On a Roll

I am recently obsessed with rolled food....   I mean food that looks like cinnamon rolls.  I am not sure where this obsession came from, but maybe it was this post from Cooking During Stolen Moments (Isn't that a great blog name?  It really speaks to me because I feel like that the time I get to cook is during stolen moments throughout the day.  Anyway, it's a great recipe blog for easy, family-friendly recipes).  Or the King Cakes I recently made. Or  these cookies (which I haven't made yet because I am  afraid I will eat every.single.one. all. by. myself.).

Anyway, I needed a pick me up and one of the best ways for me to get in a better mood is to get in the kitchen and do some cooking.  I also had a hungry, fussy kiddo and no real idea what to do for dinner.  Then I thought, what about pizza and why not experiment and do it in rolls?  So, completely ignoring the fact that Price was way beyond his normal melting point, I decided to dive in and go for it...

I used my Whole Wheat Pizza Crust recipe:
Whole Wheat Pizza Crust*
1 C warm water (needs to be between 110-120 degrees)
1 pkt yeast
2 1/4 C all-purpose flour, plus extra  (I use unbleached all-purpose flour in all of my baking)
1/4 C whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp each- basil, oregano

Preheat oven to 350.

In large mixing bowl add yeast and sugar to warm water.  Let stand for about 10 minutes until water is frothy from yeast.  Add flour, sugar, salt and spices.  Mix.  Add olive oil.  Continue to mix until all ingredients are combined.  If dough is very sticky, add a little more all purpose flour.  At this point, you can let the dough sit from 5 minutes up to an hour.  However, if you're in a hurry, like I always seem to be, you can roll dough immediately.  Knead dough until it is elastic and not too sticky, adding flour as necessary (you should be able to pick dough off counter with out it sticking).  

Dough after resting for about 20 minutes

If your hand looks like this after kneading dough, add more flour.

When your hand looks like this after kneading dough, you have achieved flour nirvana.

Instead of forming a circular crust on my pizza stone, I rolled my dough out into a rectangle

(rectangularish is ok in baking if not in geometry)

I then layered with sauce, SPINACH (this was a great way to sneak in the veggie, it practically disappeared during cooking), cheese and pepperoni.

I could have baked it just like this and had a pretty good pizza.  Instead, I thought it would be fun to roll it up ...

(If I had baked at this stage, it would have been a Stomboli)

... and sliced it like cinnamon rolls.

Since I haven't made anything like this before, I experimented with different pans to see which would work better.  All the while my sous chef was hanging out, critiquing my every move (between pouring out an entire can of Tony's and pointing out how many breakable knick knacks I have on my counter tops)

Ahh.. the things one must do to get dinner on the table during the "witching hour."

Alas- the finished product! (Warning- they aren't beautiful)

Baking like cinnamon rolls worked better than baking on pizza stone.  I think these could be great appetizers.  Next time, I will add more sauce, cheese and spinach.  I will roll tighter.  I will not make while dealing with a super fussy child so I can improve presentation.  I served with a side of extra sauce because the sauce  really cooked out and Price enjoys dipping his food into bright red stuff and smearing said bright red stuff all over his face.  The dough was amazing!  There is room for improvement here, but a pretty good first attempt.