00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Puff Pastry Pizza Poppers.
00:08That's right, Puff Pastry makes a terrible crust for pizza if you actually try to make
00:13something that looks like a pizza.
00:15Alright, that's going to be the recipe for soggy, greasy disappointment.
00:19But by using a very simple French technique I'm about to show you, we can make a miniature
00:24version where every bite is crispy, flaky, pizza-flavored perfection.
00:28And to get started, we need some frozen puff pastry dough, and I'm using that one that
00:34comes in four frozen panels that we have to unfold and break apart.
00:39And yes, as usual, we'll work with this stuff as close to frozen as possible, and no matter
00:44what brand you use or what size or shape it comes, I like to lay it out on parchment paper
00:49so we don't have to use any additional flour on the surface.
00:53And once we have that laid out, we will grab the key to the whole operation, which are some
00:58round cookie cutters.
00:59Alright, this technique is very simple and easy, but you do need a set of these to make
01:03it work.
01:05And what we'll do is press that partially frozen pastry out nice and flat, and we'll take the
01:09larger of our two cutters, and we'll start punching some circles out.
01:14And for me, the ideal size for this first circle is going to be about two and a quarter to two
01:18and a half inches, which I think gives us a perfect size portion.
01:21But this technique will work no matter what size you make them.
01:25And by the way, I cannot stress this enough, the pastry must be very cold when you work
01:30with it.
01:31Okay, at any point during this process, if it starts to get soft and sticky, just transfer
01:36the pastry into the freezer until it firms up.
01:39And once cut, we'll transfer those circles onto a parchment-lined sheet pan.
01:43And then what we'll do is take our smaller cutter, and we will punch out the center.
01:47But we will not remove the pastry.
01:50We will simply push it back into place.
01:52And ideally, for the center cutter, you want to pick a size that gives us an outside ring
01:57of dough of about 3-8 of an inch, or a give or take.
02:00Anything close will work.
02:02And once we have that prepped, we'll transfer it into the center of a 400-degree oven for 20
02:08minutes, or until our pastry is puffed and golden brown.
02:12And yes, when you cut out round puff pastry, after it bakes, it turns into an oval.
02:17Which my old friend, Bob Ross, would have called a happy accident, since that kind of makes
02:21these the shape of footballs.
02:23Which makes these an even more perfect game-day snack.
02:26Oh, and if you're not familiar with Bob Ross, he was considered the Chef John of painters.
02:31But anyway, what we'll do is let those sit for 5 minutes and cool down a bit, before we go
02:36ahead and flip them over.
02:38Oh, and don't worry if the center part separates.
02:41As you'll see, that's going to be no problem.
02:44And what we'll do once those are all flipped, is take some Parmesan cheese, and we will do
02:48a generous grading over each one.
02:50And not only is that cheese going to help to hold things together, but it's going to
02:54add flavor and add some crunchiness to the bottom.
02:57And that's it.
02:58Once those have been cheesed, and flipped back over, and spaced evenly, we will take a teaspoon,
03:04and we will carefully press down the pastry in the center.
03:08Which is going to give us the perfect space to place our fixings.
03:11And we really do want to press down nice and firmly, since that's going to help give us
03:15that amazing texture you're going to experience later.
03:18And while we're doing this, we want to be careful not to mess with that perfect ring of
03:21pastry going around the outside, around the outside, around the outside, since we don't
03:26want that part of our little pizza to be compressed at all.
03:30And that's it.
03:31Once those have been pressed as shown, we will pop them back into our 400 degree oven for just
03:367 minutes this time.
03:38And once that comes out, we'll simply let it sit and cool for about 10 to 15 minutes, so
03:43that they cool down and dry out a bit.
03:46Oh, and while we're waiting, let me show you a cool trick for easing up the extra dough.
03:50Okay, with puff pastry, we never want to wad up the scraps into a ball.
