My daughter and I like to garden and this period of time as April transitions to May is exciting. We've prepped the flower and vegetable beds for planting and our opportunity to do so is just around the corner. I'll admit it - we're both a little impatient. Which is why I try to make sure we have time to make these right around this time of the year:
What better way to keep that impatience at bay than with delicious pizza roses "grown" in our oven? This is a great recipe for assembling with kids and my daughter loves how pretty dinner ends up looking - although we all agree that it doesn't hold a candle to how wonderful it tastes! You can even make them a bit ahead of time and take them at room temperature on a picnic.
I like to serve with additional sauce for dipping and a fresh garden salad. Before we know it, we'll be putting together those salads with vegetables from our own gardens, but for now we can enjoy roses made in the kitchen and dream about the harvest yet to come!
Pizza Roses
- Refrigerated pizza dough (sold in a canister)
- Pizza sauce
- Shredded mozzarella cheese
- Pepperoni slices (about 8 per rose)
Open the dough, roll it out until it is thin, and cut it into strips about 8 inches long and 1.5 inches wide.
Cover one side of each strip lightly with pizza sauce.
Lay a piece of pepperoni on a strip such that the top third of the pepperoni hangs off the strip. Continue with another 7 pieces of pepperoni, allowing the pieces of pepperoni to slightly overlap. There will be a small bit of the strip not covered by pepperoni.
Sprinkle the bottom half of each strip with mozzarella cheese.
Beginning at the end of the strip where the pepperoni covers the dough all the way to the end, roll the dough into a coil, and carefully place it in a muffin tin, with the pepperoni facing up. Repeat this procedure with all of the strips.
Bake the roses at 400°F for 20-25 minutes, or until the pepperoni edges are crispy and the dough is fully cooked through. Remove from the oven and allow the roses to cool for at least 5 minutes before serving. I like to serve them with additional pizza sauce for dipping.
- Yields: 4 servings
- Preparation Time: 40 minutes