Pizza Muffins

Pizza Muffins, Farmers Wife Original Recipe

If there is one thing I have learned about my son is that asking him the question of "What sounds good for dinner?" can result in some pretty interesting conversations to say the least. The things he comes up with sometimes leave me floored and others hungry, and on the rare occasion slightly nauseous... Haha!! My little Sous Chef is quite the culinary experimenter. He's not afraid to challenge me, and make me try it first.

So the other day when I asked him this fateful question his response was "Um... I want Pizza Muffins!" I was flabbergasted for about at a minute before asking him to describe what his vision of pizza muffins were. You see my little man loves to eat finger foods, anything that he can pick up and eat easily is a winner is his book (and mine too!) so I wasn't exactly surprised at his request so much as slightly repulsed at first. haha! But after talking about it, and thinking about it I figured out that it would litterally be a little pizza made into a muffin. So the taste would still be that of pizza. (Which was NOT what I first thought he meant.) Last night my little Sous Chef and I whipped up a batch of these to go with our family movie night, and I have to say he was right. These are pretty AWESOME! They were incredibly easy to make, and totally delicious. A great surprise for any kid to find in their lunchbox (they're good both cold and hot!) and will make them the envy of the cafeteria! ;-)

Ingredients: this recipe made 16 pizza muffins
Pizza Dough: adapted from Bread Machine Magic
(I made homemade but you can easily use a store bought dough)
This is for a bread machine (but can be made in a stand mixer)
1 Cup Water
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Tablespoon Sugar
3 Cups Flour
1 1/2 Teaspoons Garlic Powder
1/2 Teaspoons Oregano
2 Teaspoons Active Dry Yeast

Filling:
Pizza Sauce
Pepperoni, Sausage or preferred Pizza Meat
Shredded Cheese (I used Cheddar but Mozzarella would be good)
Optional:
Diced Bell Peppers
Diced Onion
Diced Mushrooms
Sliced Black Olives
Diced Tomato
Diced Pineapple

Directions:
To make the dough place all ingredients in the order listed into your bread machine, select the dough cycle and press start. Once the dough is done, turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Preheat your oven to 350F degrees, and grease your muffins tins. Take about 2 tablespoons worth of dough (a small ball) and press it into each muffin well, so that you create a little "bowl" inside the tin, repeat with remaining dough. Place about 1/2 teaspoon pizza sauce in the center of each well, then add your desired toppings, ending with cheese on top. Bake for 15 minutes or until the crust is slightly golden and the cheese is melted. Serve warm with more sauce if desired.

Review:
My honest review of these is that they surprised me. We loved these, which was unexpected. They were devoured by my little sous chef, and smelled amazing while baking and were oddly enough elegant for pizza. haha! I'd give these 4.5 stars.

Happy Cooking!