Easy Pepperoni Pizza Balls
Any parent out there who has to make lunches for school knows what a challenge that can be. I refuse to buy the ready made ones with lunch meat, crackers and cheese. The price is terrible, but also it seems silly to me to call crackers and cheese a filling lunch. These pizza balls filled with pepperoni, black olives, and cheese have been a hit for my daughter’s lunch box.
Easy Pepperoni Pizza Balls
Author/Source:
Katie @ Onceamonthmom.com
Ingredients:
- 15 ounces refrigerated biscuits
- 0.5 cup shredded Italian blend cheese
- 0.33 cup sliced black olives
- 0.5 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 ounces pepperoni slices, halved
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. Cut up biscuits and place into a large bowl. Add the cheese, black olives, garlic, Italian seasoning and pepperoni; mix well. Spray muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray and fill 3/4 of the way full with biscuit mixture. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until top is golden brown.
Freezing Directions:
Prepare as directed above. Allow to cool, then flash freeze. After flash freezing, place into a gallon freezer bag, label, and freeze. To serve: reheat in microwave for 1 minute.
Servings: 4
**conversion chart image provided by Erik Spiekermann
Katie, refrigerator biscuits – would that be biscuits in a roll such as Pillsbury?
Yes.
Hi Katie,
These sound great. Does your daughter eat them at room temperature? My son’s school doesn’t heat things up.
Thanks.
Eileen, I actually warm it up in the microwave for her before school and wrap in foil so they stay warm.
Can I make this in a mini-muffin pan? If so, how would I adjust the baking temp & time?
You could definitely make them in a mini muffin pan. I would cook at the same temperature for about 5 minutes less. If you try it out, keep a close eye on them and let us know.
Made these in a mini muffin tin as an appitizer. Dipped them in pizza sauce. The kids LOVED them.
In my house, anything dipped in pizza sauce is a hit! Glad you enjoyed.
Is there an alternative to refrigerated biscuits? I don’t have access to them – would it work to make biscuit dough from scratch?
Hi Jen, yes I think you could definitely use biscuit dough made from scratch. Or frozen dough defrosted if you have access to that.
There is a recipe on pinterest for making your own refrigerator biscuits that you can freeze and use as needed. I think they would be great to have on hand for this recipe!
Do you have a link you could share? (i’m not on pinterest)
I don’t buy store bought biscuits and I’m wondering if baking soda biscuits would work?
Kristine, I’m not sure about baking soda biscuits. If you give it a try, let me know how it works out!
how do you flash freeze? I am new to the whole freezing food thing and don’t know what that means :)
I have three ridiculous questions. First, how small should I cut the biscuits? Quarter?
Second, when you say mix well, do you mean by hand or with an electric mixer or spoon? Third, how big of a muffin pan? Thank you!
Hey Jen, I quartered my biscuits. Just use a regular size muffin pan. And I mixed with a regular spoon. I wouldn’t do an electric mixer. And no question is ridiculous! :)
I see that the serving size is 4, but how many muffin tins do you think this will fill? How many pizza balls would be one serving? Thanks!!! Can’t wait to try it!
Two pizza balls to one serving. So it should fill about 8 muffin cups.
Making a bunch of these for my freezer meal exchange group and thought I would share some tips after making 6 batches! I felt like the rolls didn’t seem to “melt” together when baking and sort of fell apart. To solve this I cut each refrigerated biscuit into 3rds and made 12 muffins with 2 pieces of biscuit each. Before baking I sort of squished the biscuit pieces with the toppings together in the muffin pan. It’s seemed to help it be consolidated into 1 pizza ball at the end. Also, I added a little less olives and added canned sliced mushrooms and some cooked Italian sausage. Yum!
I made these for my daughter and she loves them! One week she had them 3 times in her lunch :) Thank you so much for the recipe. (I had to leave out the black olives but added some extra cheese and pepperoni. I used the Turkey pepperoni and it was great.)