Mini Pepperoni Pizza Pull-Apart Breads

A few weeks ago Elina had a little gathering at her house, and I arrived just in time to help her finish assembling some pepperoni pizza monkey bread. To make the bread, she was flattening small balls of pizza dough, sealing pepperoni and cheese inside them, coating them with garlic butter, and tossing them in a Bundt pan. The ingredients and recipe were pretty simple, but the end result was an impressive party treat. After Elina baked the monkey bread, she set a bowl of tomato sauce in the middle of it, so guests could pull off a chunk of the bread and dip it in the sauce. And the whole thing was gone in no time... it was just as addictive as pizza, having all those same flavors.

I found myself craving the bread a week or so later, but having no party guests coming over to serve the bread to, I thought it would be fun to make it on a smaller scale and put my mini tube pans to use. And just as I had helped Elina, I got Jeff to help me. I set Jeff to work weighing out 1/2 ounce balls of dough. As he prepped those for me, I flattened them and filled them. I made two mini breads using pepperoni and mozzarella and one with pepperoni and provolone. (I think Elina used cheddar -- so you can see how versatile this recipe is.)

Jeff and I each got a mozzarella version to ourselves and then split the provolone one. It was fun to make the little breads instead of just throwing together a pizza for dinner.

Mini Pepperoni Pizza Pull-Apart Breads 

(adapted from Healthy and Sane and Confessions of a Foodie Bride)

These mini pepperoni pizza pull-apart breads make a great snack or appetizer 

especially when served with a little tomato sauce.

Cook Time: 30 minutes
Yield: Makes 3 mini pull-apart breads

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound store-bought pizza dough
32 pepperoni circles, cut in quarters (use more if you like)
Mozzarella (shredded), provolone (cut in small pieces), or cheese of your choice (I didn't measure but about 4 ounces should be enough)
Pizza sauce, warmed, for serving (optional)

Preparation

Melt butter in small skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook just until garlic is fragrant and starts to brown. Remove from heat.

Brush 3 mini Bundt or tube pans with a little of the garlic butter.

Divide the dough into 32 1/2-ounce pieces.

Flatten each piece of dough, and fill with 4 pepperoni quarters and a little bit of cheese.

Seal the dough with the fillings inside. Brush the dough balls with the garlic butter, and toss them in the prepared Bundt or tube pans. (You may need to wash your hands occasionally because the dough will start to get slippery and not make a good seal from all the butter.)

I did two layers of five balls in each pan and had two balls leftover, which I just tossed in one of the pans. If you do this, you'll have two pans with 10 pieces of dough and one with 12 pieces.

Brush the remaining garlic butter on top of the dough balls in each pan.

Cover the pans with a towel, and let rest for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Uncover the pans, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, turning halfway through, until golden brown. (I got a little impatient and could have left them in a bit longer to get more browning.)

Let sit for 5 minutes and then invert onto plates (or onto a cooling rack and then transfer to plates, whichever is easier).

Serve with warmed pizza sauce, if desired.

Note: You could easily double the recipe and make 6 pull-apart breads, perfect for a small gathering or dinner party.

Filled with gooey cheese and spicy pepperoni, these little pepperoni pizza breads are the perfect stand-in for traditional pepperoni pizza and are super-cute and fun to eat too.

Which bloggers are inspiring you these days?

Aragosta Bar + Bistro's Bella Notte Thursdays

Did you know that Aragosta Bar + Bistro at the Fairmont Battery Wharf now offers a ladies' night every Thursday? Bella Notte Thursdays is a night for ladies to catch up with friends and get a drink and appetizer for $20. In addition to this pairing, ladies can take advantage of free color changes and chair massages in the lobby just outside the restaurant.

Lin, from Beantown Eats, heard about Bella Notte Thursdays and invited a bunch of us to join her. So last Thursday, I found myself hanging out at Aragosta with a group of my favorite ladies, enjoying cocktails and appetizers.

Before we headed into the restaurant, I sipped on my favorite cocktail from my last visit to Aragosta: the Settante Cinque. This drink features Aperol shaken with freshly squeezed lemon juice and charged with prosecco. It's sweet but balanced.

