Tonight I made pizza bites via Carole's recipe at My Kitchen Escapades. You'll notice that the pictures look a little better than those of the birthday cake. This is because I was able to find the charger and cable for my Pentax point and shoot! And, to my amazement, it even has a food setting! I'm still no photographer and never will be, but at least it's a good step up from using my iPhone. From now on, all pictures will be from my Pentax unless otherwise noted.
One of the biggest problems that I still have with cooking is timing. I nearly always underestimate the time it will take me to cook things. Like tonight for example. Andrew had two soccer games at 7 and 8:30 and I really wanted him to be able to eat dinner before he left at 6:15. I started dinner about 4:00. I didn't even let the dough rise for the entire suggested period yet I was just putting the pan in the oven at 6:00, which didn't leave enough time for it to finish cooking before he had to leave. I think I just get distracted by other tasks and I have a tendency to clean as I cook. While this is a good thing in the long run, it often drags my prep time out longer than I anticipate.
Andrew and I loved this recipe. It was a tad bit on the dry side but I also made the mistake of not buying or making any marinara to dip them in. I would definitely recommend it. I've also though about freezing small cubes of pizza sauce and tucking them into the dough balls along with the cheese and pepperoni, although I'm afraid it may get a bit messy that way. This recipe makes 2 pans of pizza bites and I've frozen the second pan to bake later. I'll let you know if they freeze well!
Note to self - if you continue with this blog for too long, you will need to buy nicer looking cookware. The dingy, blackened, caked on Walmart stuff looks sad.
Andrew and I loved this recipe. It was a tad bit on the dry side but I also made the mistake of not buying or making any marinara to dip them in. I would definitely recommend it. I've also though about freezing small cubes of pizza sauce and tucking them into the dough balls along with the cheese and pepperoni, although I'm afraid it may get a bit messy that way. This recipe makes 2 pans of pizza bites and I've frozen the second pan to bake later. I'll let you know if they freeze well!
Note to self - if you continue with this blog for too long, you will need to buy nicer looking cookware. The dingy, blackened, caked on Walmart stuff looks sad.
Before
After! Golden brown and yummy!
Pizza Bites
1 recipe pizza dough (I also used her dough recipe*)
sliced pepperoni
4 oz mozzarella cheese, cubed into 24 pieces
olive oil
italian seasoning
Parmesan cheese
garlic powder
Directions
1. Bring the pizza dough recipe to it's first rise. Deflate and divide into 24 even pieces. Andrew bought me a kitchen scale last year and I almost took it back to exchange for another cooking tool, thinking that I really wouldn't use it that much. Boy was I wrong! This scale is extremely helpful when you want things to even out properly. If you use a scale, each of my dough balls ended up being about 24 (+/-1) grams. Roll out each dough ball and wrap it around 2 pieces of pepperoni and one cube of cheese. Place seam side down into a greased 9" pie plate. Repeat with the rest of your dough balls.
2. Allow the dough balls to rise for about 20-30 minutes.
3. Brush the tops of the pieces with olive oil then sprinkle on some parmesan, italian seasoning and garlic powder. Then bake in a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Serve hot with marinara.
* I've tried 3-4 different pizza dough recipes so far but I've yet to find the recipe. I'll let you know when I do. This recipe, as I noted, seemed to be a tad on the dry side but that could be due to slightly overcooking or just the nature of this particular recipe.
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