Pizza Roses are an easy and fun way to turn ordinary pepperoni pizza into a creative and delicious appetizer that can be served at any gathering. The finished product looks like a rose with pepperoni slices forming the petals. Pizza roses can be served on their own or with various sauces for dipping, like marinara sauce or pesto sauce. For a light lunch, serve pizza roses with a side salad, or serve them at your Super Bowl party and watch the pizza roses fly off the plate. Your guests will be impressed and will clamor for more.
Ingredients: Here’s What You’ll Need
Only a few simple ingredients are needed to make this show-stopping appetizer.
- Pizza Dough: For the pizza dough, I used refrigerated pizza crust.
- Pizza Sauce: To keep this simple, I used store-bought pizza sauce. You could also use marinara sauce or homemade pizza sauce.
- The Rose Petals: Sliced pepperoni (1 ¾-inch diameter) formed the rose petals.
- The Cheeses: I used both shredded Mozzarella cheese and freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
- The Seasoning: I finished off the Pizza Roses with a sprinkle of Italian seasoning. You could also use dried oregano or completely omit the seasonings.
Steps: Here’s How to Make This Appetizer
With a few simple ingredients, you can make your own Pizza Roses. Here’s how.
- I started by placing the refrigerated pizza crust on a floured surface. Then I rolled the pizza crust into a rectangle that was approximately 11 inches by 18 inches. The thinner the crust, the better.
- Next, I cut the pizza dough into 1 ½-inch strips width-wise with a pizza cutter. I used a ruler to help keep the strips somewhat even.
- I placed a thin layer of pizza sauce on each of the strips using a small spoon. Originally, I used a small squeeze bottle to add the pizza sauce. However, the nozzle kept getting clogged with pieces of tomato.
- Then, I sprinkled on some shredded Mozzarella cheese. I used low moisture Mozzarella cheese that I shredded myself.
- Next, I placed overlapping slices of pepperoni on the cheese. I made sure that there was an overhang of the pepperoni slices on one side of the pizza strip.
- Finally, I sprinkled some freshly grated Parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning on the pepperoni slices.
- Starting at one long end, I carefully rolled the filled pizza strip into a coil to form the rose and placed it in a paper-lined regular muffin pan.
I baked the Pizza Roses in a preheated 400°F oven for 17 to 18 minutes.
After 17 to 18 minutes, the pizza crust was golden brown, and the pepperoni was crisp. I removed the pan from the oven and allowed the Pizza Roses to cool a bit.
I removed the paper liners and served the Pizza Roses. They were picture-perfect and absolutely delicious. Yum!
Recipe FAQ
I like to use cupcake liners in this recipe to minimize Pizza Rolls from sticking to the muffin pan. You could also spray the muffin pan well with nonstick spray and omit the cupcake liners.
You can make the pizza roses ahead of time. Let them come to room temperature and then store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, heat at 350°F for 8 to 10 minutes.
I like to shred my Mozzarella cheese. However, store-bought preshredded Mozzarella cheese or an Italian blend can be used.
Feel free to use regular pizza dough in this recipe. You can use either store-bought pizza dough or homemade pizza dough.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- When I first made these Pizza Rolls, it took rolling several of the filled strips to achieve the rose-petal look. Therefore, you may need to practice on a few of the strips to achieve the desired look.
- I used paper liners when baking the Pizza Rolls to minimize their potential for sticking to the pan. However, the paper liners easily peeled off when the Pizza Roses were done. I thought that the presentation was better with the paper liners removed.
- Sliced pepperoni comes in different diameters. The pepperoni that I used was 1 ¾ inches in diameter. This was the perfect size for the 1 ½ strips of pizza crust. If you use a larger diameter pepperoni, you may need to use a wider strip of pizza crust to achieve the desired look
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