Pepperoni Rolls

Howdy,

So we recently had a potluck dinner at work, and this was my contribution. This is an old recipe that originated in West Virginia. It's similar to a calzone, or a pizza pocket. However, it uses bread dough.

Ingredients needed:
1.) Pepperoni (either slices or stick - I prefer slices)
2.) Cheese (anything from mozzarella, to provolone, to whatever you prefer). This time I used Sargento 4 cheese Italian (shredded Mozarella, Provolone, Asiago, & Romano)
3.) Bread dough

The cool thing about pepperoni rolls is that they can be used as a main dish, a snack, or an appetizer (this year I cut them up into bite-sized pieces as a "finger food" appetizer). They can be eaten fresh out of the oven, re-heated, or even room temp (my Mom used to make batches of these during hunting season for us to take up into the woods to eat while hunting).

Normally these are made in an oven, but this time I thought I'd try them on the Egg.

The procedure for making them is:

1.) thaw out bread dough, tear off and "flatten out" pieces (size is up to you, some folks make them very large to serve as a main dish, others very small). For me, since I knew I was going to be cutting these into bite-size pieces, I rolled the dough out flat to a little larger than the size of my palm.

2.) techniques vary, but I then place a layer of pepperoni slices, followed by a layer of shredded cheese, then another layer of pepperoni, then another layer of cheese. Some folks use stick pepperoni, and if so, they cut the stick into smaller rectangular sticks (think a rectangular Slim Jim). If that's the case, then 2 sticks usually per roll will suffice.



3.) Roll up the bread & pinch off to encase the pepperoni & cheese




4.) Bake on a cookie sheet at 375 for about 15-20 minutes***




*** For the Egg, I noticed I had to modify the cook a bit - what I noticed was that I had to put the ceramic feet on top of the plate setter, then place the cookie sheet on top of the feet to create an air gap (first batch turned out a bit burnt on the bottom due to the heat created by the cookie sheet being right on top of the plate setter). So with the air gap, the bottoms won't get burnt. I also flipped them about ever 7 minutes or so to keep them from burning.

They turned out very well, as good as in the oven. However, I was hoping for some smoke to infuse the dough similar to when I make pizza. However, these didn't taste much different than when made in the oven. I used normal BGE lump, with no wood chips.

That's how I normally do my pizzas, and the BGE lump is enough to provide a hint of smoke to the pizza crust.

My question:

Do you guys think next time I need to actually put some chips in there to make more smoke?

Variations on this are that, once it is baked, some folks slice them open & apply nacho cheese, and/or chili, and/or jalapenos, etc.

That's another cool thing - the variations are endless!!!

Anyway, hopefully those of you looking for something different to make for a potluck, or for a quick & easy meal or snack - here ya go!!!