Eye of Newt - Stuffed Pesto Balls

Fall is in the air, and baking begins again!

You are going to love this super simple and delicious

mozzarella stuffed delight!

Yes, it is true,

Beaulah has returned from her long hibernation,

and I am flying around on my broomstick!

She and I have been baking and

decorating and crafting - ready to 

PARTY until Halloween comes!!!

I put on my baking hat

- tee hee - 

and we whipped these morsels

up for you.  Fresh out of the oven

on these cool fall days, they are perfect.

They are the easiest things in the world

open a can of Pillsbury Baking Biscuits, and

cut each one in half.  Wrap a cube of mozzarella

that you have cut from a block of cheese inside.

The dough is so sticky, it will do a good job

of sealing without any added water.

Dip in pesto.  You could make it yourself with

all of your wonderful basil at this time of year,

or do it simple like I did and use a premade one.

I used Costco's pesto.

Spray a 9 inch cake pan with cooking oil and

place all sixteen of them in and bake at 375 for 20-25

minutes, or until you separate one and see that it 

is no longer doughy.

The cheesy gooeyness just oozes out!

Serve with a side of marinara sauce.

My friend Rachel first made these

for me and gave me the instruction.

Stuffed Mozzarella Pesto Balls Recipe

1 can Pillsbury Biscuits (8)

1 lb. block mozzarella cheese, cut into 3/4 inch cubes

1-2 C. prepared pesto

Open can of biscuits, and cut each in half.  Flatten

and place a cube of cheese in the center.  

Wrap the dough around the cheese, sealing

the edges.  Spray a 9 inch round pan and

place balls in pan.  They should all fit.

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until

lightly browned and cheese is melted.

Check to make sure the dough is baked

through by separating two balls.

Serve immediately while cheese is warm and

oozing.

For Halloween - just give them a fun label, like

Eye of Newt or Oozing Wart Balls

it is all in the name!  

Picmonkey is a free program that has fun 

labels that you can create.  Make your

Halloween special with fun labels.

Pesto, Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza

It was a really busy week last week

with two pizza parties, a birthday dinner,

my daughter in law competing in the

regional yoga competition (and taking

first place so now she is going to 

the National Competition), 

a family sleepover at the cabin

with ski lessons for the little ones

and one 

more dinner party!  Whew!!!

Did I make it through last week?!!

We fired up the pizza oven two nights in a row 

and had around 20 to 25 both nights.

Remember the luscious pizza I told you

about from Hotel California in Cabo?

Well, I made a copy of it,

even running to a couple of stores

to find Mexican Crema to finish

it off with

and I think I made a great rendition of it!

When we remodeled our house

about 9 years ago, we put a wood burning

pizza oven in the kitchen and use it often

for entertaining.  

You could make this pizza on a pizza stone

in your own oven.  The trick is to really take the

hour or more to heat up the stone.  In the pizza

oven, the floor is around 650 - 700 degrees and

the roof of the oven is around 1200 degrees so

the pizza cooks in just minutes.

We love to have everyone make their

own pizzas so we started with this one

as an appetizer to let everyone have a taste

and then they created their own signature pizzas.

(The baked pizza was finished off with

a swirl of Mexican Crema.)

Pesto, Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza

Prepared Pizza Dough

1 sweet onion, sliced and caramelized in a frying pan

1 pear, cored, sliced and pan fried in butter until soft

prepared pesto

gorgonzola cheese (I used Boar's Head)

Mexican Crema (or table cream)

Prepare the pizza dough at least 2 hours ahead.

Let rise, then punch down and shape into

individual balls, cover and let rise again about 30-45

minutes.

Thinly slice and caramelize the onions in a little

oil until tender and evenly caramelized.  Use medium

heat so you don't burn them.

In another frying pan, melt a teaspoon of butter and 

lay the slices of pear in the butter.  Let them cook

for a few minutes until light golden and turn and 

cook the other side.

Shape the ball of dough into a round by

stretching.  Place it onto a well floured pizza peel.

Top it with prepared pesto.  Then lay the cooked

pears around the center forming a circle.  Top

with a circle of gorgonzola cheese and a final

ring of caramelized onion.

Bake on a hot pizza stone (following manufacturer's

directions) until bubbly and brown and crisp on

the bottom.  Remove from heat and top with a swirl

of Mexican Crema (or table cream).

