Tag Archives: mini

Lil’ Pizza Bites

I never willingly ate anything nutritious as a child, so Bagel Bites were a main food group in my diet. Please tell me I’m not the only one who grew up infatuated with them, and would still happily down an entire package if given the choice today.

Bagel Bites may not have been the finest quality food, but they were one of the most delicious things that could come out of my microwave. To kids and adults alike, there’s an appeal in making food bite-sized. Somehow, it’s even better that way. So, when I had a get-together a few weeks ago, I decided to forgo serving full-sized pizza, and instead made a bunch of mini cute and delicious Pizza Bites.

If you thought Bagel Bites were good, then wait until you taste these. My Pizza Bites are amazing and addicting. A dozen will disappear down your gullet before you have time to think. The homemade dough, although crazy easy to make, yields a tender, tasty, and crisp crust, the perfect vessel for zesty marinara and a generous blanket of melted mozzarella and parmesan cheese. A sprinkling of fresh oregano finishes the pizza bites off with a punch of extra flavor. These are so darn good, not only will you eat an inhuman amount, but they’ll put those frozen pizzas to shame.

These golden brown beauties are super cheesy, super addicting, and super good, perfect for a party, movie night, or super easy dinner!

A Few Tips Before You Get Cooking:

  1. If you’re set on one big pizza, this recipe is still great. It yields a traditional cheesy thin crust pizza.
  2. Add any toppings you like.
  3. This dough is good if you’re in a pinch for time because it only has to rise for 90 minutes, as opposed to some recipes that must rise overnight.
  4. You can use homemade sauce or jarred sauce, but if you use jarred, PLEASE buy good-quality stuff. It makes a huge difference.
  5. You must use fresh oregano. Dried tastes like feet, and the fresh stuff gives it that straight from the pizzeria taste.

Pizza Bites

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma

Yield: about 1 dozen bites

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • 3/4 cup warm water (about 105°F)
  • 1 cup cake flour
  • 1 cup + 3 tbsp. all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
  • 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 cups marinara sauce, homemade or good-quality jarred
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 2 tbsp. fresh chopped oregano

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the yeast, sugar and warm water and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
  2. In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade, combine the cake flour, all-purpose flour and salt and pulse 3 or 4 times.
  3. Whisk 1 tbsp. of the olive oil into the yeast mixture. With the motor running, slowly add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture, allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding more. Pulse the machine 10 to 15 times to knead the dough. The dough should clean the insides of the bowl but will be slightly sticky.
  4. Coat the inside of a large bowl with the remaining 1 tbsp. oil. Dust your hands with flour and remove the dough from the food processor. Form the dough into a ball and place in the bowl. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
  5. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Roll the dough out on a floured surface however thin you’d like it. Use a small round biscuit cutter, cookie cutter, or the rim of a glass to cut out little mini crusts. Sprinkle a pizza pan or preheated pizza with cornmeal an lay about 6-8 crusts on. Par-bake for 7 minutes, or until set but not yet browned. While they par-bake, combine the cheeses in a bowl. Top each par-baked crust with a scant tablespoon of sauce, a generous handful of cheeses, and sprinkle of oregano. Bake for another 5-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown around the edge. Remove from pan and serve. Repeat with remaining crusts.

Mini Strawberry Mousse Pies w/ Golden Oreo Crusts

In the heat of summer, we naturally crave fresh and juicy fruit. We want foods that are light and refreshing, like tall glasses of ice-cold lemonade or frosty fruit popsicles. Any kind of chilled or fruity dessert is ideal. It’s just like how we gravitate to warm and comforting dishes like soup in the dead of winter. Our body asks for the opposite of what the weather provides us in order to create an inner balance.

Ever since the first warm day arrived in CNY, my family has been clamoring for a light summer dessert. I can be very attached to chocolate, so it took a while for their requests to get through to me. I momentarily parted ways with my beloved chocolate desserts to whip up something that would appease my family’s fruity needs. They mentioned fruit pie, which is all fine and dandy, but I wanted something a bit more fun.

