Vegan Pepperoni Pizza Rolls with Cream Cheese Drizzle

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

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.)

5. Using a very sharp knife, carefully cut 10 evenly sized rolls from the dough.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. You can serve as is, or I like to also drizzle some extra sauce on top and sprinkle with some dried basil or parsley.

If you like this recipe, then try these:

Vegan Cheese Stuffed Pretzels

Vegan Pizza Nachos

Vegan Stuffed Crust Pizza

Vegan Stuffed Crust Pizza

What’s better than homemade vegan pizza? Well how about homemade STUFFED CRUST vegan pizza!

That’s right, we stuffed our easy vegan all purpose cheese sauce right into the crust! I make a ton of vegan cheeses, even vegan mozzarella that shreds and slices, but honestly this cheese sauce is always my preference for pizza. This cheese is gooey, stretchy, cheesy perfection! No need to ever try another vegan pizza cheese recipes, I promise.

We love pizza night in our house. It’s way cheaper than delivery, plus homemade dough is super simple to make, and everyone gets exactly what they want on top! Win, Win, Win.

If you are feeling too lazy to make your own dough ( I do not judge, really I don’t ) most grocery stores sell a pre-made pizza dough these days.It’s normally vegan but just check the ingredients to make sure!

Plus when you make pizza at home get to add whatever toppings you like, all the cheese you want, and it won’t cost you an arm and leg, because we all know everyone loves to overcharge for vegan food. ( I should write a whole blog post just about how badly that annoys me)

So ditch the pizza delivery, and make pizza night an event at your house with this perfectly gooey, cheesy stuffed crust vegan pizza. I promise its totally worth the effort!!

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INGREDIENTS:

• 1 batch Vegan All Purpose Cheese Sauce

• Marinara sauce

• Any toppings you like

The Dough:

• 3/4 cups warm water ( around 110 degrees)

• 2 1/2 teaspoons dry active yeast

• 2 cups all purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons oil.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Start by adding warm water, yeast, and sugar to a large bowl. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. The yeast should have created a bubbly foam on top. If the yeast did not bubble and foam it is likely that the water was too hot, and it killed the yeast. I typically just use hot tap water to get the right temp.

2. Add the yeast mixture and remaining dough ingredients to a stand mixer and mix on medium for serval minutes to allow the dough to knead. If the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl, add a few extra tablespoons of flour. Your goal is a soft dough, but one not sticky. If you do not have a stand mixer, you can mix the ingredients in a bowl and turn the dough out onto a clean, floured surface to knead for 3-5 minutes.

3. Clean out the bowl you used for the water and yeast. Dry it well. and coat the bowl with a little oil. Place the dough into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let the dough rise for about an hour or until it had doubled in size. I place my dough in my oven on the bread proof setting, If you do not have a proof setting, you can just place it in oven (turned off) and allow to rise.

4. Prepare cheese sauce according to directions while dough is rising. You want the sauce a little on the thicker side for this recipe.

5. Preheat oven to 450 degrees

6. Once dough has doubled in size, turn out onto a clean floured surface and punch the dough down. Stretch the dough into a circle using you hands. The dough will need to be and inch or 2 bigger than your pizza pan. Let gravity work for you when stretching the dough. Sprinkle the pizza pan with a little corn meal if you have it, to help keep the dough from sticking.

7. Make a ring of cheese sauce about once inch away from the edge of the dough, then fold the excess dough over the cheese and press down well to seal. Make sure you have a nice seal with the dough, or it will pop open and cheese will ooze everywhere while baking. You may have to pinch the dough a bit to make sure it seals.

8. Spread sauce over dough, and top with cheese sauce and whatever toppings you like. Bake on the top rack of your oven for 15-25 minutes, or until the crust has browned and the cheese is nice and bubbly and browning. Cook time vill vary depending on thickness of the crust.

9. Allow to cool some before cutting and serving

If you like this recipe, try these:

Muffin Cup Vegan Lasagna

Vegan Italian Noodle Bake

Vegan Italian Potato Roll Up

Vegan stuffed crust pizza with the perrect easy all purpose vegan cheese sacue and homemade vegan dough

Vegan Pepperoni

I just want to let y’all know how super easy making a batch of vegan pepperoni can actually be. Seriously! Mix the ingredients, roll it up in some foil, bake, and you are eating delicious homemade vegan pepperoni before you know it! Put it on a cracker, put it on a pizza, eat it all by itself because its that good!!

Don’t be intimidated by making seitan if you have never tried you hand at it. Working with vital wheat gluten is as easy as working with regular flour. Making seitan is really just making dough! You can steam it, boil it, or bake it. For this recipe we are steaming it in foil to achieve a pepperoni like texture!

I often make vegan pepperoni when making a cheese plate for parties, or for just snaking on with vegan cheese and crackers for my kids. I have over 30 cheese recipes on the site, so find one you love and make up a batch to go along with your vegan pepperoni!

This recipe makes two logs of pepperoni, so if you don’t think you will use both very quickly, you can freeze the second for up to a a few months. Just drop it in a freezer bag and thaw when you are ready to use it.

I often top our vegan stuffed crust pizza with this pepperoni! Its made with an easy vegan homemade mozzarella cheese sauce and is so easy and so tasty!! Its one of my kids favorite dinners.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup vital wheat gluten

• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast

• 2 teaspoons minced garlic

• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika

• 2 teaspoons onion powder

• 2 teaspoons dijon mustard

• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds

• 1 teaspoon oregano

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

• 1/4 cup tapioca or corn starch

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce or amnios

• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke

• 2 teaspoon light miso paste

• 1 teaspoon vegetable Better than Bouillon

• 3/4-1 cup water

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INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Food processor instructions: Add all ingredients to the food processor and mix for about a minute to allow a dough to form and knead.

