Pizza Poppers {a.k.a. Mini Calzones}

Things are a little slow on the project front around here.  We are now waiting for the bedroom to be carpeted before we can do anything awesome like hanging the curtains etc.  Also, in the interest of a healthy marriage, I've promised my husband not to take on any more projects until the bedroom is finished!  ;) Also....I'm recovering from sewing our curtains last week.  Seriously....I was up WAY past my bed time for lots of nights in a row....

You're all in luck though, because I used to share a few recipes/ideas over on the family blog, and today I'm revisiting one of those little gems.....

Pizza Poppers!  This recipe was pretty simple once I got the hang of dealing with the dough......(lightly floured surface?  Yeah right.....try lots and lots of flour everywhere to prevent the dough from turning into a sticky mess).


Before we get started, here's a handy tip: If you're anything like me, flour goes EVERYWHERE in your kitchen when making any sort of dough.  Use the hose attachment on your vacuum cleaner to get the worst of the mess off of the counters before wiping them down....then you can wipe the counters down with your cleaner of choice without fighting sticky flour!    (I recommend a bleach based cleaner if your vacuum cleaner is as promiscuous as ours ; ).

Ingredients: 
1 pizza base mix ( I'm no dough expert, so I opted for a "just add water" pizza dough mix, which was really easy)
1/2 jar pasta sauce (and 1/2 jar to serve)
1 pack mini mozzarella
1/2 pack pepperoni
2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
Medium Biscuit Cutters
Fresh Basil to serve
Makes 20

Method:

1.Preheat oven to 180°C  (375°F)
2. Dice the pepperoni and mozzarella.
3. Prepare pizza dough according to package instructions (or from scratch if you have the time for that sort of thing...who can wait for a whole HOUR for dough to rise?!)
4. Knead the dough and roll out on a WELL floured surface.
5. Use a biscuit cutter to cut the dough into as many circles as you can.  Hints: My biscuit cutter was about 2" in diameter...next time I would use a larger one to keep the sauce from leaking out of the sides.  Combine the "scrap" pieces of dough into a ball and roll it out again to get more circles.
6. Put a piece of baking paper onto a pizza stone or baking tray, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Place the pizza dough circles onto the paper.
7. Spoon about 1 1/4 tsp sauce onto each circle and add toppings.
8.Fold the dough over and pinch it together around the edge.
9. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese.
10. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown, and serve with basil garnish and the remaining sauce for dipping.

Do you have any fun recipes for serving pizza as a party food? How do you get rid of the massive explosion of flour after making dough?