Friday nights are usually pizza nights at the Crunch Time house, but recently I wanted to take my favorite pizza (pepperoni with hot honey) into an appetizer mode. So, meet the new pepperoni pizza bites! These are great for the lazy pizza maker. No need to make your own dough and the recipe takes just a few minutes to toss together.
While these are great right out of the oven, they also are surprisingly great right out of the fridge (kind of like crunchy cold pizza). That means they work well for a game-day appetizer or an after-school snack for the kiddos.
Or, if you’re me, a mid-day work snack.
What pizza dough works well for these bites?
While I’m normally a homemade pizza dough person, this is honestly a time for store-bought pizza dough. It makes very little difference when you are baking them into small bite-sized pieces so just go with the easy route.
There are many store-bought pizza doughs on the market, but I personally use the one in the pop can that you have to roll out. it doesn’t get easier.
Roll out the dough and cut it into about 1-inch squares. You should get 25-30 pizza bites out of a batch of dough.
Want a full pizza? Try my mushroom sausage pizza or my award winning mashed potato pizza.
What pepperoni is best for pizza bites?
I love cupping pepperoni when I’m making a full-sized pizza but even the normal pepperoni works fine for these little bites. In fact, I almost prefer it because the pepperoni stays flat which means a flat square bite.
I wouldn’t use turkey pepperoni or low-fat pepperoni unless you have no other option. Those tend to not crisp up as well.
My favorite cheese for pizza bites
This is going to be a bit of a curveball here. While I’m obviously normally using mozarella for pizza, I like gouda cheese for these little bites. It adds an extra amount of flavor and gouda gets really browned and crispy so the edges of these bites crisps up nicely.
Of course, you can use mozzarella, but if you are feeling extra try these pepperoni pizza bites with grated gouda cheese!
Tips for baking pizza bites
Here are my tips for making these super delicious:
- Bake these at around 400˚F. Hotter and they will burn and lower and you won’t get those crispy edges.
- Bake the bites on parchment paper so they release easily.
- Avoid over-saucing these. You need a very small dab of sauce on each bite. If you add too much sauce they won’t crisp up correctly.
- Go light with the hot honey drizzle. A little goes a long way.
Substitutions
There isn’t much too these bites but if you wanted to change them up, here are some ideas!
- Leave out the pepperoni for a vegetarian cheese pizza bite.
- Cut the pepperoni into slivers if you want more of a diced effect and less of a whole pepperoni on each bite.
- Try these on crackers or flour tortillas for an even easier recipe.
Leftovers
Here’s the magic of these pepperoni pizza bites. The leftovers are fantastic. In fact, I almost liked these better cold out of the fridge. They keep their crisp and are nice little afternoon snacks. After three days or so they lose their luster, but they are great straight out of the fridge!
Dig in and try these pepperoni pizza bites today!
Hot Honey Pepperoni Pizza Bites
Equipment
- 1 large baking sheet
Ingredients
- 16 ounces pizza dough
- ½ cup pizza sauce
- 6 ounces grated gouda cheese
- 3 ounces sliced pepperoni
- Hot Honey, Garnish
- Dried oregano, garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Roll out your pizza dough into a rectangle and use a knife to slice the dough into about 1×1 inch squares. Transfer the squares to your baking sheet.
- Top each pizza dough square with about a teaspoon of pizza sauce. Be careful not to oversauce them.
- Top each square with a small sprinkle of grated cheese and a single pepperoni in the middle.
- Bake the squares for 15 minutes at 400˚F until they are very browned and crispy around the edges.
- Remove from oven and garnish with hot honey and dried oregano. Eat immediately or cool and store in the fridge for 4-5 days. They are great cold!
