Pizza Balls

Named because my older son was all excited that it was pizza, and my younger son was all excited that it was a ball.



Sadly, the inspiration for these was a pizza hut ad on tv (they have pizza hut out here, but no taco bell… how wrong is that?). Since I have no intention of going out of my way to find a pizza hut, I figured I’d take a stab at it myself.

I used this American pizza dough (very different from British pizza dough, more similar to bread dough really) from The Joy of Cooking.

Pizza Dough
Combine in a large bowl, and let stand till the yeast is dissolved
1 package (2&1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1&1/3 cups warm water
Add:
3&1/2 – 3&3/4 cups all purpose flour
2tbsp olive oil
1tbsp salt
1tbsp sugar (optional)

You are going to want to preheat your oven as high as it goes. It will probably take a long time for it to heat up (maybe 45 min)

Mix to combine all the ingredients, then knead for 10 min. Transfer to a bowl lightly coated with oil, and turn it over once to coat it. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise until doubled (1-1.5 hours).
Punch down the dough, divide it in half and roll each half into a ball. Let rest, covered loosely with cling film for 10-15 min. Roll out your dough and let it rest another 10 min. You can brush the top of the dough with olive oil to prevent the toppings from making the crust soggy

I cut up some mozzarella into cubes (about 3/4 inch). When the dough was ready (before the final 10 min rest) I used half, and divided it up into 16 pieces. Then I took a cube of cheese and mashed it into the ball of dough and then smooshed it about till it was all sealed up. Repeated with the rest and let them sit on a baking tray. I let them rest for the final 10 min, brushed them with copious amounts of butter and garlic, and baked for about 7-10 min.

Serve with some sauce for dipping (whatever tomato sauce you like).

I used the other half of the dough to make 2 calzones. You can make them out of whatever you have lying about. I made one with broccoli and cheddar, and one with spinach and ricotta. I had to get some green veg in there somewhere.

What can you say about a ball of dough with melted cheese in the middle dipped in sauce? Is there any way they could be anything but tasty fun? I think not!

If I was doing it again, I would use even more butter and garlic.