Pickled Pepper and Pepperoni Puff Pastry Pinwheel Pizzas

Pepperoni pizza flavor inexpertly rolled into individual pinwheel pizzas. 

Question:  When is a pizza not an entree but instead an appetizer?
Answer:  When the pizza is little, cute, and can be consumed in a couple of bites.  Bonus points for alliteration.

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I had the puff pastry pizza idea for a while before I could execute it.  Luckily I picked up 2 boxes of puff pastry when I hit the outlet mall, so I had plenty of material to practice play with, because this was tricky for me to do.  I may make pizza crust look easy in my Pizza Primer, but you'll find some puff pastry outtakes on my FB page.

My first try [using fresh mozzarella and RTFM for baking instructions] was tasty but messy.  I baked the puff pastry for 10 minutes until it blew up like a throw pillow, then whacked it reasonably flat with my pizza peel [you may incorrectly assume I'm exaggerating here] and attempted to spread sauce on the flaking crust, added the toppings, and returned to the oven.  By the time the cheese was starting to melt the crust was starting to burn.  I went back to the drawing board.

Disregarding the published instructions and going rogue, I debated just topping the rolled-out puff pastry dough and baking it, but in the end I decided to roll it up and slice into pinwheels.  [Add another "p" while I'm at it.]  My slices were a bit squooshy because I again RTFM didn't see Bryn's suggestion to chill the rolled dough for 30 minutes before slicing. Do as I say in the instructions, not as I did.  Had I bought a 3rd box of puff pastry I would need to buy a new freezer to store it I'd carefully remove the package of dough from the box, rip the box to shreds so I'm not tempted to be led astray by the instructions on it, and try the pre chilling method before posting.  But #AppetizerWeek is here, and I wanted to bring you a rare Thursday pizza recipe so you get this after only 2 tries.

I made this pizza using pickled banana peppers which did not grow in my garden.  [Oh, there were banana pepper plants, 3 of them, planted in my garden.  They produced, over the course of the summer, I think about 5 peppers.  Total. Woot.]  If you prefer pickled jalapeños they'd also be a good combination with pepperoni--we just had that combo on a regular pizza crust last weekend.

If you prefer to avoid pepperoni, tomorrow in my final #AppetizerWeek post I'm sharing a vegetarian puff pastry pizza.  It's topped with roasted garlic oil, caramelized onions, spinach, olives, marinated artichokes, and goat cheese.  But because today's pizza name is such an alliterative mouthful, I'm calling tomorrow's pizza Very Veggie Puff Pastry Pizza Bites.

Visit all the other Appetizer Week blogs for more amazing recipes:

• Bacon Jalapeño Poppers by Cravings of a Lunatic
• Cheesy Melt by Kiss My Smoke
• Turkey Meatballs with Blackberry Sauce by Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker
• BBQ Flavored Popcorn by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Loaded Sweet Potato Waffle Fries by Food Done Light
• Bacon Wrapped Smokies with Brown Sugar by What's Cooking, Love?
• Almond Crusted Baked Eggplant by Je suis alimentageuse
• Crab Rangoon Dip by Rants From My Crazy Kitchen
• Mini Chicken Tacos by Clarks Condensed
• Cured Ham & Olive Tortilla Pinwheels by From Gate to Plate
• Mustard and Gruyere Batons by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Spiced Nuts by My Catholic Kitchen
• Crispy Cheese Twists by Life Off the Clock
• Baked Sriracha Bites by Organized Island
• Mini Pita Pizzas by Home Cooking Memories
• Slow Cooker Salsa Pulled Chicken Sliders by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Green Hummus by Mom's Test Kitchen
• Baked Mozzarella Sticks by Try Anything Once Culinary
• Low Sodium Cauliflower-Potato Bites by Cookerati
• Pickled Pepper and Pepperoni Puff Pastry Pizza/Pinwheels by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Sriracha Chicken Pockets by Lemons for Lulu
• Candied Bacon by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Baby Asparagus Wrapped in Prosciutto by Food Lust People Love
• Crispy Baked Green Bean Fries by Dizzy Busy and Hungry
• Smoked Salmon Dip by Wonky Wonderful
• Low Carb Monster Fingers by Yours and Mine are Ours

NOTE: This recipe is not gluten free as written, because of the puff pastry I used. To adapt this recipe for a gluten free diet please substitute the gluten free puff pastry dough of your choice.
Check labels to confirm that your other ingredients are also gluten free. Good sources for determining gluten free products can be found here:
http://knowgluten.me/2012/03/31/other-names-for-gluten/
http://glutenfreedoctor.com/gluten-free/
http://www.celiac.com/categories/Safe-Gluten%252dFree-Food-List-%7B47%7D-Unsafe-Foods-%26amp%3B-Ingredients/

Pepperoni Pickled Pepper Puff Pastry Pinwheel Pizzas

Ingredients

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thawed
• ½ cup pizza sauce of your choice
• ⅓ cup pepperoni slices
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• ¼ cup pickled banana or jalapeño peppers, chopped into small pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. On a lightly floured piece of parchment paper, roll out the puff pastry to a 10 by 15 inch rectangle.
2. To make pinwheels: spread sauce across dough, leaving 1 inch uncovered along the long (15 inch) side furthest from you.  
3. Place pepperoni and pickled peppers properly across the puff pastry [sorry, the 4th day posting in a row is making me punchy.] 
4. Roll up starting with the long side closest to you and rolling away from you.  
5. Chill the dough for 30 minutes, then slice into ½ inch thick slices.  I got  about 20 I think, but the kids were grabbing them and eating so I didn't get a final count.
6. To make a single large pizza:  Spread sauce across the dough to the edge. Add toppings.  
7. Bake 15 minutes until the crust is browned and puffed on the edges.  Cut into squares to serve as an appetizer.

Since I make pizza for my family just about every Friday night, I've been sharing many pizzas on this blog.  Please refer to my Pizza Primer post for general pizza making at home tips, and please refer to my Visual Pizza Recipe Index for other topping combinations.

You can find my other #AppetizerWeek recipes here:
Buffalo Butternut Squash Hummus 
Harvest Sweet Potato Salsa 
Sriracha Butternut Squash Hummus  
Veggie Veggie Puff Pastry Pizza Bites 

This recipe is shared with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop,From The Farm Blog Hop, Tasty Tuesdays.