Pepperoni Bites

I’ve seen variations of these on several different cooking blogs and I couldn’t wait to try my own lightened up version. These are absolutely delicious and they make a great appetizer – no one will guess they’re light! I thought these were really great on their own (they remind me of mini versions of the pepperoni rolls I ate in college, only way less greasy) but they also taste great dipped in pizza sauce, so serve them however you wish. In addition to being ultra-tasty, these present really well, which is always a bonus when serving them to company!

Pepperoni Bites

Source: Inspired by several blogs including Annie’s Eats, Lauren’s Kitchen & Chaos in the Kitchen

Ingredients:
10 oz can refrigerated pizza crust dough
1 c shredded reduced fat mozzarella cheese
2 oz sliced turkey pepperoni
1 T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 T Grated Parmesan Cheese
Italian Seasonings to taste

Directions:
1.    Pre-heat the oven to 400. Lightly coat a 9” glass pie plate with cooking spray.
2.    Unroll pizza crust dough and cut into 24 even pieces. Flatten a piece and mound about 2 teaspoons of cheese in the center. Fold a slice of pepperoni (or two…2 oz gave me 30 pepperoni and I made 24 bites so 6 of my bites got a bonus piece!) and place it on top of the cheese. Fold the edges of the dough around the cheese and pepperoni and press together to form a sealed ball. Place the ball, seam side down, on the prepared pie plate. Repeat with remaining dough pieces to create 24 balls, filling the pie plate.
3.    Using a pastry brush, brush the olive oil over the tops of the pepperoni bites. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese and Italian seasoning over the top. Bake for 16-20 minutes until browned (mine were perfect at 18 minutes).

Optional Serving Suggestion:
These are absolutely delicious on their own, but if you want you can serve them with warm pizza sauce for dipping (additional points+)

Yields 6 (4 bite) servings. Weight Watchers Points Plus: 6 per serving