Pizza Rolls

I made these for lunch today when I realised there was only some pepper, tomatoes, and needing to be used up ham in the fridge.  If we'd had eggs I would of course have made omelettes or a frittata but I used all the eggs in the Christmas baking frenzy. LOL

You could make these using puff pastry instead of pizza dough, just bake them join side up instead of join side down and brush with milk to glaze instead of olive oil. 

I've made savoury pizza scroll type things before but decided to make these more like small rolls with an enclosed filling rather than scrolls or calzone. Variety is the spice of life, apparently!

To make the dough you will need:

2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 tsp instant yeast

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp oil (any oil will do)

250ml lukewarm water

I used the following for the filling:

a handful of mushrooms, cut into smallish pieces (optional)

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 pepper, deseeded and chopped into small chunksm ( I used a yellow one)

3 or 4 tomatoes chopped into chunks ( or 12 cherry tomatoes halved or quartered)

1 tsp dried Italian herbs

50g cheese, cut into small chunks 

To make dough I combined the flour, sugar, yeast, salt and oil in a bowl.  Then stirred in the lukewarm water to form a dough which I kneaded for around 7 - 10 minutes in my stand mixer.  You could also make the dough by hand.   Once the dough has been kneaded enough it will be smooth and springy, and spring back if you lightly press it. 

Put the dough in a greased bowl and cover with clingfilm.  Leave the bowl in a warm place for about 45 minutes until the dough had doubled in size. If you are impatient, or there are hungry hoards demanding sustenance, microwave the dough on low power for 1 minute and allow to rest for 10 minutes, then repeat. This will dramatically speed up the rising process.

While the dough is rising make the filling.  Cook the onion, pepper and garlic in a pan until the pepper and onion have softened.  Add the tomatoes and herbs. Simmer until thickened.  Add the ham and this point and mix it into the mixture. Take the mixture off the heat and leave it to cool.

Once the dough has doubled in size, knock it back and roll it out to a large rectangle shape.  Cut the dough into 24 squares.  Put a spoonful of the tomato mixture and a cheese cube into the centre of each square.  Join opposite corners to enclose the filling.  Twist the dough to securely seal in the filling.

Put the dough balls, twisted side down, onto baking tray lined with baking paper.  I you want you can mix 1 Tblsp olive oil with 1 tsp dried Italian herbs and brush a little on top of each dough ball.  Leave the dough balls to rest for 15-20 minutes until rounded and plump.

Bake the pizza rolls in an oven preheated to 190°C for about 15 minutes, or until they are light golden brown. Serve warm or cold.

These also freeze well and you can keep some for the next day if you put them in an airtight container.  That's if the hungry hoards don't devour them all!