2. Hand mixing instructions: Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix until a ball of dough has formed. Transfer the mixture to a clean countertop or cutting board and knead the dough for a few minutes. Start with 3/4 cups water but If the dough seems too dry or isn’t coming together, add a few tablespoons more until you have a soft, but well formed dough.

3. Divide the dough in half and form each half into a 10 inch log shape.

4. Spray a good sized piece of foil, maybe 7 tot 8 inches long, with some cooking spray. Place a log of pepperoni at one end and begin rolling the pepperoni into the foil. Twist the ends and repeat with a second piece of foil. You need the foil nice and tightly wrapped and the ends good and sealed. The pepperoni will bake in a water bath so you don’t want any liquid getting in.

5. Repeat the same processes with the second pepperoni.

6. Fill baking dish with about a half inch of water and place both foil wrapped pepperonis into the water.

7. Bake for 30 minutes then turn each pepperoni and bake for another 30 minutes.

8. Carefully remove foil wrapped pepperonis from the baking pan and transfer to a plate. Leave pepperonis wrapped in foil and allow to cool for about 20 minutes before attempting to unwrap them. Once they have cooled and you can handle them, unwrap the foil and let pepperoni cool uncovered in the fridge for an hour. The pepperoni will firm up more and slice easier if you leave it over night to rest! I typically make a batch the day before I want to use it! But it can be eaten as soon as it cools.

9. Store in an airtight container or zip lock bag in the fridge.

10. Serve on pizza, with vegan cheese and crackers, or by itself!

*giving credit where credit is due…Pepperoni was the first vegan meat I ever made using the recipe by Robin Robertson from Veganize It! cook book. I have adapted and changed the recipe over the years to suit my taste and pantry staples, as most seitan pepperoni recipes are pretty similar…but I woulnd’t know know the first thing about most things vegan cooking if not for this particular woman’s cookbooks when we first became vegan. I can not recommend her cookbooks enough! She’s a vegan genius.

Vegan Soft Mozzarella Cheese

Oh mozzarella cheese, how I loved you in all of your many forms.

Soft, shredded, on pizza, in a caprese salad, in lasagna, any way at all.

So once going vegan I had to, HAD TO, find a way to mimic soft mozzarella. It is the cheese I missed the very most and could not imagine a world where I would not longer eat mozzarella!

Honestly, hard cheeses are really easy, and coming up with a shreddable mozzarella wasn’t too hard, but what stumped me was a soft vegan mozzarella, one that I could make my favorite salad with!

This may not be my easiest cheese recipe, but it is certainly not difficult. Just a little more time consuming than some agar quick set cheeses. This cheese cooks up like a regular agar cheese, but instead of pouring it into a mold, you scoop the mixture and drop it into ice cold water, causing it to quickly set into soft vegan mozzarella cheese balls!

It’s brilliant really! Agar agar will begin to set at room temperature, so dropping this cheese mixture into ice cold water will have it set into a ball almost instantly! It still needs some time in the fridge to completely set, but over all, this recipe is really easy, quick, and pretty straightforward.

Now, before you glance at the ingredients and gawk at addition of sauerkraut, hear me out. It works! It adds a fermented briny-ness (is that a word, if not it is now on this blog if nowhere else) that a lot of vegan cheese recipes are missing. You will never even be able to taste it in the cheese, but I adds a kick that you would miss if you didn’t add it! You gotta trust me here!

This vegan soft mozzarella will keep in the fridge for about a week and will work perfectly for a caprese salad, sliced on top of pizza, diced on a green salad, or in any recipe where you are missing soft mozzarella!

So don’t be intimidated and try your hand at making this soft mozzarella!! I think you will be surprised at how easy it is and how close it mimics the real deal!

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INGREDIENTS:

• 1 cup cashews soaked over night or microwaved for 3 minutes in 1 and 1/2 cups water, then drained.

• 1/2 cup sauerkraut, without the juice

• 1/4 cup plant based milk

• 1 teaspoon minced garlic

• 3 tablespoons tapioca starch

• 2 tablespoons triple filtered coconut oil

• 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• 1/2 cup water

• 2 teaspoons agar powder

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COOKING INSTRUCTIONS: 

1. Add drained cashews, and all other ingredients EXCEPT the water and agar to a high speed blender or food processor.

2. Blend on high until the mixture is completely smooth. You may need to scrape the sides down a few times to make sure all of the cashew bits get processed.

3. Fill a large bowl halfway with water and a cup of ice. Stir in a few teaspoons of salt and place next to your stove top.

4. In a medium sized pot, bring water and agar powder to a boil.

5. Once it is boiling reduce heat to med/low.

6. Mix the cashew mixture into the water and agar, stirring continuously unit it becomes thick and stretchy. This will take just a couple of minutes, as it comes together pretty quickly. Just keep stirring and scraping the cheese from the sides of the pot. It will resemble a stretchy dough/ batter and scoop easily once it is ready.

7. With a medium size cookie scoop (or you can use a large spoon or ice cream scoop) scoop out balls of mozzarella and drop them into the bowl of ice water.

8. Once all of the mozzarella balls are formed and in the water, place the bowl in the fridge for about an hour, or until the mozzarella has firmed up a bit.

9. Once firm, remove mozzarella and place in zip lock bags or a shallow storage container adding just a little of the liquid brine for storage. You don’t need to fully cover them. Just add a little of the liquid so they do not dry out.

Store in fridge for up to 5 days