Pizza Bites. Wowzers!

Oh have I been craving pizza lately--I sat on the couch only yesterday afternoon drooling at the thought of a big slab of greasy pizzeria-style pepperoni where the pepperoni is crispy and the cheese is bubbling up in glorious toasty pockets of fatty goodness. . . . There aren't too many pizzas I don't like out there.

This appetizer/snack is pizza perfection but simplified.

If you don't want to make up your own dough you can of course by any kind of substitute: Rhoads Rolls, refrigerated biscuit or crescent roll dough, if it's got yeast and flour then it'll probably work with a bit of modification.

We made these for New Year's Eve and they went over so well we ended up making them as a fun dinner a month later. The original recipe was at Chaos in the Kitchen but I did it a little differently. And better if you'll permit me to say so.

one batch pizza dough (or follow the recipe below)

Pizza dough:
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon yeast

4 ounces pepperoni slices
6 ounces mozzarella
1 tablespoon oregano
spray olive oil
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
pizza sauce (bottled or home made)

Once you have your dough prepared (either in a bread machine or by traditional hand methods or by defrosting your frozen rolls) take a pair of kitchen shears and snip the ball of dough into 32 little walnut-sized pieces of dough.

Take your pepperoni and cut the slices into quarters (they're easier to work with when they're chopped or cut into smaller sizes) and cut your mozzarella into 32 tiny cubes. Take a cube of cheese and a couple pieces of pepperoni and wrap a piece of dough around it, taking care to seal the dough properly. Lay the dough, seal side down, in a well-greased pie plate. Continue with the other balls of dough, filling 2 pie plates full of the little guys.

Now here's where you can do things a little differently. The recipe can either bake the dough in the pie plates OR you can take a bit of the pizza sauce and pour it in the bottom of the pie plates and set the dough balls on top of the sauce to bake. It's up to you but I kind of like the effect that the dough gets when it bakes on the sauce.

Regardless of the call you make, after the dough is all prepared and the balls are sitting in the pie plates spray the balls with the spray olive oil so that they're lightly coated with oil. Mix the oregano, Parmesan, salt and pepper together and sprinkle over the top of the balls.

Let them rise for half an hour while your oven is preheating to 400 degrees then bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Careful--they'll be hot but worth the wait. Serve them by themselves or dipped in pizza sauce, it's your decision.

Sponsored by Polkadot Peacock for children's bedding.