Pepperoni Pizza Muffins #MuffinMonday

Just like a slice of pizza but in muffin form, these pepperoni pizza muffins are great for breakfast, brunch, lunch or snacking. 

Growing up, we didn’t have the ready option of take-out or pizza delivery or at least if we did, my mom didn’t take advantage of such a thing. If we wanted pizza, it meant going to a pizza parlor or baking it at home. 

Mom would use the Chef Boyardee pizza kit which included everything you needed, even a can of grated cheese to make a big rectangular pizza. Good memories, good times. 

Nowadays, whenever we make our fancy sourdough crust pizza at home, I think about how much I enjoyed that box kit pizza – special treat! - and how far we’ve come with options online and in the neighborhood to buy pizza. Despite those, homemade pizza is still the best! 

If you don’t have time for yeast dough though, these pepperoni pizza muffins will fill in beautifully.

Pepperoni Pizza Muffins

If you can’t find the julienne-cut sun-dried tomatoes, substitute the whole ones and slice them up! I found mine in the back of the pantry where they’d been languishing for a while. They darkened but still tasted good, so waste not want not but next time, once opened, I think I’ll pop them in the freezer to keep the color looking bright. 

Ingredients

1/2 oz or 14g sun-dried tomatoes, julienne cut

1 1/2 cups or 190g flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings

3/4 cup or 180ml milk

1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil

1 egg

2/3 cup or 156ml pizza sauce, divide into 2, half for muffin batter and balance for topping

3 1/2 oz or 100g mozzarella, plus extra for topping, if desired

1 3/4 oz or 50g pepperoni, plus extra for topping, if desired

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and generously grease your muffin tin or use paper liners.

Pour hot water over the sun-dried tomatoes to rehydrate them. Leave for 10 minutes, then drain well.

 

Cut your pepperoni into pieces and grate your cheese.  

In a large bowl, mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, crushed red pepper and dried oregano.

Add the cut pepperoni to the flour mixture and use your hands to toss and coat so you can separate the pieces of pepperoni. 

Do the same with the grated cheese and then the drained sun-dried tomatoes. 

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and oil together.

Add your wet ingredients to your dry and mix just until it is just combined.

Gently fold in half of the pizza sauce. 

Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin tin.

Divide the remaining pizza sauce between the muffin cups.  

Top with one pepperoni each, then some cheese and a pinch of Italian seasonings. 

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

 

Allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then remove from the muffin pan and cool on a rack. 

Enjoy!

It’s the last Monday of the month so that means it’s time for my Muffin Monday friends to share muffin recipes! Check out the links below.

• Chocolate Zucchini Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Gingered Lemon Poppyseed Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mango Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Passion Fruit Poppy Seed Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Pepperoni Pizza Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Sourdough Mango Pineapple Muffins from Zesty South Indian Kitchen

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page. 

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