You know the Hot (and Lean) Pockets you can buy at the grocery store in the freezer section? I admit I will occasionally buy Lean Pockets when they go on sale since they are easy to bring to work for lunch. But after discovering how easy it is to make homemade pizza dough, you can use the same pizza dough to make homemade pizza pockets! I adapted the recipe from Money Saving Mom's freezer meals postings. I love how versatile you can make your filling too, because I used what I had already. These homemade pizza pockets were so delicious; the filling was hot and the crust was crisp. Since I had doubled the pizza dough, I made pizza with half and pizza pockets with the other half. Any leftover pizza pockets can be frozen too, how awesome is that?!
Ingredients
For the pizza dough:
1 tablespoon active dry yeast (I use Red Star yeast from
Costco.)
1 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees F.)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons oil (olive or vegetable)
2 ½ cups flour
For the filling:
1 pound ground turkey
½ onion, diced
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 cup tomato sauce
mozzarella cheese (shredded or sliced)
For the pizza dough:
In a large bowl, add yeast and warm water. Use a whisk to dissolve the yeast in
the water. Next add in the
remaining ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon. Knead dough on a floured surface for about 5 minutes.
For the filling:
In a large pan, brown ground turkey with diced onion. Add in spices. Add tomato sauce and stir to mix
together. (Feel free to add other
filling ingredients of your choice, such as pepperoni, diced peppers,
mushrooms, etc…)
For the pizza
pockets:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Divide dough into 10 to 15 pieces. Roll dough pieces into balls. Next, flatten dough balls with a rolling pin. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of filling
onto one side of the dough circle.
Sprinkle with shredded cheese or half a slice of cheese. Fold dough over and seal tighly with
fingers or a fork.
Bake on a greased baking sheet for about 15 minutes until
lightly browned. You can also lightly sprinkle some cornmeal to add some texture to your pizza pockets.
Place pizza pockets from oven to a cooling rack. If you have leftovers, you can freeze them!
After they cool completely, store in a freezer bag for up to
2-3 months. To reheat frozen pizza
pockets, microwave for about 2 minutes or warm in the oven for about 20 minutes
at 350 degrees F. Check to make
sure they are heated through before serving. Enjoy!
