Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

Every Friday night for years, my parents played cards with the next door neighbors, the Snow's. During those years(late 1960's), we established a ritual where the parents played cards at one house, and the kids would hang out at the other house, eat treats and watch "Nightmare Theater"- a local  Seattle weekend show hosted by a vampire "The Count" (who looked nothing like Edward Cullen). Nightmare Theater double featured scary movies like "The Thing" and "The Screaming Skull".  Every Friday night.  Doesn't that sound like fun?  No wonder I won't watch anything scary as an adult.

The food: Totino's Pizza Rolls and boxed brownies. Serious.  I LOVED this stuff.  I have no logical explanation for this behavior. Totino's Pizza Rolls?  I know. What can I say? I haven't  had one of those for  years, but I did have a serious love for those little greasy hot pockets of melted cheese, sauce and itty-bitty pepperoni pellets. Yes, the pepperoni looks like pellets (see photo left).
Enough about my food indiscretions. The SRC blog I was assigned this month is Lean Green Bean.  Lindsay, the blog author lives in Ohio and studying to become a Registered Dietitian. She loves to cook and bake, is married and has a page on her blog devoted to her "furry family" (two dogs and two cats ).
When I saw her recipe for Pepperoni Pizza Puffs, I had a flood of Friday night childhood memories and knew I had to give them a try.
Jake loved these, and inhaled almost the whole tray himself. I subbed home made pizza sauce for canned, since it takes about a minute to whip up. Perfect appetizer for a casual party (football games) or kid gathering.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs
Lean Green Bean
print recipe

3/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup skim milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup reduced-fat (or regular) mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 cup turkey (or regular) pepperoni, cut into small cubes
1/2 cup pizza sauce (see recipe below for home made)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg.
3. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.
4. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 minutes.
5. Microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through, then stir in 1 tablespoon basil. Sprinkle the puffs with the remaining tablespoon of basil. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.


Pizza Sauce
1 cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
dash hot pepper sauce
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in bowl.
Serve with pizza puffs.

Tips:
-Unless you are having 2 people over, I suggest doubling the pizza puff recipe.

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