Pizza Variation: Pizza Pockets

Let's face it: after a while the plain, old pizza pie gets kind of boring. So, I try to come up with ways to make pizza new and exciting to eat. I got the inspiration for this idea from Ourbestbites.com's Stuffed Pizza Rolls. I made the rolls and found them yummy, but very time-consuming, so I set out to figure out something faster and easier. This, my friends, is what I came up with.

 Pizza Pockets

If you do not have my pizza dough recipe and want it, it's over here.

Prep time: 1 hour 15 minutes (from beginning to mix the dough to putting the pockets in the oven)
Oven: 425 degrees F
Bake time: 8 minutes
Yield: approximately 4 dozen 2x3 pizza pockets

So...make a double recipe of pizza dough, whatever is your favorite dough, but I highly recommend my own, linked above. :) Let it rest and rise a bit and get your toppings prepared while you wait. Once it's rested about 10 minutes, pull it out and divide it in half (so you have two single-pizza crust dough lumps) and rolls one out on a well-floured surface.  And I mean well-floured because, well, you'll see...

A quick note on rolling dough out: I've found it easiest to press the dough out into the approximate shape I want it before rolling it thin. So with this dough, I pressed it into a small rectangle before going at it with my rolling pin. Obviously, the picture below does not show a rectangle--I didn't think of taking a picture of me pressing it out! This is just a lump of dough...

Roll it out and flour it on the top--we don't want this sticky at all!  This dough was rolled rather thinly, about between 1/4 and 1/8 of an inch. The sheet of dough was roughly 16x24 inches. I didn't measure it precisely--I'm not really into precision on these types of things--so just do whatever looks good to you (or whatever you have space for!).

Now, here's why you floured it so much: you need to be able to set aside the already rolled-out dough. If you have a nice kitchen with plenty of country space, you don't have to do this, but you do need to be able to move this piece of dough onto the top of the other piece of dough in the near future, and I've found it easiest to move large sheets of dough by rolling them up.

OK, so we set aside the first sheet of dough--on to the next one! Re-flour your surface and roll out your second lump of dough. You want to try to get it about the same dimensions as the first one. 

Now, take those toppings you got ready and place them on the dough in a kind of grid. I imagined that I would make my pizza pockets about 2.5x2.5 inches, so I tried to space my toppings accordingly.  You'll notice that I left the cheese out of a couple of the soon-to-be pockets--that's because my daughter and dairy don't exactly get along the greatest, but with the pizza pockets, it's easy to make some for just her.

I did just basic toppings: cheese and pepperoni. We aren't supreme pizza kind of people around here.

Now, take the sheet of dough that you rolled up and set aside and bring it back over to your work area.  Match up the edges of the dough sheets and unroll the top one.

Oops! I ran out of dough! No problem, I'll just use some of the scraps that I cut off later to finish the lonely pizza pockets.

Press down the dough in between all the toppings to seal them into their little square pockets.  Of course, the toppings are now inside their pockets, so I guess they're fillings, not toppings....oh well, let's not get hung up on technicalities. ;)

Ready for cutting!  I like to use my pizza wheel to cut my dough. I've found that it's much easier than using a knife. It doesn't pull through the dough like running a knife through it would and, since this is a non-stick pizza wheel, the dough doesn't stick!

Cut out all the pockets and trim off excess dough. Set aside the excess so that you can finish off the pockets that the top crust didn't quite reach.

Transfer the individual pockets onto a cookie sheet. I like to line my sheets with parchment paper, so I don't have to grease them. But if you use plain cookie sheets or foil-covered cookie sheets, you'll want to grease (and possibly flour or cornmeal) them so that everything comes off of the sheets easily (especially that melted cheese!).  Poke holes in the tops of the pockets to let steam escape.

Bake at 425 degrees F for about 8 minutes. Adjust the time for your oven so that you get nice golden brown pizza pockets.

Let them cool a little and pull them off the sheets onto a plate for serving. Mmmm! I'm hungry!

Dip them in pizza sauce or just eat them plain!

This recipe fed our small family of 3 for 2 full meals and another of just me and our daughter.  At each meal my husband and I each ate about 7 pockets and our 21 month old daughter ate about 4.  We reheated the pockets in a 350 degree F oven for 8-10 minutes and they reheated VERY well. This recipe definitely got 5 stars for our family.

