Pizza Rolls - Perfect Picnic Food

Pizza rolls: the perfect lunch (or snack) solution when you want bread in a hurry. Choose whatever filling you like and they are picnic-ready, straight from the oven. Recipe below.

But what's this about picnics?! Brrrr. It's chilly, grey winter here. Only the fact that we're in Tier 3, with the associated insistence that we socialise Outdoors Only, could make me even contemplate eating al fresco.

Pizza rolls are great for picnics but they're also perfect for indoor lunches and snacks in any location. Phew. You can put away that umbrella.

Their main advantage, over sandwiches, say, is that they come out of the oven ready filled. I mean, I love to make dough balls if I need bread in a hurry but they require a little something on the side: some guacamole or humus, perhaps. Pizza rolls can stand alone.

Not only are they easy and quick to make, you can customise them to your heart's content with any combination of fillings you have to hand or can dream up on the spot. I even made a sweet version last week (Festive Spiced Rolls - Iced Cinnamon Swirls) and they were deeeeelicious.

For the savoury version, you're going to need a basic bread dough (you could use these instructions for an everyday sort of bread dough) to start with. I'm a bit of a stickler for wholemeal but I made my latest batch of pizza rolls with half wholemeal and half plain flour. The ratio is:

500g flour
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
315g water

You could make the dough more interesting by adding herbs or spices. A combination of smoked paprika and basil works well. A pinch of chilli would be good too.

Mix the ingredients together and leave them to rise in the usual fashion then divide the dough into two pieces and roll each section out into an oblong.

Now add your toppings.

Here we have Bolognese sauce from a jar, basil, thyme and bouillon powder:

The other batch was oregano, bouillon powder, garlic powder and olives:

This would be a great moment for cheese, if you're emulating a traditional pizza. You could use ham too, or small pieces of bacon. I'm vegan so that's why my pizza rolls are slightly un-pizza-like. I don't go for vegan cheese and fake meat. I sometimes like nutritional yeast flakes*. Michael Greger's Nutty Parm, found in the How Not To Die Cookbook*, is also a really great cheese alternative.

Whatever you choose, be sure to add plenty of seasoning because flavours get lost in the cooking.

Roll up your dough and cut it into sections.

I had some trouble with the olive version, resulting in folding, rather than rolling. No matter; the filling was on the inside.

You can make them as fat or as thin as you like.

Lay the sections on a baking sheet to prove until springy to touch.

Bake them at 230^oC for five minutes and 210^oC for a further 10 minutes, or until nicely golden. Voila.

The olive ones were really tasty but the tomato ones were our favourite.

This made a tasty lunch for us, along with some homemade soup and some fruit. Let me know if you try them and what fillings you chose.

Something Else

For a collection of all the Freshly Baked recipes (well, nearly all, I'm working on it!) in convenient printable format, you need my ebook The Recipes, available for immediate download.

*Links marked with an asterisk are affiliate links. This is how I hope to one day make millions from this website. But I can't bring myself to sell advertising for things I don't believe in. Everything I link to is something I think is good. I'm enthusiastic about everything 'Doctor Greger' at the moment (hence the How Not To Die link above).