A customized print-friendly version of this recipe is available by clicking the "Print Recipe" button on this page.
Pizza Party Buns
Welcome to our January Bakealong Challenge! Sticky buns, cinnamon buns... pizza buns? Substitute pizza topping ingredients for a sweet roll's typical cinnamon and sugar, and you've got a super-tasty savory bun, perfect for parties, picnics, or snacking on the go.
Ingredients
Buns
- 1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
Filling
- 1/2 cup of your favorite pizza sauce
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella or Monterey Jack cheese, Cabot preferred; or the pizza cheese of your choice
- 4 ounces (about 1 cup) chopped or shredded pepperoni
Instructions
- Place all of the dough ingredients into a bowl, and mix and knead the mixture — by hand, using a stand mixer, or in a bread machine — to make a smooth, soft dough.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover it, and allow it to rise until doubled, 60 to 90 minutes.
- Gently deflate the dough, and transfer it to a lightly greased work surface.
- Roll the dough into a 12" x 18" rectangle.
- Spread evenly with the sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.
- Starting with a long end, roll the dough into a log. Cut the log into 12 to 18 pieces, depending on how large you want the buns to be.
- Space the rounds on two parchment-lined or lightly greased baking sheets. If you've cut 12 rounds, flatten them gently to about 1" tall.
- Cover the pan(s), and allow the buns to rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until they're nicely puffed. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Bake the buns for about 25 to 30 minutes, until they're a light golden brown.
- Remove the buns from the oven, and serve warm, with additional pizza sauce on the side if desired.
- Store any leftovers in the refrigerator. Reheat for about 10 minutes, covered, in a 350°F oven; or very briefly in a microwave.
Nutrition Information
- Serving Size 101g
- Servings Per Batch 12 servings
Amount Per Serving:
- Calories 270
- Calories from Fat 110
- Total Fat 12g
- Saturated Fat 4.5g
- Trans Fat 0g
- Cholesterol 20mg
- Sodium 610mg
- Total Carbohydrate 29g
- Dietary Fiber 1g
- Sugars 3g
- Protein 12g
* The nutrition information provided for this recipe is determined by the ESHA Genesis R&D software program. Substituting any ingredients may change the posted nutrition information.
Tips from our bakers
- For an added burst of flavor, add 4 teaspoons Pizza Dough Flavor to the dough along with the other dry ingredients.
- Feel free to replace the pepperoni with about 1 cup of your favorite cooked pizza toppings. It helps to chop chunky toppings like sliced mushrooms or peppers, rather than leave them whole.
Recommended For You
Reviews
These are SO good!! I've made them several times now using my bread machine which makes it easy. I follow the recipe exactly but for adding some Italian seasoning, either sprinkled over the sauce or added into the flour. I also top the rolls with a bit more cheese & seasoning just prior to baking. These are great for work lunches. Thanks for a great recipe!
I followed this recipe, but subbed out the bread flour with AP flour, sprinkled Italian seasoning over my cheese/sauce/pepperoni, and accidentally added a bit of extra rising time; ~1h45m after creating the dough. I was able to cut sixteen 1" buns after rolling everything up. The pizza sauce created an annoying barrier that kept me from pinching the whole roll shut, but I was able to finally close most of them individually after an hour of rising, and just before baking. I added a pinch of mozzarella to half of them as a test. They will all honestly look like they're going to come out awful -- up until you see them start to turn golden brown in the oven. These were amazing, and my house smelled like a pizzeria. I cannot, and will not mention how many of them I ate by myself. The ones with cheese added on top came out a bit softer, while the cheese crisped up more. Both of them were equally delicious. These will be my go-to for any future pizza parties, but I may add a teaspoon of both garlic and onion powder to my dough next time for a little extra flavour.
2 /2 t yeast seems too much for a bread machine. I prepared the dough in the bread machine the first time,and I used the 2 1/2 t instant yeast, as the recipe states. I felt that was too much yeast, so today, I made the dough in the bread machine as usual but with only 1 t instant yeast. Same exact rise and loft. Some people shy away from yeast, so next time try a lesser quantity. I really enjoy the idea of the rolls, but I can never get the slices to be 'clean cut' as in the photo. Of course food presenters certainly doctor up the product to look good. I even sprayed my large chef's knife with spray, to no avail. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get clean-cut, good-looking rolls ?We're happy to hear that you made this recipe work for you, fellow baker, and we have the perfect not-so-secret technique to share with you for cutting rolls without smooshing the dough. Believe it or not, using dental floss wrapped around the log works beautifully! The blog article linked to this recipe will show you just how to master this simple technique. Mollie@KAF
followed the recipe exactly. the dough mixes up very easily by hand. the final texture is light and flaky. the amount of sauce/cheese/pepperoni was fine for us, remembering that these aren't pizzas, but party snacks or appetizers. without the addition of pizza seasoning to the dough, i think that the dough is pretty versatile and would probably work with a variety of both savory and sweet fillings. looking forward to making up my own variations.
Dough was very easy to mix and baked up nice and light. I found the rising times to be quite accurate. I was a bit more generous with the pizza sauce and used mozzarella, parmesan and mennonite farmers sausage. My husband and kids loved them.
Made this recipe with a couple of changes. I used pesto (relatively inexpensive jarred supermarket stuff) instead of pizza sauce, and I sprinkled some parmesan on them before they went into the oven. They also spent a LONG time on both rises because our house is very cold. Anyway, as pesto pizza buns, they turned out really well! I'll definitely be making these again.
I made this recipe exactly as written a couple days ago, and they were pretty good. But I felt they needed something more than just dipping them in warm tomato sauce. When we had them as leftovers yesterday, I placed each of the 10 remaining rolls (we originally got 16) on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, then topped each one with more tomato sauce, a generous sprinkling of grated mozz and Parmesan, then placed a single slice of pepperoni on each one. I then heated them through in a 375-degree oven for about 12 minutes. Bingo! The ratio of bread to sauce to cheese was perfect. Sure...you lose the visual appeal of the spiral, but we think the changes made more than make up for it in eating quality. I'll be making this again, but with the additional step of turning them into little pizzas on top. Too bad I didn't get this made during the bakealong challenge, but we were displaced for 10 days and then sick for two weeks after that. Yay...us!
Did you replace the original pizza buns recipe with this pizza party buns recipe? I noticed a few things are different. The original recipe was fantastic. Why mess with a good thing? Is there anywhere I can find the original recipe?We did tweak this recipe to be a bit simpler and easy to make with ingredients that people were likely to have at home. (Plus, we think this version is equally delicious.) If you're looking for the original version, please send us an email at customercare[at]kingarthurflour[dot]com with your request and we'll send a copy your way. We hope that helps! Kye@KAF
Followed the recipe exactly (sans the pepperoni) and was so pleased with how they turned out. The dough was light and airy and the presentation was beautiful. Will be making these again later this week.
Excellent recipe. Made a double batch so one could be cheese only and the other chicken Italian sausage. I took care to make sure the sausage was in small pieces. The dough was a delight to work with. It rolled very easy on my lightly oiled wood board. I rolled and cut the dough last night, and kept in fridge all day. Took out about an hour before baking. I kept 6-7 rolls per large sheet pan and baked 2 pans at a time. Everyone loved them. I froze the extras. There were extras because I left half the rolls in the kitchen and didn't bring to the table. Everyone dipped in extra pizza sauce. I'll be making again and trying different fillings. We are a happy family tonight!