Once we were ready to head into the restaurant, we were seated right at the Chef's Counter, where we could see the kitchen and Chef David Daniels at work.

We started with some fresh bread and oil and then proceeded to sample almost every appetizer on the Bella Notte menu.

Truffle Rigatoni With Warm Goat Cheese Fondue

Margherita Flatbread With Torn Basil And Fresh Burrata

Lobster And Truffle Crostini With White Bean Puree

Baked Veal And Pancetta Meatballs With Soft Polenta And Fresh Mozzarella

Halfway through the evening, I moved on from my Settante Cinque to a glass of bubbly prosecco... and continued sampling appetizers.

Warm Black Mission Figs Wrapped In Prosciutto With Gorgonzola Dolce

Hand-Crafted Selection Of Salumi, Caponata, And Hot Cherry Peppers

We had so much fun watching and interacting with kitchen. This was such a nice way to catch up with friends over cocktails and appetizers. If you go with a large group, you can each order something different and share. My favorites were the truffle rigatoni (which I found too cheesy last time but just right this time), the Margherita pizza (with gorgeous vine-ripened tomatoes), and the meatballs. 

This evening was complimentary, but as always, my opinions are my own.

Where's your favorite place to get drinks and apps with friends?

Fondant Ghosts And Mummies For Halloween

Remember earlier this month when Jen and I tried decorating some cakes with fondant? Well, that same day, we also worked on some Halloween treats with the fondant that King Arthur Flour sent us. We found ideas for ghosts and mummies on the King Arthur Flour website (well before Food Network Magazine arrived in my mailbox touting a similar idea) and thought it would be fun to make some Halloween-themed cupcakes.

I whipped up a batch of vanilla cupcakes and some vanilla and caramel buttercreams, and we used those as the base for our decorations. I made standard-size cupcakes for the mummies and mini cupcakes for the ghosts (and used Halloween-colored cupcake liners I ordered on Etsy from The Bakers Confections). Below are some notes on how we created the mummies and ghosts, but you can check out King Arthur Flour for more exact instructions.

Making Mummies

To make the mummies, I rolled out some fondant very thin, and then cut strips of it. I covered a frosted cupcake with the strips, leaving an opening for the mummy's eyes. Then I dug out my Valrhona Les Perles, which I thought would be perfect for eyes, and placed them in the opening.

Making Ghosts

To make the ghosts, I rolled a small amount of fondant into a little ball and placed it on top of a frosted mini cupcake. (I tried a few different methods and found that the small ball of fondant helped the ghost to hold its shape best.)

Then I rolled out more fondant and used a round cutter to cut out a small fondant circle. I draped the fondant circle over the small ball of fondant, coaxing it into little folds.

For the final touch, I made a small parchment cone, filled it with bittersweet chocolate chips, microwaved it until the chocolate was fluid, and used it to pipe little dots on the ghosts for eyes.

The little mummies and ghosts looked so cute and are a great introduction to fondant if you've never used it before. They'd be fitting additions to a Halloween party!

What are your favorite Halloween treats?

Will Gilson Cooks With Muir Glen Tomatoes

I scooted out of work right at 5 on Monday and rushed over to the BCAE to join a hands-on cooking class with Will Gilson, featuring Muir Glen tomatoes. The class started at 4:45 so by the time I got there, I had missed the hands-on part, but I got to watch Will put the finishing touches on ratatouille and tomato soup. (This involved a whole lot of smoked paprika and olive oil.)

You may remember that I actually made Will's tomato soup earlier this year. It's amazing. You may also remember that I attended a Muir Glen tomato event with Will at Garden at the Cellar back in January. It all started last August when five chefs went out to Yolo County, California, to help harvest Muir Glen tomatoes and became a part of the Muir Glen Tomato Vine Dining Tour. Each of the chefs created dishes for their restaurants using Muir Glen tomatoes. While Will is no longer at Garden at the Cellar, he's still one of Muir Glen's featured chefs, and we were lucky enough to experience his Muir Glen tomato dishes again this year, at a different venue.

