LunchBox Pizza Rolls

It's that time of year again, kids are off to school and that means school lunches.  If your kids are anything like mine, what they like in their lunch box can change from day to day (or minute to minute).  I whipped up these two days ago and have to make more today!!  This is also an easy enough recipe that you can let the kids help, which usually means they're more likely to eat them!!  Win-Win!!

I started with a basic pizza crust recipe (passed to me from my lovely Mother in law), which I'll share in a second.  You could use frozen or store bought dough easily enough, just make sure it's thawed fully.  For the gluten free folks out there, the best pizza crust I've seen yet is a mix from Duinkerken foods, and if I was still cooking gluten free it's the one I would use.  You may need to use a gluten free flour blend (Our Compliments All Purpose would work) just to make it easier to work with.

You could really use any fillings your kids (or you) love on pizza.  Just be careful not to overfill them or they won't roll properly.  I used Catelli pizza sauce (Spicy Garlic and Onion), Pizza Delight pepperoni and grated mozzarella.  You also have to go light on the sauce, or it makes one hell of a mess.

Pizza Dough

3 1/2 cups flour
1 Tbsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 Tbsp sugar

Mix all ingredients together.  Knead for 5 minutes.  Roll into greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth.  Set aside and let rise until double in size.  Punch down and cut in half.

Roll out each half into rectangles and line with toppings, leaving about an inch on one end.  Brush olive oil on that end to help seal them when you roll it up.  Roll and chill for about a half an hour.  (See below for pictures).

Preheat your oven to 375F.  Cut each roll into approximately 1-2" sections (like you would when making cinnamon rolls).  This recipe makes around 24 total.  I use muffin pans, just to help them keep their shape, but you cold use a round cake pan, or whatever you have handy.  Just remember, if you don't use muffin pans the edges will stick to each other and make separating the rolls harder.

Cook for approximately 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven.  Remove and cool.  These are tasty warm or cold, my girls loved them both ways.

Half of the dough, rolled out and ready for toppings.

Notice the blank edge...olive oil that when rolling it up.

Pepperoni...yummy!!

Cheese, and as counter-intuitive as it seems, there can be too much in this instance.

Rolled up and ready for the fridge!

Sliced, and waiting to cook.

Deliciousness!!

There you have it.  My girls are ridiculously picky, and devoured these in no time flat.  Enjoy!