After a bit of brainstorming, my mind gave birth to these Mini Strawberry Mousse Pies. Besides being insanely adorable, they are the perfect summer dessert. I decided to miniaturize them because food is just so much more fun that way. There’s something to be said for having your own personal pie and not having to share.

My next twist on these tiny pies was a Golden Oreo cookie crust. Regular Oreos are a common crust component. In fact, Oreo cookie crusts may be my favorite kind of crust of all. So I figured, if you can make a crust out of original Oreos, then why not Golden Oreos? It worked out beautifully, creating a sweet vanilla-flavored crust that was delightfully golden and crisp.

The Golden Oreo crust was the perfect base to cradle the lusciously light and fluffy strawberry-mascarpone mousse. By combining pillowy fresh whipped cream with creamy mascarpone, you get a mousse that’s wonderfully light and airy yet rich and creamy at the same time. It’s just heavenly. I made the mousse with fresh ripe strawberries so you really get that wonderful, real flavor. No artificial stuff here! Plus, that slight tartness of the berries perfectly balances out the sweet Golden Oreo crust.

Since these pies are chilled, they are wonderfully refreshing on a hot day. Their mini size makes them great for parties and get-togethers. You can make them early in the day then store them in the fridge until you’re ready to dive in. Between their fresh fruit flavor, light filling, and beautiful pink color, these teeny-tiny pies are made for summertime.

A Few Tips Before You Get Cooking:

  1. Like I mentioned above, I encourage doing this as a make-ahead dessert. The longer the pies chill, the better the flavors will infuse.
  2. These are quick and easy to make, so you have no excuse not to try them.
  3. If you’re not a pie person, you can serve the strawberry-mascarpone mousse in a glass. That stuff is certainly good enough to eat straight up with a spoon. In fact, my mother prefers it that way.
  4. You could do a Nilla wafer crust instead, although the Golden Oreo version is a refreshing new twist that I highly recommend.
  5. Top with fresh whipped cream to take these over the top.
  6. If you can’t find the mini cake pans I use, you could use ramekins instead.
  7. In order to make sure your whipped cream whips up quick, and especially since it’s warm out now that it’s summer, you should pop your mixing bowl into the freezer for a few minutes before whipping.

Mini Strawberry Mousse Pies with Golden Oreo Crusts
By The Smart Cookie Cook

Yield: 5 mini pies

Ingredients:

  • 24 Golden Oreo Cookies (I used Double Stuf)
  • 4 tbsp. butter (1/2 stick), melted
  • 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 12 strawberries with the leaves sliced off, plus 5 whole strawberries for garnish
  • 2/3 cup mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Special Equipment: 5 4.5-inch round cake pans or ramekins

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a food processor, crush the cookies until they resemble a fine crumb. Pour into a small mixing bowl with the melted butter and stir until well-combined. Distribute the mixture evenly among the 5 pans. Use your fingers to press the crumbs down into a thin, well-packed crust and form it to the shape of the pan. Bake crusts for 5-10 minutes or until golden brown. Set on wire racks to cool.
  2. While the crusts cool, make the filling. In a large mixing bowl (preferably one that has been chilled), beat the heavy cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over-beat or you’ll have butter. Cover and store in fridge.
  3. Place the strawberries in a food processor and puree until completely smooth, about 5-10 minutes. Pour the juice into a mixing bowl with the mascarpone and vanilla extract and whisk until well-combined. Retrieve the whipped cream from the fridge and fold in the mascarpone-strawberry mixture just until well-combined. The mousse should be one color. Cover and store in fridge until pie crusts are completely cooled.
  4. To assemble the pies: Fill a large ziplock bag with the mousse, pushing it down to one corner of the bag. Snip off that corner to create a piping bag. Twist the top of the bag to seal the mousse in the bag then pipe into cooled crusts. Be generous; you have more than enough mousse. Piping is quicker, but if you don’t want to pipe the mousse, you can just spoon it into the crusts.
  5. Top pies with additional strawberries or whipped cream. Store in fridge until ready to eat. I recommend letting them chill at least 4 hours before serving. If you have leftover mousse, store in the fridge in an air-tight container.