Week 12 assignment-- Going off your Inventory Shopping List and this week’s sales, buy the 3 months’ worth of as many different items as you can (= Buy For 3) as your new budget allows. You'll do this through Week 21.
Have you ever made pizza from scratch? It's delicious. To get directions on making pizza, go to the basic bread recipe, and scroll down until you see “Pizza”. Directions are there, including for making enough of a super-simple red sauce for your pizza. You'll want the sauce for pizza pockets, too.
Pizza pockets are fun, portable, completely customizable, AND they freeze well. You can make them to suit food allergies; nondairy cheese can be used in these if you like. This recipe can be doubled, tripled, quadrupled make whatever quantity you want to make for dinner plus extras for packable lunches.
To make 8 regular pizza pockets or 6 large ones, you'll need:
-One loaf’s worth of bread dough
-8 oz. shredded cheese
-One 8-oz. can of tomato sauce (you'll only use half)
-Dried or fresh herbs- oregano, basil, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, ground black pepper, rosemary, fennel (use whatever you have and like. I often use only oregano, garlic and onion powder)
-Toppings-- crumbled bacon, pepperoni, cooked sausage, leftover chopped cooked chicken or hamburger, mushrooms, zucchini (shredded and squeezed dry), chopped bell peppers, spinach leaves, diced tomato, olives… Plan on ¼- ½ c. of each topping, for each 8 pockets you make.
Roll dough out as you would for pizza crust, a rectangle about 8x15”. While the dough relaxes after rolling, pull out your sauce, cheese, and other toppings. Oil a 12x18" baking sheet, sprinkle with cornmeal for extra crunch, OR line with parchment. After your toppings are ready, roll the dough larger, to make it measure about 13x19".
With a pizza cutter or knife, cut the rolled dough down the center the long way, then in fourths the other direction. (See photo, below.) This will give you eight rectangles, each about 4x6”.
Spread pizza sauce on one long side of each rectangle, leaving a 1” clean border around those edges. Sprinkle with any toppings and about 2 Tbsp. of cheese. Brush the edges of the bare half with water; this will help the pockets seal better around the edges after crimping.
Fold each pocket in half the long way, lining up edges. Crimp (pinch) the edges with your fingers or by flattening with the tines of a fork. Set on the oiled baking sheet. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for 15 minutes. While they rise, preheat the oven to 400° F. Remove the kitchen towel.
For shiny rolls, brush with beaten egg (whites, yolks, or both) before baking, or brush with milk or butter for better browning. Bake about 20 minutes, or until browned on the bottom. Remove to a cooling rack. Let cool at least 10 minutes before eating; they continue baking internally in those first several minutes.
Refrigerate or freeze any that you didn't eat right away.
If you’re going to freeze them, first cool them completely. Freeze them on a baking sheet, and then transfer to a ziptop freezer bag, labeled and dated.
Fold each pocket in half the long way, lining up edges. Crimp (pinch) the edges with your fingers or by flattening with the tines of a fork. Set on the oiled baking sheet. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for 15 minutes. While they rise, preheat the oven to 400° F. Remove the kitchen towel.
For shiny rolls, brush with beaten egg (whites, yolks, or both) before baking, or brush with milk or butter for better browning. Bake about 20 minutes, or until browned on the bottom. Remove to a cooling rack. Let cool at least 10 minutes before eating; they continue baking internally in those first several minutes.
Refrigerate or freeze any that you didn't eat right away.
If you’re going to freeze them, first cool them completely. Freeze them on a baking sheet, and then transfer to a ziptop freezer bag, labeled and dated.
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