03:54What we want to do is stack them, and then we'll fold our parchment over and roll, until
03:59we're down to about the original thickness.
04:02And this way, by stacking and rolling, we're going to maintain all those beautiful layers
04:05of butter in the pastry.
04:07And once cut, it should bake up just like the ones we did originally.
04:10All right, if you wad everything up into a ball and roll it out, you will get something
04:14similar, but it's just not going to have the height and the flakiness that it would
04:19if you used this technique.
04:21But anyway, the point is you can use the extra dough trimings to make more.
04:25And then once baked and cooled, what we'll do to finish these off is fill the centers with
04:30a generous tablespoon of pizza sauce, which could be our recipe, which is really, really
04:35good.
04:36But whatever your favorite pizza sauce is will work.
04:39And once we have those filled up, we'll go ahead and top this with some mozzarella cheese.
04:44And sure, Monterey Jack would also be a great choice for the cheese, which as you know, I
04:48often use where mozzarella is called for, since it has more flavor.
04:52But I did actually do these with mozzarella, and they really were amazing.
04:56But technically speaking, any cheese would work.
04:59And I think we want to be pretty generous here.
05:02And at this point, it might look like we have a little too much sauce and cheese.
05:05But trust me, we don't.
05:07All right, nobody, and I mean nobody, wants a dry pizza popper.
05:11So we do need to be fairly generous when we fill.
05:14And once we've applied the sauce and cheese of our choice, I'm going to go ahead and top
05:18each one with a slice of pepperoni.
05:20And as we place those on, we'll give them a little bit of a press.
05:23All right, we don't want to crush these, but we do want to compress things a little bit
05:27so that pepperoni doesn't just slide off.
05:30And of course, any pizza topping is going to work here.
05:34So if you prefer sausage and peppers, or mushroom and anchovies, or pretty much anything else,
05:40go ahead and use it.
05:41I mean, you are after all the Chef John, of what a French chef would call a pizza vol-e-von.
05:46But anyway, no matter what we top these with, we will pop that back into our 400 degree oven
05:51for about 20 minutes, or until our pepperoni and cheese is bubbling and browned,
05:57and our puff pastry pizza poppers hopefully look like this.
06:01And if everything's gone according to plan, the bottom should be beautifully browned.
06:06And as these cool, that parmesan underneath is going to crisp up.
06:10Speaking of which, we could probably let these cool on the pan.
06:13But for maximum crispiness, I do like to transfer them onto a rack.
06:18And we'll let those sit there until they're just barely warm before we serve them.
06:22But like all great party snacks, these are good hot, warm, room temp, and cold,
06:27as I can personally verify.
06:29But at any temperature, that, my friends, is the best way,
06:33and in my opinion, the only way, to enjoy a proper puff pastry pizza.
06:38All right, if you try to do a normally sized pizza with puff pastry,
06:41except for maybe a few bites in the corners,
06:43most of it is limp and soggy and greasy,
06:46and generally not pleasant at all.
06:49But with these, every single bite is flaky and crispy.
06:52So we're able to enjoy that beautiful combination of the buttery pastry
06:56with those spicy, savory pizza flavors,
06:58which really is a magnificent combination.
07:02And we get to do all that while enjoying textural perfection.
07:06Oh, and for your average human,
07:08these are probably going to be eaten in two bites,
07:10maybe three.
07:12But technically, to call something a popper,
07:15we have to be able to eat it in one bite.
07:17So I'm going to go ahead and give that a try.
07:19And that worked out very well.
07:21In fact, eating it in one bite is probably the way to go.
07:24And you'll be vacuuming up fewer crumbs.
07:27But anyway, no matter how many bites you take,
07:30these incredible little football shape snacks
07:32would be a huge hit at any party.
07:34And I really do hope you give them a try soon.
07:37So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts,
07:42a printable written recipe,
07:43and much more info as usual.
07:46And as always, enjoy.
07:491989,
07:54Oh,
07:56you
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