Football Pizza Pockets

Let's be honest: I am one of the few New Englanders not in a total depression after Sunday.  I'm sure you all know that the Patriots lost in the... well, I don't know the name of the game.  Some very important championship.  In fact, it was the last game before the Super Bowl, and we lost, and everyone is sad and angry and... full!  Because I am an excellent football party hostess, and I have said this before, but I don't care at all about the game itself.  I would much rather spend my day in the kitchen than watching people run into each other.  So I guess in that regard, I am a little sad that football is over.  JUST KIDDING (did you get excited there for a minute, Mackenzie?)!  I can still cook and bake to my heart's content without men's gruff voicing yelling in the background.

Okay anyway, I might be the only one celebrating the end of football, but the day of the big game, even my family was celebrating because I kept them well fed.  In addition to pasta fagioli and cheese bread that I posted about, I made a few other things, and one of them was what looked to me to be the best football appetizer ever: football pizza pockets.  You take either pizza dough or pie crust, cut it into little football shapes, stuff them with pizza makings, top them with another football, seal them, and cut "football laces" in the top (and yes I had to look at pictures of football to know what the laces looked like).  Then brush on some egg wash, bake them, serve them with marinara sauce, and you officially have the most adorable little snack ever.  And pretty tasty, if I do say so.  And pretty easy as well.  All-around fabulousness.

I ended up using pizza dough for my footballs, mostly because I love dough and because my mom requested it.  However, in this instance, I think that pie crust would probably work better.  The dough puffed up and made the footballs into slightly mis-shapen enormous puffballs.  Still cute and delicious, but not neat, tidy little sporty shapes.  And my well-researched football laces kind of disappeared in the puffiness.  Such a shame.  So when - not if - I try these little guys out again (I could totally make them into basketballs... or baseballs... or maybe hockey pucks!?), I would make a pie crust instead of pizza dough.   As for fillings, I put some pepperoni into some, but I mostly just used sauce and mozzarella, because that's more than enough goodness if you ask me.  Of course, the beauty is that you can fill them with whatever you want.  You want onions, peppers, mushrooms?  Go for it.  Just make sure you research what football laces look like, and you're good to go.  Thank you, Pinterest, for this little gem!

Recipe:

football pizza pockets
from Picture the Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pack pie crust or pizza dough (I recommend pie crust, and I recommend making your own!!)
1 jar pizza sauce

Fillings which may or may not include:
pepperoni
mozzarella cheese

1 egg (beaten with a tablespoon of cold water)

 

 

Instructions:
1) Roll out your pie crust. Using a round larger cookie cutter, cut round circles of the pastry. Then cut them into football shapes. Once you have, one it’s easy to use it as a template and cut the rest out. Re-roll the scraps and cut out as many football shapes as you can.

2) On a football cutout, place a couple pepperoni slices, a piece of mozzarella and a little pizza sauce (personally I started with the sauce but I don't think it matters).

3)  Brush a little of the egg wash around the edges and place another football shaped cutout over the stuffing.  Seal by pressing down on the edges.

4) Using a fork, crimp the edges around the pizza pocket and make slits in the top to resemble football laces (Googling "football laces" if necessary ;) ).

5) Brush the tops of each pizza pocket with the egg wash and place them on a baking sheet.  Bake in an oven pre-heated to 425 degrees for around 10-12 minutes, or until the pizza pockets turn a golden brown. Serve with pizza sauce for dipping.