This week The Husband has some sort of a motivational week at work where he has to cook lunch for all of his employees. We thought of a few of our favourite gourmet treats... most of which would probably be lost on 20 year olds from Croydon.
Then I remembered Pizza Buns! My mum and I used to make huge batches of these to freeze for lunches when I was in school. A small proportion of them ended up being discovered at the end of the year at the bottom of my locker, or in my bike bag... but nonetheless, I have fond memories of these delicious little parcels.
I emailed my mum right away for the recipe... and she wrote back within minutes (even though she lives on the other side of the world, I can always count on an almost-immediate response, any time of day or night!) Somehow, my mother the former librarian had misplaced the recipe! This is a woman who has alphabetically archived recipes she cut out of the newspaper in 1964 and never made. We still can't figure out how she managed to lose this family classic. So we had to try to recreate it!
The dough was easy... it's just regular pizza dough.
• 1kg strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour
• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt
• 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 650ml lukewarm water
Seive the flour and water onto a clean worksurface, and pour the mixed yeast, olive oil, sugar and water into a well in the middle. Fold the flour into the water until you have a ball of wet dough that you can start to knead with your hands. Knead until you have nice soft, smooth springy dough.
Put the ball of dough into a bowl with a damp cloth over top. Leave for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size. Remove the ball of dough, knock it down by kneading it some more, and you're ready to use it.
Here comes the time consuming part.... Roll the dough out into a thin sheet, get a circular cookie cutter or a pint glass, and start cutting out thin circles. This makes about 120 circles, so put aside an hour or so for this boring step.
For the meat mixture, we threw a few packets of ground beef, garlic, onions, green pepper, mushrooms, slices of pepperoni, a few jars of pizza sauce, and lots of dried herbs like oregano, parsley, thyme and sage, into our big slow cooker. We let this bubble away while we slaved over the dough circles. At the end, we stirred in an entire block of shredded white cheddar. Go on, treat yourself to a few spoonfuls of the meat mixture at this point... mmmmmm!
Finally, put a few large spoonfuls of meat mixture in the middle of one of the dough circles. Use a pastry brush to slightly wet the outside of the circle, and place another circle on top. Press around the edge to seal.
Now you're ready to put the pizza buns in the oven. (In batches probably, this recipe make loads of them!) Put them in the middle shelf and bake for 25-30 minutes.
Let them cool on a baking rack and wrap them in cling film. They will keep in your freezer for a couple of months, and make loads of lunches and quick dinners! And dispite all the meat and cheese, are probably way healthier than pizza pockets from the frozen section of the supermarket!
