My Mother's Apron Strings: Pizza Party Buns

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Pizza Party Buns

Each month, King Arthur Flour offers a recipe called "BakeAlong" on their blog--Flourish. I have been doing them since September and this month was especially inviting with Pizza in the title! I make my own pizza, but thought...wouldn't these buns be great for snacking.

Superbowl is around the corner and these buns would be perfect. They can also be made up ahead of time and frozen until game day.

Pizza Party Buns
Dough:
1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk
3 T olive oil
3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast

Filling:
1/2 cup of your favorite pizza sauce (I use Raos)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (or the cheese of your choice)
4 ounces (about 1 cup) chopped or shredded pepperoni (I used veggie sausage that I cooked first)

Place all of the dough ingredients into a bowl... you can mix by hand, use a stand mixer with dough hook, or in a bread machine--to make a soft dough.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled, 60 to 90 minutes.

Roll the dough into a 12" x 18" rectangle.

Spread evenly with the sauce, cheese, and pepperoni (or your choice of toppings).

Starting with a long end, roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into 12 to 18 pieces...depending on how large you want the buns to be. I did 12!

Place on parchment lined rimmed baking sheet(s) and flatten to about 1 inch high. Cover with plastic wrap that has been lightly sprayed with baking spray. Allow the buns to rise once more, about 60 to 90 minutes, depending how warm your kitchen is during the winter!

Towards the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 350F-degrees. Bake the buns for 25 to 30 minutes, until they're a light golden brown. One change I made was to melt some butter (3T) and added 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder. I brushed my rolls when they came out of oven. This not only added extra flavor, but the melted butter gives the rolls a nice shine.