These homemade pepperoni rolls are a great alternative to normal pizza for pizza night! They’re crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and absolutely delicious! Serve them at your next tailgate, pizza party, or just for dinner for your own family!
The Best Pepperoni Roll Recipe
We’re big pizza people around here, I mean pizza loaf is my all-time favorite meal so that should say something. One of our favorite local restaurants serves delicious pepperoni rolls, so I knew I wanted to try to make them at home!
They are so good. Homemade pizza dough gets topped with tons of pepperoni and cheese then wrapped up tightly and baked into delicious cheesy pizza rolls.
The pizza dough stays soft, the cheese gets super gooey, and the flavor is just amazing. They make the perfect pizza party snack, Super Bowl party food, or even just dinner for your own family!
Why You’ll Love These Pepperoni Rolls
- Quick and easy – while we used homemade pizza dough, you can totally make these with store-bought pizza dough too. And it’s literally just rolling out the rolls, topping, and baking!
- Soft and gooey – imagine the gooey dough of cinnamon rolls but with pizza topping, that’s what you get here!
- Warm up great – just like regular pizza, these warm up perfectly so you can always make a batch ahead of time and just warm up at party time!
Ingredients
Ingredient notes
- Pizza sauce – use your favorite pizza sauce, doesn’t matter if it’s homemade or store-bought, but I recommend one that’s smooth (not chunky). You also want to have enough to make the rolls AND to dip them in the sauce.
- Pizza dough – use our homemade pizza dough recipe or store-bought dough (not pre-made crust). Whatever dough you use, make sure it can be rolled out very thin.
- Butter – salted butter is best and since the butter actually adds a bit of flavor, I always recommend Irish grass-fed butter like Kerrygold. It just tastes better.
- Pepperoni – go for the regular size pepperoni rather than the big ones (or mini ones) so that it’s easy to roll them up
- Mozzarella cheese – Finely shredded mozzarella cheese (compared to the larger pieces) is going to be your best bet, again to make it easier to roll up
How to make homemade pepperoni rolls
This pepperoni rolls recipe is actually super simple to make but make sure to read through all the notes for the best results! We’ve made them quite a few times now and if you don’t follow the tips for certain things, they’re still good but not quite as delicious!
1 – Prep the Dough
Start by buttering the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish and preheating the oven to 400.
Roll out your dough into a large rectangle. We’re talking really big so it can make enough pizza rolls to fill your baking dish.
2 – Add Pizza Toppings
Top your dough with a thin layer of sauce. Even if you like sauce a lot, go with a thin layer. You can always dip them in more sauce but if you do too much sauce, the dough won’t bake all the way through (trust me – we tried it).
Cover the sauce with a not so thin layer of pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. Tou really want to fill the entire dough with pepperonis, not like the cheap pizza places that skimp you on pepperoni! I pretty much covered it with one layer of pepperoni but had them close enough that they touched!
Then go crazy with the cheese – you want cheesy pepperoni rolls!
3 – roll up the pizza dough
Roll the topped dough up just like you would cinnamon rolls, rolling as tightly as possible with all the toppings inside. I typically roll portions of it a little bit at a time then move down the roll and roll them in tightly.
Keep going until the entire thing is rolled tightly.
4 – Cut the pepperoni rolls
Cut the rolled up dough into 1-inch rolls using a large knife. You might think a serrated knife would work best here, but it doesn’t – your best bet is actually a large chef’s knife that’s nice and sharp.
Tip!
Cut through the dough slowly with a large sharp chef’s knife to cut through the toppings without destroying your rolls. Also, we love to use floss to cut cinnamon rolls but that hack doesn’t work on these because floss doesn’t cut through the pepperoni roll – stick with the knife for these!
5 – Bake the Pepperoni Rolls
Place the rolls tightly into your 9×13 baking dish, keeping them as close together as possible.
The key is to make sure that the pepperoni rolls are packed in tightly so the rolls get crispy on the outside while staying soft on the inside.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. We’ve also made these in a dutch oven in our brick oven and they’re great that way, but I understand most people don’t have one of those so an oven is great!
6 – Serve with Pizza Sauce
Once the tops are golden brown, double check that the dough is completely cooked, then let these cool for a minute or two. Then carefully remove them from the pan using a spatula to take them out individually.
Place all of the pepperoni rolls on some pizza sauce for dipping (just like these mini calzones) and serve warm! These are also good lukewarm but anything with cheese is always going to be better warm!
You could also just put them out individually with the rest of the pizza sauce and let people pour the pizza sauce on their plates (often what we do with pizza loaf). As long as people have the pepperoni rolls and pizza sauce – they’ll be great!
Tips and Storage Info
Store any leftover pepperoni rolls in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.
Reheat any leftover pepperoni rolls by placing them on a pizza pan or in a baking dish and place in a cold oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and allow the pepperoni rolls to warm up with the oven – this is the best way to get them back to the original ooey gooey pepperoni rolls!
Toss your pizza dough (like they do in restaurants) before you roll it out to help get more stretch out of it. It’ll also help you get the dough to roll out super thin.
Make sure to roll the dough as tight as possible. It’s all of those tight rolls inside that makes these so good!
Warm up your sauce for dipping on the stove on low while the rolls are cooking.
Recipe FAQs
Do pepperoni rolls need to be refrigerated?
Yes! Refrigerate in an airtight container to enjoy for up to five days.
Can pepperoni rolls be frozen?
Yes, they can be frozen. Freeze in an airtight container and allow to thaw in the refrigerator overnight before reheating. Then use the instructions above for reheating in the oven for the best results!
More Pizza Recipes
If you’re as big of a fan of pizza recipes as we are, try one of these delicious pizza party food ideas next!
- Pizza Twists – instead of rolling up dough, you’re going to twist it in these delicious pepperoni twists!
- Pizza roll ups – these quick and easy pepperoni and cheese snacks make a great dinner or appetizer!
- Mini pizzas – these fun individual sized snacks are perfect for kids and parties!
- English muffin pizzas – another individual sized pizza that’s perfect for a quick dinner or pizza party!
- Biscuits and gravy pizza – a variation on a breakfast pizza, perfect for brunch!
Homemade Pepperoni Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 TBS salted butter
- 1 pizza dough
- 1 jar pizza sauce divided
- 1 pack pepperoni
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.1 TBS salted butter
- Roll the dough out into a very thin large rectangle.1 pizza dough
- Top dough with a thin layer of pizza sauce. Then add a not so thin layer of pepperoni and shredded mozzarella cheese.1 jar pizza sauce, 1 pack pepperoni, 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
- Roll tightly (like a cinnamon roll) longwise to create one very long thick roll.
- Cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces using a sharp knife.
- Cook for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven or until the tops of the rolls are golden brown.
- Let cool for just a minute or two then serve hot with pizza sauce for dipping.1 jar pizza sauce
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Info
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