~Regina

Feel free to post a comment if you have any questions. The comments are moderated, so I should see any questions, no matter how long it has been since this post was published.

Basic Dough: Pizza

I found this recipe while looking for a new pizza crust. I've used it for pizza crust for a long time, then I started experimenting.  What I discovered is the most versatile, basic recipe for bread.  I will share a variety of the recipes I've come up with based around this bread recipe, but let's start with the most basic one first.

Pizza Dough

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon dry active yeast
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons oil

Prep time: 30-45 minutes (for me, but I've been making this pizza for over 10 years)
Oven: 425 F
Bake time: 15 minutes
Yield: 1 large pizza

Here's the easy part: throw it all into a bowl in that order and mix until the dough has formed.  I use my Kitchen Aid mixer and allow it to knead the dough for 1-2 minutes.  If you don't have a mixer that can handle kneading dough, then it's not hard to mix it by hand and knead it until the dough is smooth.  The dough is fairly soft, so it shouldn't take long at all.

Now, a couple notes for those who have never worked with yeast before:

1. The water-- Most recipes will tell you to use lukewarm water. I've found that the water is fine as long as it feels warm but I can keep my finger in the water comfortably.  When I was first learning how to make this dough, I used a candy thermometer and tried to get the water between 110-115 degrees F.
2. Proofing--This is when you dissolve the yeast in your warm water and wait 5-10 minutes to let it grow. This was done to make sure the yeast was alive, which is usually not a problem these days (assuming you've stored your yeast properly).  Most of us do it these days as a hold-over from the days of inconsistent yeast. So as long as you are confident that you aren't going to kill the yeast with too-hot water, you can skip this step.  It saves you about 10 minutes, which is fairly significant.
3. Yeast & salt-- Salt can slow down the working of yeast, so some bread-makers wait to add the salt until after some kneading has been done. I find it difficult to work the salt in at that point, so I just toss it with the rest of the dry ingredients. I haven't had any trouble with slow yeast in this recipe, especially since I use a fairly large amount of yeast.

Anyways, once you have your dough all nice and kneaded, put it in a greased bowl and let it rest in a warm spot while you get the rest of your toppings ready (we are making pizza, after all!).  Here is my dough after about 10 minutes in a pretty warm oven (about 150 degrees F--warmer than the recommended 80 or so degrees F, but it works well for me).  I keep it well-greased or covered with a wet cloth to keep it from drying out. You can easily leave it for longer, but if you're going to leave it for more than an hour, I suggest using a lower oven temperature or punching it down every 30 minutes or so.

When the dough is done rising, work it outward on a greased and cornmealed (or floured, if you so choose) large pizza pan (the one pictured is 14 inches, I believe).  You need to be careful not to pull or stretch the dough, just press it outward until you reach the edge of your pan.  By now you've noticed the little dark flecks of stuff in my dough. That's parsley--I like to add it into my pizza dough because it looks so neat. :)  I also will add granulated garlic if I'm in the mood for a garlic crust.

Now spread your topping onto the crust. I've found that using warm pizza sauce works the best because it helps keep the yeast warm enough to continue working. At this point I like to let my pizza rest again for at least 10 minutes. I'll return it to my very warm oven for a few minutes, then pull it out and let it sit while the oven warms up.  I've found that letting the ready-to-bake pizza sit for up to an hour is fine, but once you start going longer periods of time, the dough starts to explode and spill over the edges of the pan.

 

Finally, bake the pizza in a 425 degrees F oven for about 15 minutes or until the edges and bottom are browned.

See? A nicely browned bottom crust.

Yummy!

Now...if you felt like it, you could do a 1.5x recipe and use the extra half recipe of dough to make breadsticks!  My husband loves the breadsticks most of all, so I tend to make the extra dough every time I make pizza.

So there you go, I've shared my family's "secret" pizza dough recipe with you! :)  If you have any questions, feel free to post a comment. I have the comments set to moderation so that I'm sure to see any questions, even a long time after this post was published.

~Regina

Disclaimer: I am not a professional. Anything published in this post or anywhere on this blog is drawn from my own experience. What works for me will hopefully work for you, but is not guaranteed to.  If you know more about what I'm talking about than I do, feel free to enlighten me--I love learning!--but be nice about it.