Easy Appetizer: Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

I love Rachael Ray - she's fun, and she's got some awesome ideas. It doesn't hurt that she's originally from the 518 - before she was really huge I remember my mom taking me to a small class she was teaching on cheese. :)

Anyway - my husband and I found ourselves getting into a little food rut, so I went on her webpage for inspiration. Among other recipes, I found this yummy-sounding recipe for a pepperoni pizza puff appetizer. When I read it, the back of my mind was saying "I bet this could be another use for the GF Bisquick mix" and besides, everything in the recipe is pretty yummy so it has to be good right?

Well, yesterday we had some people over for a fire and pumpkin carving. I couldn't see this recipe really turning out badly (Yanno, the whole "there's no such thing as bad pizza or bad..." philosophy) and I know my non-gluten free friends (usually) don't mind being guinea pigs, so I tried them out.

They disappeared.

No one could even tell they were gluten free - they were a super yummy finger food!

Here's Rachael's recipe with my modifications:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup GF Bisquick baking mix
• 3/4 teaspoon GF baking powder
• 3/4 cup 2% milk
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 4 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 1 cup) - I used more. I had an open-but-mostly full package of mozzarella cheese that I emptied into the bowl, so I'd say I used something in the ballpark of 1.5 cups. Plus I used a little bit cheddar/mozz mix for sprinkling on top at the end - maybe .5 cup.
  
• 4 ounces pepperoni, cut into small cubes (about 1 cup) - I used about half a cup here but they definitely needed more.
  
• 1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce - I used Ragu doctored with pizza spices.
  
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil - Added to the Ragu
  
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced - I omitted this.
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking powder; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.

2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes. -- I baked them for 18 minutes, then let them out to cool for about 10. Right before people were supposed to get there, I sprinkled the puffs with some cheddar/mozz and put them back in just long enough to heat them up and melt the cheese - 5 minutes, if that.

3. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through, then stir in 1 tablespoon basil. Sprinkle the puffs with the remaining 1 tablespoon basil. Serve the puffs and red pepper slices with the pizza sauce for dipping.
   

I had the puffs on a platter, and you could spoon the hot pizza sauce onto plates for dipping them in. If I had to guess the puffs lasted about 15 minutes. :)

These are on my list to bring over to my GF mother-in-law's next time I see them - bonus, because everyone enjoys them! We had 5-6 people and I think I could have easily doubled the recipe and they still would have disappeared.