Introduction: Pretzeled Pizza Poppers

About: Kurt Beard is a Marketing and Business Strategy Success Guide in Central Indiana. He helps small businesses, sole proprietors, and professional service providers be successful by marketing, planning, executing…

these simple and versatile pizza poppers are easy to modify and make a great appetizer or dinner.
they take about 4 hours of cook time but not more than 30 minutes of work time.
I cooked these for a church small group cooking contest.

Step 1: Gather Ingredients

pizza sauce

cheese (I use pizza cheese blend)

pizza dough (I made mine in the bread machine. you can buy a lump of frozen dough, buy dough mix, buy fresh dough from a bakery

toppings / innings / stuffers (pepperoni and sausage for mine).

water

baking soda

Step 2: Prep Ingredients

mix 2 cups warm waters with 2 tablespoons baking soda. stir well and stir occasionally as you do other prep. baking soda must be completely dissolved.
I browned the sausage and the pepperoni. pepperoni on the inside of a role won't crisp up which is how pepperoni should be (plus it gets rid of some of the grease)!

I let my dough rise a second time in a warm oven. this isn't necessary its just how I like it.

Step 3: Assemble (it's Going to Be a Ball)

Roll dough out on the counter. leave it about a quarter inch thik .

Cut into squares about 4 inches.

Place ingredients on the squares and ball each one up. (you will be dipping them in water so seal them well). mine had sausage & pepperoni. I forgot to put the cheese in so I melted it on top.

I'm going to let mine sit for about 20 minutes and rise a bit before I dip them. first this let's the dough rise again, second I have 1 hour before I need them finished.

Step 4: Dip Dough

Using a slotted spoon (slotted ladle works best but I don't have on) dip the poppers into the water and baking soda mixture.
Place directly unto a sprayed cookie sheet.

Step 5: Bake

Cook at 350 for about 15 minutes. breads cook best slow and low.

When they are nearly done melt some cheese on top. (unless you remembered to put it inside the poppers)! #embarrassed

When you remove from the oven they should be a little golden brown . I'm not going to lye and get you twisted in knots they will taste delicious (a little pretzel humor for you).


Step 6: Serve

warm up some pizza sauce, Alfredo sauce, red sauce or cheese sauce for a dip.
Then share them and regret not being selfish and eating them all.

I was going to make some with chorizo and dip in salsa but didn't have time.