Our favorite holiday appetizer is a version of my MIL's Pepperoni Balls. Connie makes them with the Rhodes Bake N Serve frozen dinner rolls. We use my family's home made bread recipe instead. We also add some cheese in with the pepperoni. It adds something special. Then you dip the whole thing in a marinara or pizza sauce. Yummy.
Pepperoni Ball Recipe
Dough
- 6.5 cups flour
- 2 cups warm water
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 pkg or 4.5tsp yeast (I use active dry)
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup shortening or oil (I use butter flavored shortening)
Put water, sugar and yeast in a bowl and beat with mixer. Add salt and 2 cups flour and mix for 2 minutes. Add eggs and shortening and mix for 1 minute. Add rest of flour and mix with a spoon (or mixer fitted with a dough hook) until it gets thick. Then knead by hand on a floured surface (or mixer fitted with a dough hook) until smooth and not sticky. Oil a bowl, form dough into a ball, place in bowl, turn over once (to coat in oil), cover bowl with a towel and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
Pepperoni Balls
Once your dough has risen, punch it down once. Then take a piece of pepperoni, fold into quarters, add a small piece of cheese (mozzarella and pepper jack are two fantastic choices) and wrap a small piece of dough around them. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Once you have formed all your balls, cover with a towel and let rise for 20 minutes.
Once they've risen, bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. These usually make around 2 dozen for me.We currently use America's Test Kitchen (they do require a subscription to see their recipes, completely worth it, though) sauce from their Thin Crust Pizza recipe. It is super yummy, with a light fresh taste. Our Best Bite's also has a wonderful Pizza Sauce Recipe. You can't go wrong with either.
Head on over to Life as Mom and check out this week's Ultimate Recipe Swap to find some other yummy appetizers!
I think you made these one time when you had a group of us over when you lived on Green (?) St. So yummy! And I just purchased Jessica Fisher's Freezer cookbook. I'm really excited to start using it!
ReplyDeleteGonna try this this week. You could easily freeze these too I think!
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