Pizza Balls Appetizer
Delicious from scratch pizza balls perfect for movie night, game day, potluck and parties. Soft, buttery with a touch of garlic and herb, these balls are going to be your next hit.
Servings: 20 balls
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ teaspoons instant yeast 1 packet
- ½ Tablespoon sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon dry basil or Italian seasoning
- 3 Tablespoons butter melted
- 1 egg
- ½ cup whole milk warm 110F
- ¼ cup warm water
- 2 ½ cups bread flour or all purpose flour (310g)
- 4 Mozzarella cheese sticks or your favorite cheese
- 40 Pepperoni slices
Optional:
- Egg wash 1 large egg, 1 tablespoon water, a pinch of black pepper
- or milk for brushing
Garlic butter:
- 2 Tablespoons butter melted
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon dry basil or Italian seasoning
Serve with:
- Pizza sauce
Instructions
- In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add yeast, sugar, salt, garlic powder, dry basil and 2 cups of flour. Mix well with a fork or a spoon.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup mix milk and water together then add to the dry ingredients.
- Add melted butter and crack the egg over.
- Turn your mixer on and beat for 2 minutes. If the dough seems too wet then add flour by the tablespoon until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl but still slightly sticky.
- Grease a separate bowl with olive oil or an oil spray, place the dough in and cover.
- Let the dough rise for an hour or until doubled in size.
- Grease a 13x9 glass baking dish with olive oil or nonstick spray and set aside.
- Cut each mozzarella stick into 5 equal parts, so you have 20 pieces and chop pepperoni into small pieces.
- After the dough has risen, punch it down lightly then divide the dough into 20 balls about 27-30g each.
- Take one dough ball in your hand, making sure to cover the rest so they won’t dry out, and flatten it a bit in your fingers then stuff with a mozzarella piece and some chopped pepperoni.
- Close the dough ball pinching it to seal well and place on the baking dish seam side down.
- Repeat with the remaining dough balls until done.
- Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and let them rise again for 15-20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350F.
- In a small bowl combine egg wash ingredients together.
- Uncover the baking dish and brush with egg wash or milk.
- Bake in the middle of your oven for 25-30 minutes.
- In a small bowl combine brushing garlic butter ingredients together.
- Remove balls from oven and brush with the garlic butter.
- Serve with pizza sauce on the side.
Notes
For the first rise it depends on kitchen temperature mine took less than 30 minutes in a 79F kitchen.
