Lark & Lola

I've tried enough Pinterest-inspired recipes now to know not to take most of them seriously. If it looks too good to be true, then it usually is. I'm sorry, but decent orange chicken just can't be made in a Crock-Pot. So I didn't really pay much attention to the Pizza Monkey Bread thing...until Cook's Country featured it on the cover of their most recent magazine. Then I was willing to try it!

So if you're rooting for the Broncos for the Superbowl this year, I suggest you make this delicious snack! If you're rooting for the Seahawks...Pinterest has some great orange chicken Crock-Pot recipes.

The best thing about this recipe is all easy ingredients. 3T EVOO, string cheese, 5 ounces pepperoni, 1/2 teaspoon oregano, and 3/4 cup parmesan cheese. OH, and two pizza dough balls (1 lbs each). Store bought, from the deli. Believe it or not, that's what America's Test Kitchen said worked the best. Those people could tell me to put jelly in my sauerkraut and heck, I'd do it.

{Too bad my deli was sold out of regular dough balls so I had to use whole wheat. But I think regular would work best for this recipe. Unless you're a health nut, in which case you'd probably never make a recipe like this anyway.}

First, I rolled those dough balls out just slightly into rectangle shapes.
{Why is pizza dough so annoyingly elastic? Fortunately, this works to my favor later on. But still, irritating.}

I covered those doughs and left them to rest for about 20 minutes.

While the dough is resting, I took my 5 ounces of pepperoni and placed it in a microwave safe bowl {Pyrex, of course}, and put it in the microwave it for about 75 seconds, until fat rendered.

Save that pepperoni grease! One thing America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country has taught me is that flavor can be found in great places, like pepperoni grease and fond. I mixed in the olive oil with the pepperoni grease.

And about 2 tablespoons of that oil mix went into the Bundt pan.

Next I mixed my parmesan with the oregano.

Then I took my dough out, one at a time, and went to work stretching it out.

I formed it into a large rectangle, about 9" x 18".

Here is the fun part...

Layering half the pepperoni on one side, topped with mozzarella string cheese, and finally half of the parmesan/oregano mix. {The other half is for the second dough ball.}

Then I pinched all the edges to seal off my pizza log. Then I cut it in half.

Pinched those ends shut...

..cut those two in half and pinched them off...

Then cut each of those four logs into thirds and pinched all those shut to create little pizza balls. This is where the elasticity of the dough comes in handy!

Closing all the pepperoni and cheese goodness inside the stretch dough, I worked each section into a nice ball.

One-by-one, I layered the pizza balls into the Bundt pan, using the remaining pepperoni/EVOO mixture to coat the layers as I worked.

I repeated this process with the second store-bought dough ball. Then, I covered the Bundt pan and let it rest for about 30 minutes, during that time the dough puffed up just a bit more. I had to re-seal a few balls at the top, but that's okay.

Finally, it was time to throw it in the oven at 400° degrees for about 40 minutes.

Ta-da! After allowing the pizza monkey bread to cool for about 15 minutes, I inverted it onto a plate.

Of course, you need sauce right? So as not to get all soggy and messy, rather than baking the pizza monkey bread with sauce inside, you use the sauce as a dip when ready to serve. Cook's Country has their own simple tomato sauce recipe along with their pizza monkey bread, but I have a marinara sauce that I already really like so I used my own.

The warm dough and cheesy pizza filling are yummy and easy to eat!

So there you go! Happy Superbowl Sunday and GO BRONCOS!

Adapted from Cook's Country Magazine.