Mini Deep Dish Pizzas

After my holiday travel-induced cooking hiatus, I am finally back in my kitchen!  These pizzas are easy to make and really fun to eat ... perfect for a weeknight meal.  I don't really use exact measures when I make these, so feel free to use however much sauce, cheese, toppings, and seasoning as you want ... there's really no wrong way to do the filling; it's based on whatever you like.


Ingredients


Nonstick cooking spray
1 Roll refrigerated pre-made pizza dough (Pillsbury or similar)
Marinara sauce (since this is something I make when I'm a little strapped for time, I just use sauce from a jar ... this is also a great way to use up leftover sauce)
Shredded mozzarella cheese
Pepperonis, or whatever your favorite pizza topping is
Garlic salt
Garlic pepper
Dried oregano
Dried basil

Directions


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Spray six-cup muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray.

Unroll pizza dough.  Use a wide-mouth cup (something with a diameter a couple inches longer than that of the muffin cups) to press circles in the dough.  Use a paring knife to trace through the circles and cut out the dough.  If you can't get six circles out of the original sheet of dough, feel free to knead the scraps back into a ball and then flatten it out again.  For this, I like to start with a rolling pin, and then hand-toss it to get the dough nice and thin.  Once you have your six circles, press them down into the muffin tin cups, like you're making a pie crust.  The dough might shrink down into the tin a little bit; this is okay.

Spoon a little bit of marinara sauce into the bottom of each cup.  Sprinkle in a little mozzarella, and then add your pepperoni or other pizza toppings.  Add another spoonful of sauce, and sprinkle in seasonings.  Top with cheese so each cup is filled to the top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.  Let cool for five minutes, and use a fork to pop mini pizzas out of muffin tin.