It’s no secret that the weather right now is crazy. Here in North Carolina, it’s F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G! Both of the kids are home from school because of ice (give me snow over ice any day ya’ll!) and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t prepared for them to be at home. I hadn’t thought up lunches and I hadn’t stocked up on easy-to-make meals because, well, I thought this was just another false alarm and that the weather was going to miss us. But I was wrong. We ended up a home and this mama didn’t want to go to the grocery store (I grew up on the coast and don’t really do the driving in ice thing). So, faced with two hungry and bored boys, I decided to do what any mom does…..give them a project to help me with and come up with lunch at the same time. The end result was these Easy Homemade Pizza Pockets that are about a million times better than the freezer variety. Even better, they can be made in batches and frozen so that they are ready to heat and enjoy any time! Let me show you exactly how to warm up your family’s bellies on these cold days with my super simple recipe for Easy Homemade Pizza Pockets.
Everybody loves pizza pockets. They are basically like a piece of pizza folded up for easy eating. I’ll tell you truthfully that I generally pick up the frozen ones at the store but I’ll never do that again because they are so easy to make from scratch! Seriously, you don’t have to let dough rise. You can add any ingredients and customize them for picky eaters. And did I mention that they taste about 1000 times better than their frozen counterparts. In case you’re still thinking that Easy Homemade Pizza Pockets are too hard or too time consuming, let me show you exactly how to make them in less than 30 minutes (yes, ya’ll….less than 30 minutes is all it takes!).
- 1 package of quick rise yeast
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 cup of water (very warm)
- ½ cup of marinara sauce
- Toppings of choice
- 1 cup of shredded cheese
- ¼ cup of powdered Parmesan Cheese
- Add the flour, yeast, salt and sugar to a bowl and whisk it together.
- Pour in the oil and warm water and combine well.
- Knead gently until a dough forms.
- Lay out the dough on a floured counter and roll it out to about a ½ inch thick rectangle.
- Cut the dough into four equal pieces.
- On one half each of the dough pieces, add ½ of the marinara sauce, toppings of choice and ¼ of the shredded cheese.
- Fold the dough over and use a fork to seal around the edges, forming a pocket.
- Sprinkle the top of each prepared pizza pocket with powdered Parmesan cheese.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, until the dough it cooked to a golden brown.
- Serve immediately with more marinara sauce for dipping.
- Enjoy!
First, let me say that these pizza pockets are HUGE so if you’re making them for littles, you can simple cut the dough into 8 pockets instead of 4. I have a teenage boy, so, well, that explains the size! To start, I simply needed to make a quick pizza dough. To do this I added my flour, yeast (quick rise is best), sugar and salt to a bowl and whisked it together.
Next, I mixed in my oil and warm water and just stirred it up until a dough formed. This dough won’t be sticky so it’s super easy to work with!
Once I had my dough ready I laid it out on a floured counter top and rolled it into a rectangle that was about 1/2 inch thick. Then I cut the rectangle into four pieces. On one side of each of those four pieces, I added 1/4 of my marinara sauce, the toppings of my choice (pepperoni and salami) and 1/4 of my shredded cheese.
Next, I simply folded over my pizza dough to form a pocket and used a fork to crimp the edges and keep all the delicious fillings inside. I then placed my prepared Easy Homemade Pizza Pockets onto a baking sheet, sprinkled powdered Parmesan cheese over the top and cooked them at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. When they came out, they were perfectly browned and delicious.
I added a side of marinara dipping sauce to my Easy Homemade Pizza Pockets and served them up immediately.
The outside of this perfect warm lunch was cooked to crispy perfection and the inside was stuffed full of warm marinara sauce, melty cheese and delicious toppings.
These Easy Homemade Pizza Pockets are a perfect easy meal for snow days, lazy weekends or any day of the week! Enjoy!
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