Homemade Pepperoni Pizza Rolls

Mel is one of my favorite food bloggers! I almost never go wrong when I use one of her recipes. This one looked really good and my whole family was excited to try them. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

Dough:

• 1 ½ cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 3 ½ to 4 cups (497 to 568 g) flour (see note)

Filling:

• 2 ½ to 3 cups pizza sauce (see note)
• 2 cups (227 g) freshly shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup (142 g) pepperoni, chopped
• ¼ to ⅓ cup cornmeal
• ¼ cup (28 g) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

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Instructions 

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet (about 12X18-inches) with parchment paper.
• For the dough, in an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (you can also do this by hand in a large bowl with a spoon), stir together the water, honey, olive oil, yeast, salt and 1 cup of the flour. With the mixer on low speed, continue adding the flour until the dough clears the sides of the bowl and forms a soft, smooth ball. Knead for 3-4 minutes (add a few minutes if using whole wheat flour). Let the dough rest, covered, in the bowl for 10-15 minutes.
• Separate the dough into two pieces. On a lightly greased countertop, press one portion of dough into a thin rectangle, about 14X10-inches.
• Spread 1/2 to 3/4 cup pizza sauce evenly across the top. Sprinkle evenly with half the mozzarella cheese and then half the pepperoni. Starting with on long side, roll up cinnamon-roll style, pinching the seam together to seal.
• Place the cornmeal in a bowl or shallow dish. Cut the dough into 1-inch sections. One by one, press the bottom of each pizza roll into the cornmeal and then place on the prepared baking sheet about an inch apart.
• Repeat with the remaining half of dough.
• Once all the pizza rolls are placed on the baking sheet, sprinkle evenly with Parmesan cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.
• Warm the extra pizza sauce, and serve the pizza rolls immediately out of the oven with the pizza sauce for dipping.

I used pizza dough from Trader Joe's instead of making my own, and it still turned out fabulous. It was pretty messy when I rolled it all up, but whatever. If you know that going in, it might not bug you as much. Ha. I also skipped the cornmeal (I thought I had it but I didn't) and it still turned out great.