You might wonder why Will would use Muir Glen tomatoes when he is such a huge proponent of local food: He realizes we just can't get fresh tomatoes around here, and importing tomatoes from California is a bit more local than importing them from, say, Italy. Luckily, Muir Glen offers such a high-quality, flavorful product.

Having missed all the manual labor, there was nothing left for me to do but sit and enjoy a tomato-based meal.

We all gathered at the table, poured ourselves wine, and found bowls of Muir Glen's Reserve Harvest Sunset Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes and Reserve Harvest Sunset Organic Diced Tomatoes in front of us. We dipped into the bowls and served ourselves tastes of the tomatoes. These were some of the best tomatoes I've eaten straight from a can lately (and believe it or not, I've tried quite a lot of tomatoes straight from a can lately). They were so sweet and ripe-tasting.

Next we were served the ratatouille that Will had prepared. The fresh thyme permeated every bite of the soft vegetables.

And finally, we got some of the renowned tomato soup, altered just slightly so we wouldn't get bored with it, according to Will (for the record, I'd never get bored with it), and grilled cheese sandwiches. 

This was every bit as delicious as you might imagine. Grilled cheese and tomato soup becomes one of my favorite meals every year once the weather cools down.

It was so much fun to hang out at the BCAE with Will and a bunch of blogger friends, sampling the newest crop of Muir Glen Reserve tomatoes.

If you've never ordered a Muir Glen Reserve kit before, I suggest you do so. This year the tomatoes come in a gorgeous gift basket. And the basket comes filled with:

• One 14.5 oz can Reserve Harvest Sunset Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
• One 14.5 oz can Reserve Harvest Sunset Organic Diced Tomatoes
• One 14.5 oz can Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies
• One 14.5 oz can Muir Glen Organic No-Salt Added Diced Tomatoes
• A booklet featuring a variety of recipes created by award-winning chefs from around the country made with the 2011 Reserve Tomatoes

You can order a kit here. We were each sent home with a basket after the event, but I have a feeling I'll be placing an order for more soon. I usually order two baskets every year.

What's your favorite tomato-based dish?

Boston Brunchers' Birthday Party

The Boston Brunchers group was started by Renee of Eat.Live.Blog one year ago -- and to celebrate, she put together a fabulous brunch at Island Creek Oyster Bar. Forty Boston Brunchers attended the brunch this past Sunday morning. Island Creek Oyster Bar put together a special menu and treated us all to baskets of pastry, cocktails, and brunch entrees. In addition to the generosity of Island Creek Oyster Bar, this brunch had so many other wonderful sponsors, and we all walked in to find enormous bags filled with all sorts of goodies.

After mingling with fellow brunchers, we all sat down at our tables and broke into the pastry baskets. The great thing about going out with other bloggers is that everyone likes to try everything, so we shared all of the pastries. And I tried a bite of everything except the blueberry muffin. The doughnut muffin was incredibly moist, the cinnamon roll still warm, the croissant flaky, the raspberry coffee cake packed with berries, and the citrus scone light and bright.

We were given a choice of a Bloody Mary, a red beer, or the McCarthy's Crossing. After reading the description, I had to go with the McCarthy's Crossing. It's a concoction of Clear Creek pear brandy, spiced honey, rose vermouth, fresh lemon, and bubbles. I loved the refreshing flavor of this bubbly beverage.

For entrees, we could choose among the house-smoked salmon, cinnamon french toast, house-made baked beans with bacon and a fried egg, or a lobster roll. Everyone around me ordered the lobster roll, which was piled high with lobster tossed with celery and onions and dressed with mayonnaise and creme fraiche.

I opted to try the house-smoked salmon with a toasted bagel, chive cream cheese, and pea greens. I was mildly disappointed there were no tomatoes and capers, but the chive cream cheese and pea shoots made great accompaniments as well. The salmon was so fresh and tender, with a rich, silky texture. I absolutely loved this dish.

After we ate, Renee came around to say hi and thank us for coming. We all thanked her for putting together such a wonderful event!

And outside, before parting ways, we grabbed a quick group picture. Love these ladies!

Thank you so much to Renee, Island Creek Oyster Bar, and all the sponsors!

Where is your favorite place to go for brunch?