Slice and Enjoy!

Click here for printable recipe.

The mix of the savory pesto, onions and gorgonzola

against the sweetness of the cooked pears and

the creaminess of the Crema really make this

a fabulous pizza.

Pesto Twist Breadsticks

You can always tell it is fall at

Purple Chocolat Home

because we start baking again,

especially bread.

These are a variation of our

favorite breadsticks that my

daughter brought home from her

junior high cooking class.

You know they are EASY

when they are teaching them 

at the junior high.

The biggest mistake that people make when making 

bread is making the dough too stiff.  This is a moist

dough so you might be tempted to add more flour,

but don't!  Wait until it has risen and it will be much

less sticky. 

 Look at those beautiful air bubbles in this

wonderful dough.

Roll the dough out into a rectangle and then spread

your homemade or ready made pesto on the top

and cut into strips with a pizza cutter.

We have so much fresh basil this time of

year it is fun to make homemade pesto.

The strips are then dipped in melted butter that you have

poured into the bottom of your baking pan.  

Fold the breadstick in half with the pesto coated side together.

Twist a few times and place on the buttered pan.

Or as I found after a few and after I took this picture,

it was easier to fold in half and then dip.  When I

am dipping both sides in butter I have to do it

as pictured above but since the one side is already

full of goodness, it was easier to fold first and then

dip.

These rise so quickly and are getting ready to pop in the oven.

Top with parmesan cheese and bake.

Ooh Wee - I like fresh bread almost as much as 

chocolate!

Pesto Twist Breadsticks

1 T. yeast

2 T. sugar

1 1/2 C. warm water

1 tsp. salt

3 1/2 C. flour

1/2 C. pesto

1/2 C. butter, melted

1/2 C. parmesan cheese

In your large mixing bowl mix the yeast, sugar and water and let

sit for a few minutes to foam.  Add salt and flour and using your

dough hook knead for 5 minutes.  The dough might not pull

completely away from the bowl, but don't worry, you want this soft.

Remove the dough hook and spray the dough with Pam.  Cover

the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise about one hour.

Flour your counter and turn dough out onto the floured surface.

Knead a few times incorporating a little flour if needed.

Roll the dough out into about an 15 x 10 inch rectangle.

Spread the pesto on the dough.

Cut the dough into about 12 strips.

Place the butter in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.

Fold the breadstick in half with the pesto sides facing and

then dip both sides in butter.  Twist several times and

place in bottom of pan.  Move completed breadsticks aside

so that you can continue dipping the remaining breadsticks.

Cover lightly and let raise for about 20-30 minutes.

Sprinkle with grated parmesan.

Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or until golden.

(I needed a large batch this day so I made 1 1/2

the recipe and did it in a 13x18 inch bun pan.)

These were wonderful!

Click here for printable recipe.

There is always something good coming from the

oven this time of year.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting.

(I splurged and bought myself the 

MacKenzie Child's Courtly Check Cannister Set

 so I had to feature it somehow!  - Definitely a splurge - see what a bad

influence some of you bloggers are on me?!!)

Pesto and Pine Nut Muffins

Today's muffin is a savory muffin, combining 

the flavors of pesto, pine nuts and parmesan cheese.

Pesto is stirred into the batter so that it is almost

like pesto swirls.

Pesto and Pine Nut Muffins

2 C. flour

1 T. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

Mix with a whisk in a medium sized bowl.

2 eggs

2/3 C. buttermilk

6 T. vegetable oil or melted butter

1/8 tsp. ground pepper

Mix the eggs and vegetable oil together.  Mix with 

a spoon into the dry ingredients.

4 T. prepared pesto

1/4 C. pine nuts

Stir the pesto and pine nuts into the prepared batter.

3/4 C. grated parmesan cheese

Spoon the batter into 6 jumbo muffin cups or 12 

regular sized muffin cups.  Top with the grated

cheese.  

Bake at 400 degrees 25-27 minutes for the jumbo 

muffins or 20 minutes for the regular muffins.

Your house will smell like an Italian restaurant when

these are baking.  These could be a meal in themselves

along with a green salad.

I hope you are enjoying Muffin Week as much as

we are.  We sure are having fun eating them!