 
  
• Wrap the dough around the pepperoni and cheese, pinching well to seal.
• Very lightly brush the pizza ball with garlic butter and place into the bundt pan (I dabbed the pizza balls on a butter-dipped silicon brush to keep butter use low - there will be 1+ Tbsp leftover - and my hands butter free. Buttery hands make it hard to get the pizza balls to seal).
• Repeat until all of the dough is used.
• Cover and let sit for 30 minutes, while preheating the oven to 400.
• Bake for ~35 minutes, until the top is very brown.
• Remove from the oven and let sit for 10 minutes.
• Turn out onto a platter and serve with warmed marinara sauce for dipping.

http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/archives/7195