I have a friend named Aurora who used to food blog, but now days is focusing her energy on her newest project, MurderMuder News! The only place you need to go for your True Crime news fix!
I am a true crime fanatic and if you adore a good true crime website/podcast/ documentary as much as I do, then you must, MUST go right now and follow Aurora and Angelina over at MurderMurder News and on their youtube channel for all things true crime related! Also she is just great and I promise you will love her!
That said, she messaged me the other day telling me I really need to veganize this recipe she found over at Thrillist.com. So naturally I knew she was right and decided to give it a go.
After poking around the interwebs I saw this is actually a thing people do…make pizza into a kind of cinnamon roll hybrid. How am I just now seeing this?!?!?
Rolling up pizza toppings into pizza dough and cutting and baking them like a cinnamon roll!! FLIPPING GENIUS, Y’ALL!
Had I known this was a thing years ago, I might weigh a lot more than I currently do, and I would have been making these weekly…I guess I am gonna have to step up my gym game.
Veganizing these was actually pretty easy. After looking around at what is standard pizza roll protocol, I decided I liked that the folks over at Thrillist added a cream cheese drizzle (not the norm elsewhere from what I saw) to mimic an icing if you will. Also I will add cream cheese or sour cream to just about anything so it seemed only right! I also added extra marinara because I LOVE sauce and want to dip alllll the things.
For the filling I used a store bought marinara, some shredded vegan mozzarella, and homemade vegan pepperoni. I guess if you are feeling too lazy to whip up some pepperoni you could add olives, mushrooms, peppers, or whatever you want. Just be careful to keep the stuffing sliced thinly and don’t over stuff!!
If you are into making your own pepperoni, its easy. Our recipe is super easy and will give you 2 “sticks” of pepperoni. You only need half of one for this recipe so you will have plenty leftover to snack on with cheese and crackers, add to a salad, or freeze for later.
So if you want a little something different on pizza night, try rolling that mess up like a cinnamon roll, don’t skip that cream cheese drizzle, and make sure you have extra sauce for dunking. And if you love true crime you can eat these rolls while watching the ladies over at Murdermurder News on youtube. Sounds like the perfect Friday night to me.
INGREDIENTS:
16 oz pizza dough ( homemade or store bought)
4-6 oz of vegan shredded mozzarella (homemade or store bought)
1/2 cup marinara sauce, plus more for dipping
1 tablespoon vegan butter
2 teaspoon garlic powder, divided
1/4 of a batch of homemade vegan pepperoni, thinly sliced (half of one stick)
1/3 cup vegan cream cheese ( homemade or store bought )
A few splashes plant milk
Dried basil or parsley
1/4 cup or so of corn meal
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
If you are using pre-made pizza dough, remove it from the fridge and let it rest for about 10 minutes. It will stretch better if you do. Once it has sat, flour your hands to stretch it out to a large 16x12 inch (give to take) rectangle. You can also roll the dough out using a rolling pin, I just have always preferred to stretch it! It will be sticky so adding flour to your hands and work surface will help.
Melt a tablespoon of butter and mix in 1 teaspoon of garlic powder in a small bowl. Brush the dough leaving a 1 inch border around the edge that you don’t brush.
Spread the sauce evenly over the dough, remembering to keep the 1 inch border. Lay out the thin pepperoni slices in a single layer, and sprinkle the top with the cheese.
Starting at the 16 inch side facing you, roll the dough into a log as tightly as you can. If you don’t roll it tightly enough, the filling will fall out when you cut it ( I may have lived this exact scenario the first batch I made, just trust me.)
Using a very sharp knife, carefully cut 10 evenly sized rolls from the dough.
Dip the bottoms of the the rolls in some corn meal and place them on a baking sheet or in a 9x13 casserole dish about an inch or so apart. Place the rolls in the oven with the rack positioned in the middle. Bake for 25 or 30 minutes, or unit the dough seems to be browning and done, and the cheese is bubbling and melted. Remove and let cool just a bit.
Place the cream cheese along with 1 teaspoons of garlic salt in a small bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds to soften. Mix in about a tablespoon of plant milk or as much as it takes to thin the cream cheese out enough to drizzle over the tops of the pizza rolls. Not too thin, not too thick, about the consistency of icing. It really will depend on the brand of cream cheese you are using as to how much milk you will need to thin it out.
You can serve as is, or I like to also drizzle some extra sauce on top and sprinkle with some dried basil or parsley.
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