PIZZA POCKETS. The Step By Step guide begins on the following page.

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1 PIZZA POCKETS Serves about a dozen. By Dennis W. Viau; an original recipe. You ve likely heard of Hot Pockets snacks. You can make them yourself with phyllo dough, and they are easy. Wrap pizza ingredients in pastry sheets and bake until golden. Then enjoy. This recipe and video were part of an unpublished course teaching how to work with phyllo. I liked these so much, I wanted to feature them on my web site. Ingredients: 1 package phyllo dough pastry sheets, thawed About ½ cup (120ml) melted butter or clarified butter 48 slices pepperoni About ½ cup pizza sauce (see below) 2 to 3 ounces (60 to 85g) shredded mozzarella cheese Optional: Oregano for seasoning Directions: If you don t have pizza sauce (which is a little thick), you can make your own by simmering regular spaghetti sauce in an open skillet, stirring it often, over medium heat until it thickens almost to a paste. Adding a good pinch of dried oregano to the sauce before cooking will give the sauce more of a pizza flavor. Working with phyllo dough pastry sheets can be a little challenging because if the pastry dries out it becomes too brittle to work with. I slightly dampen a cloth and cover the stack of extra sheets while I m working, taking out one sheet at a time and keeping the others covered. It will help keep the pastry soft and pliable. Be careful not to wet the cloth too much, however, because water can cause the sheets to stick together. Arrange a phyllo dough sheet on the counter and brush lightly with melted butter. Arrange a second sheet on top and brush again. Finally, add a third sheet, but do not brush. Toward one end, in the center (see photos that follow) arrange four pieces of pepperoni, leaving a border uncovered along one end. Spread the pepperoni with a little pizza sauce and then arrange some mozzarella cheese on top. Optionally, you can garnish the cheese with a sprinkle of oregano flakes. You can add additional pizza toppings, but keep the amount small because the filling needs to be wrapped in the phyllo. Fold the pastry sheet, at the filling end, covering most of the filling. Brush along the long center with melted butter and fold over one long side, covering the center. Brush again and fold over the other side. You will be folding the sheets in long thirds. Brush the pastry again and then, starting at the filled end, roll the dough up to enclose the filling in a square flat packet. Heat the oven to 425 F (218 C). Arrange the packets, or Pizza Pockets, on a baking sheet. Bake about 10 minutes until lightly brown. Let cool a little and eat warm. 1 The Step By Step guide begins on the following page

2 1 STEP-BY-STEP 2 Phyllo dough pastry sheets are sold frozen in the local grocery store near where I live. I let them thaw in the refrigerator a couple days. This brand comes with two envelopes, which I find useful if I only need part of the package. 2 You can buy pizza sauce in many stores, but I usually prepare my own from jarred spaghetti sauce. I put the sauce in a skillet, add a pinch of dried oregano flakes, and then simmer the sauce to reduce it to a thicker consistency. The texture I look for is about halfway between spaghetti sauce and canned tomato paste.

3 3 3 Phyllo dough pastry sheets, as many of you know, are very thin and fragile. I therefore handle them carefully. I lay one sheet on a surface and brush it lightly with melted butter (or melted clarified butter). 4 Then I arrange a second sheet on top, brush that with butter, and finally place a third sheet on top, which I do not brush butter. It doesn t matter how neat they look; they re going to be folded up anyway. This is the basis for my pastry shell for the Pizza Pockets.

4 5 4 Toward one end, leaving a border uncovered, arrange four slices of pepperoni in the center of the sheet. Dab a little pizza sauce on top. A little goes a long way; you don t need much sauce. 6 Arrange some shredded mozzarella cheese on top of the pepperoni and sauce. You can season this with a dash of dried oregano flakes if you like.

5 7 5 Start rolling up the pizza pocket by first folding over the end to cover the filling. Then brush melted butter down the center along the full length of the pastry dough. Fold over one long side (think of folding the sheet in thirds the long way) and brush again with butter. 8 Fold the other long side over and then brush the top with melted butter. Now roll up the pastry from one end, wrapping the filling in a flat packet.

6 9 6 Here is one of my pizza pockets. Again, they don t need to be perfect in appearance, but you can make them as neat as you like. 10 Arrange the packets on a baking sheet. Meanwhile, be heating your oven to 425 F (218 C).

7 11 7 Bake the Pizza Pockets until golden brown on the outside, about 10 minutes. Let cool a little and serve warm. Conclusion These easy-to-make Pizza Pockets are fun to create and delicious to eat. They would make excellent finger food to munch on while watching sports on TV, nibbling while reading a book, or as a treat for your children and their friends when they come home from school or after soccer practice. They are so convenient, they are suitable for many occasions. They can be made in advance and kept refrigerated until ready to bake.