How to Make Puff Pastry Pizza Poppers

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In this video, Chef John shows you how to make puff pastry pizza poppers, a buttery, savory snack that utilizes a simple French technique that keeps the poppers crispy for every bite. Layer your favorite pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni onto the puff pastry cups for the perfect game day snack to share with friends.

Transcript

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,

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