Muffin tray from At Home With Stacey Solomon Collection at ASDA (not sponsored)
I love pizza and I definitely love muffins, so a pizza muffin sounded to me like the best thing ever, but in order for it to be so amazing, it also must be easy to make. I wanted the kind of thing that could easily be thrown together on a lazy weekend evening, at the last minute when friends come over or even after a few drinks when I need a midnight snack. I’m happy to say that this recipe is just that. Pizza Muffins are my new favourite lifesaver. There are times to make everything from scratch and get fussy about what ingredients you’re using and there are times to buy and make what’s easy. This recipe is for the times when you need something comforting, delicious and indulgent, but you also need it to be quick and easy.
I’ve made these for lunch on work from home days and my husband and I will demolish a whole tray of them. They’re that good! But I’m really excited to use this recipe for entertaining. These cute little self-contained pizzas are perfect for parties or to serve as nibbles with a glass of wine when a friend comes over. I also love the idea of using these for a starter at a dinner party. There are so many ways to make a recipe like this work for you and since all the ingredients are pretty convenient, they can be assembled and ready to eat in less than half an hour so whether it’s the main course or a pre-dinner snack, Pizza Muffins are a recipe to keep handy for whenever and however you need them.
I don’t have kids myself, but I definitely used to be a kid and this is the perfect recipe to make for little ones. Better yet, let them help you make Pizza Muffins – it’s a pretty easy process, their little fingers will come in handy for filling the cups and it’s a lot of fun! If they don’t like pepperoni, just leave it out. If kids or adults for that matter, would prefer different toppings, you can absolutely get creative. Use ham instead or add some veg that you normally enjoy on a pizza like mushrooms or peppers. If you’re a proud member of Team Hawaiian Pizza, add ham and pineapple. You definitely have choices here. For me, it’s pepperoni every time, but it doesn’t have to be for you. Just make sure you’ve chopped your toppings pretty small so they’ll easily fit into the dough-lined muffin tray cups and you’re all set!
All you really need for this recipe is a muffin tray. No other specialist equipment is required and if you don’t have one, I don’t mind being pushy and saying that it’s time to get one. I use my muffin trays for everything from muffins and mini quiches to miniature Yorkshire puddings, from jello shots to individual sized desserts. You can get a muffin tray for quite cheap these days and it will serve you well if you take care of it and put it to use. Let’s get started!
To make this recipe vegetarian, omit the pepperoni entirely or replace it with your favourite veggie pizza topping.
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
- 1x 400g ready to roll pizza crust
- About 25g garlic butter or regular butter (optional)
- 200g tinned or jarred pizza sauce
- 40g sliced pepperoni, chopped
- 200g shredded mozzarella cheese
- A little garlic oil or olive oil to drizzle
- About 1 teaspoon of dried oregano for sprinkling
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C / 180° Fan / 400°F. Prepare a muffin tray by spraying the cups with non-stick cooking spray or alternatively you can grease them with a little olive oil, butter or garlic butter.
- Open your pizza crust and cut it into 12 equal sized pieces as best you can. Roll a piece into a ball – it doesn’t need to be perfect – and then flat it out into a disc and press it into a muffin tray cup. It doesn’t need to be perfect, but you want to make a bit of a mini-pie crust kind of layer so you can put the fillings in the middle. Repeat this step with all twelve dough balls.
- Place a dot of garlic butter or regular butter into the centre of each dough-lined cup. You just want a small little bit of butter, so a little piece about 1/2 the size of a pea.
- Spoon pizza sauce on top of the butter evenly between all the cups. Toss in the pepperoni pieces, again evenly distributing it between each muffin and then do the same with the cheese, sprinkling a generous amount on top of each cup.
- Drizzle a little garlic oil or olive oil over the top of each cup. You just want a very light drizzle which will help the cheese to get golden brown as it melts. Then sprinkle a little dried oregano on top of each muffin and pop this into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until each cup is golden and bubbly melted on top.
- If the cheese has migrated a bit across your pan, overflowing from the muffins this is easily fixable. Just use a small spoon to sort of nudge it back to its muffin cup while it’s still piping hot and it should slide right back to where it belongs. Leave these to cool for about 5 minutes if you can wait that long before serving as the sauce inside will be piping hot.
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