Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Pizza Puffs

I got the idea for these pizza puffs from Cooking With My Kid, where a broccoli version was featured for Meatless Monday. I wasn't feeling the all-veggie vibe, so I made mine with turkey sausage, spinach, and a little bit of pepperoni for zing. I felt pretty virtuous- the whole wheat, spinach, and turkey sausage seem pretty healthy to me!
These yummy puffs seem pretty versatile- I think you could change the kind of cheese and swap out a wide range of fillings. Just keep the basic proportions the same- 3/4 C Cheese and 1 1/2 C total fillings. I think next I'll try breakfast-y ones with sausage, mushrooms, and cheddar.

Ingredients:
3/4 C whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
3/4 C milk
1 egg, beaten
3/4 C mozzarella cheese
3/4 C frozen chopped spinach, thawed under running water and squeezed mostly dry
1/2 C cooked Italian turkey sausage, diced
1/4 C pepperoni, diced

Steps:
  1. Prepare your ingredients: shred the cheese, dice the sausage & pepperoni, and thaw and squeeze dry the spinach.
  2. Preheat the oven to 375, and grease a set of 24 mini-muffin tins.
  3. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, garlic powder, and Italian Seasoning.
  4. In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg. Beat in the milk.
  5. Whisk the milk mixture into the dry mixture.
  6. Stir in the cheese, spinach, sausage, and pepperoni.
  7. Allow the batter to sit for 10 minutes.
  8. Quickly stir the batter once more, then scoop evenly into the greased mini-muffin tins.
  9. Bake at 375 until slightly puffed and golden.
Serve warm, with pizza sauce for dipping. Leftovers keep well in the fridge, freeze well, and reheat nicely in the microwave or toaster oven.