Pepperosies

This is a sponsored post by Challenge butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible! 

I know there are a lot of Valentine’s Day haters, but I am not one of them. I’m far from it. I love cheesy cards, chocolates, and pink and red everything. I especially embrace Valentine’s Day baking.

Instead of experimenting with another heart-shaped baked good this year, I made pepperoni roses. They’re kind of like a garlic knot and a stuffed breadstick all in one. I’ve seen people make roses with thinly sliced apples and puff pastry, but my heart craves savory food.

You can either start by making your own pizza dough or by purchasing pizza dough. There is no shame in buying the dough! But please buy good quality dough. I recommend calling your favorite local pizza place and asking if they will sell you their dough. If that doesn’t work, I really like Trader Joe’s pizza dough and Wewalka classic pizza dough.

Then just stretch or roll out the pizza dough until it's a rectangle approximately 15 - 18 inches wide. You want the dough to be pretty thin. Cut it into strips about 1 1/2 inches wide.

Once your pizza dough is ready, mix together the melted butter, garlic, and Italian seasoning, and brush all the strips with the butter mixture. I highly recommend using Challenge salted butter. It has just the right amount of saltiness, and it's made from 100% pure pasteurized sweet cream, making it the highest quality butter available. I used a lot of garlic in the butter mixture because I like strong garlic flavor, but you can certainly use less. Then sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese on top.  It's important to shred the cheese yourself because pre-shredded cheeses is coated in preservatives to prevent it from clumping together, and as a result, it doesn't melt as well.

The last step is to line up the pepperoni and roll up each strip. Make sure the top half of each pepperoni hangs over the strip and each piece overlaps slightly. Rolling up the strip may be the trickiest part. I try to hold the pepperoni in place with one finger while I roll it up. Then just brush it with more garlic butter and bake!

These are absolutely delicious on their own, but I also recommend serving them with ranch or marinara dipping sauce. I recently hopped on the ranch fan train, and I don't think I'll ever get off. I made my own ranch, and I think it's the perfect complement to these pepperosies.

Pepperosies

Yield: About 12 rolls

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

For the pepperosies

• 1 recipe pizza dough or 1 package pre-made pizza dough
• 6 Tablespoons Challenge salted butter, melted
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 4 ounces mozzarella, shredded
• 6 ounces pepperoni (about 8 pieces per rose)

For the ranch dipping sauce

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 packets Hidden Valley ranch seasoning

Directions

For the pepperosies

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray muffin pan with nonstick pray.
2. Roll out pizza dough as thin as possible into rectangle.
3. Cut pizza dough lengthwise into 1 1/2-inch strips.
4. Mix butter, garlic, and Italian seasoning in small bowl. Brush each pizza strip with mixture.
5. Sprinkle mozzarella evenly over each strip.
6. Line up pepperoni on top half of each strip. Each piece should overlap slightly and the top half should hang over the dough.
7. Tightly roll up each dough strip and brush with butter mixture.
8. Place each roll into muffin pan cavity.
9. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until crust is golden and pepperoni is crips.
10. Remove from oven and serve.

For the ranch dipping sauce

1. Slowly whisk the buttermilk into the sour cream.
2. Whisk in the mayonnaise.
3. Whisk in the ranch seasoning packets.
4. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.