8 Surprising Uses for Store-Bought Pizza Dough
Here are eight easy ideas that will have you saying goodbye to plain old pizza pie.
Pizza Dough Shortcuts
Move over, pepperoni. Salted caramel, chocolate, vanilla ice cream — these all make delectable toppings for this versatile store-bought dough. Plus, creative savory applications like stuffed breadsticks and grilled gyro pitas take pizza dough to the next level.
Apple Tart
Treat your dough like pie crust: Fit it in a pie plate, spread with caramel sauce and top with thinly sliced apples tossed in sugar. Dot with butter, then bake until golden and bubbling. A scoop of vanilla ice cream and a final drizzle of warm caramel add a luxurious finish.
Stuffed Breadsticks
Go rustic Italian and stretch ropes of dough into breadsticks, then press savory toppings in deep along the length of each. Try olives, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic or marinated artichokes. A final brush of oil and scattering of sea salt and you’re done. Just bake until crisp and golden.
S'mores Pizza
Start with a round of dough that’s been brushed with butter and baked until just beginning to color, then go to town. Scatter on sweet toppings like mini marshmallows, graham cracker cereal, chocolate chips (you get the picture), then bake until the crust is golden brown and the chocolate melts. A quick trip under the broiler at the end will deliver campfire-inspired char.
Mini Pizza Cups
Use a cookie cutter or glass to cut dough into rounds. Pop them into a mini muffin tin, layer with your favorite toppings — think sliced mozzarella, tomato sauce, mushrooms and Parmesan — and bake until golden brown and bubbling for the perfect two-bite appetizer.
Grilled Flatbread Gyros
A swipe of oil and dash of salt are all you need to prep stretched ovals of dough for the grill. Use a smoke-kissed flatbread as the bed for a Mediterranean sandwich stuffed with grilled chicken, tomatoes, onions and tangy cucumber-yogurt sauce.
Naan
You’ve mastered a mean curry, now try your hand at Indian-style bread. Simply shape dough into flat rounds and fry them up in clarified butter (called ghee) or oil, turning once, until puffy and golden.
Raisin and Walnut Cinnamon Rolls
Make mornings nicer with this easy riff on the classic. Roll out dough into a thin rectangle, brush generously with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar, raisins and walnuts. (Chocolate chips and hazelnuts would also be good.) Roll up into a log, slice and bake in a buttered pan as you would regular rolls. A drizzle of confectioners’ sugar glaze is a sticky-fingers essential.
Empanadas
Put leftovers to good use with a cheater’s version of the Latin American hand pie. Pile cooked ground beef (or chicken), cheese (or potatoes) and olives (or raisins) onto circles of dough, fold and seal into half-moons. You can brush them with egg and bake — or even better, fry until crisp and golden. Sour cream on the side is nice.
From Food Network Kitchen
More from Food Network:
7 Things to Make With Leftover Cooked Pasta
12 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Make in Your Waffle Iron
11 Ingredients That Will Last Forever (Well, Almost)
12 Foods Nutritionists Say They Won’t Eat
