One of the biggest challenges to baking is making sure the dough is prepared for proper rising. Yeast doughs such as the ones that go into breads, pizzas, or doughnuts, are especially temperamental to heat, humidity, and sugar. A few months ago, friends from facebook have suggested using Trader Joe’s pizza dough as a shortcut to the perfect dough. They’ve made many Asian snacks using pizza dough which we’ve also successfully replicated such as Steam fried bun (水煎包) and Taiwanese Pepper Bun (胡椒餅). Well, now, it’s time to go back to the original pizza to see how this whole craze came about so check out how to make pizza muffins.
Speaking of pizza, there are so many styles, from the deep dish Chicago, to the thin and chewy New York style, to delivery such as Pizza Hut, Domino’s, and Papa Johns. Then there is also the frozen pizza that claim self-rising dough and there is also Boboli’s which claims to be fresher than frozen and faster than delivery. Well, today, we are going to make a Trader Joe’s pizza muffin (also known as pizza cups or muffin tin pizza or mini pizzas), tastier than Boboli and still faster than delivery (and not to say cheaper and better)!
So why not just make a pizza instead of muffin tin pizza? Well, ironically, the 2nd hardest part of making a pizza (first is the dough), is cutting the pizza. My cutting board is only 8” tall so even a small 9” pizza still spills over making the cut nearly impossible. Obviously it won’t even fit on a plate. And I do NOT want to cut the pizza right on top of my baking sheet (which usually doesn’t fit the large pizza anyway). With a pizza muffin, NO MORE CUTTING! Also, pizza muffin is great for portion control. And the funny thing is, I make them fresh, eat it for one meal, and freeze the rest so I can have a quick snack whenever I want. Sometimes, I can have multiple ‘flavors’ and pick out a couple that I like. Lastly, family is picky, some wants it spicy, others want more veggies, and some want more meat or less cheese. Well, now it’s easy to customize every person’s pizza preference with a pizza muffin. Heck, next time, we have a pizza party, everyone gets to make their own. Kids love it and so do I, until the kids start to shape the pizza into turtles and bears. Then it’s hard to fit into the muffin tin.
Since I’m making the trip to our neighborhood Trader Joe’s, I might as well pick up as many ingredients as I can from there so I don’t need to make multiple trips. It’s not like I keep pizza sauce in my pantry all the time. Fortunately, everything I need can be found in Trader Joe’s. They had packs of chopped ends of salami at a lower cost which is perfect since I’m going to chop them up even more. As for mushrooms, I’ll chop them up myself, no need to buy the sliced ones. Conveniently located next to their pizza dough is their pizza sauce. Quick tip on the main difference between pizza vs pasta sauce. Pizza sauce tends to be thicker and uses oregano as the main herb whereas pasta sauce is thinner with basil as the main herb. When you are in a pinch, they can be interchangeable. I would probably rather use pasta sauce on pizza than pizza sauce on pasta though. Hence the reason I don’t have pizza sauce in my pantry but I do have a bunch of pasta sauces. Btw, I’ve tried all 3 different flavors of the pizza dough and they are all delicious. For my ‘traditional’ pizza muffin, I went with garlic herb dough to give it more flavor so no need to add additional seasoning. Add a side of ranch dressing for the perfect snack.
Ingredients
- 1 lb pizza dough
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- 1 cup diced mushrooms
- 1 cup diced salami
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Everything above can be easily purchased from your neighborhood Trader Joe’s at very reasonable prices.
- 1 lb pizza dough
- 1 cup pizza sauce
- 1 cup diced mushrooms
- 1 cup diced salami
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- Prepare pizza dough according to package
- Divide dough into 16 equal balls (less dough, more filing)
- Grease muffin tin with butter
- Flatten each dough into rounds
- Press into muffin tin
- Add 1 tbsp of pizza sauce into each dough
- Scatter some salami and mushroom
- Generously sprinkle cheese on top of each pizza muffin
- Bake at 425°F for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and browned
Substitute pizza toppings with whatever you like.
Substitute pizza sauce with alfredo sauce - it's delicious!
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