My kids love pizza, so I thought it could make a great lunch box item. Unfortunately, regular pizza becomes hard and unpalatable when it has sat in a lunch box all day, that’s when I experimented with these rolls.  They  stay soft  because they are rolled as you would  with a  cinnamon roll. Needless to say they were a big hit. I used strong wholemeal flour but by all means use strong white flour if you prefer.

500 grams / 4 cups wholemeal strong flour

½ teaspoon salt

1 x 7 gram packet / 1 ½ teaspoons yeast

2 teaspoons sugar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

325 millilitres /1 1/3 cups lukewarm water (10 US ounces or 11 Imperial ounces)

 

Toppings

My simple Pizza Sauce recipe – below

Mozzarella Cheese

 

I use my mixer with a dough hook and add all the ingredients together and mix for 5 minutes. If you don’t have a mixer you can also do this by hand:

Mix the flour, salt, sugar and dried yeast together in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the oil and water

Gradually work in the flour to make a soft dough. This can take 10 minutes by hand but about 5min with a dough hook. The dough should have a smooth texture which can be stretched without tearing. Put into a greased bowl and cover with cling film for 30- 60 min until doubled in size.

Remove dough from bowl. Divide into three equal parts. Take one portion of the dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface. Roll dough into a rectangle shape as you would for cinnamon rolls.

Once your dough is rolled, you can begin assembling your pizza rolls starting with the sauce. Spread sauce over the dough leaving the edge of one of the long sides of the rectangle free from sauce so the edge will seal when rolled up. Layer meat, cheese and any other pizza toppings you’d like. I used mozzarella cheese and ham, but use your favourite toppings. Do cut the toppings a little smaller than you normally would as it is less messy whrn you come to cutting the uncooked dough

After all your pizza toppings have been added, begin rolling up the dough starting at the long side of the rectangle where the sauce is all the way to the edge – you want to leave that sauce free edge to be rolled up last. Roll all the way up and then pinch the edges to seal.  I used a large knife to slice off equal sized rolls but believe it or not dental floss works well too!

Place rolls in a greased baking dish. Cover and allow buns to rise for 30 minutes. Bake in the oven at 180°C/350°F for 25 – 30 minutes or until golden brown. They take a little longer than regular pizza as they are rolled up. They freeze well.

 

My simple pizza sauce

1 400grams/14ounces can of chopped tomatoes or 1 jar of smooth passata

½ teaspoon dried basil

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon sugar

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes. Allow to cool before putting on your pizza base. This sauce will keep in the fridge for three days