Mustard With Mutton

When I first purchased my muffin tins I naively thought that I would use them to, well make muffins but as it turns out I’ve used them for everything but. I’ve whipped up mini quiches using won ton wrappers and cinnamon rolls using puff pastry and I’ve even used them for roasted potato stacks. So just when I thought there surely couldn’t be any more inventive uses for this humble tin I stumbled across these mini deep dish pizzas, made in, you guessed it – a muffin tin! These would be great for a drinks party or as a substantial canapé for when you’re going to head straight from drinks to the main course. They’re totally delicious and can obviously be made with a whole array of different fillings, one of our favourites being this pepperoni one. If you can purchase ready made pizza dough these are super easy to throw together but they’re so good it would be worthwhile making your own dough.

Ingredients – Makes 12

200g fresh pizza dough – store bought or home made
1 cup pizza sauce, I like to make my own but you can use a good quality ready made one
12-14 baby boccancini cut into thin slices
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Handful of black pitted olives, sliced
100g pepperoni sliced thinly and if large cut into quarters

Method

Pre-heat oven to 220C. Oil the cavities of the muffin tin with some olive oil. Roll out the pizza dough until it’s quite thin then using the bottom of a can or a cookie cutter cut out 12 circles. Take one circle and using your hands stretch the dough out as much as you can without getting any holes. Place it into the cavity of the muffin tin and spread it out so as it covers the base and at least a third of the sides. Repeat with remaining dough.

 

To assemble the pizzas place a few slices of boccancini on the dough (putting the cheese down first will prevent the dough getting soggy). Add 1-2 tablespoons of pizza sauce then top the sauce with a few slices of olives and pepperoni. Sprinkle some grated parmesan over the top and bake for about 20 minutes or until they are golden and the cheese is melted and bubbly.