One of my favourite parts of Christmas vacation is having the time to spend on trying out new food ideas and recipes. And yesterday what I had on my mind was baked pizza rolls. To be more specific I had pizzaroni on my mind, those deep-fried little pizza nuggets in the freezer section that are both terrible for you and delicious. We joke about them every time we see them because I LOVE THEM SO MUCH but haven’t had them in many years because they are such fat and sodium bombs.

But I felt certain I could make a version that was just as tasty, but without the deep frying. Because let’s be real, even if I wanted to deep fry I wouldn’t. Because I don’t own a deep fryer or air fryer and I’m too much of a disaster to be deep frying in a pan on the stove. 

So off to the store I went to pick up supplies to make my dreams come true, and come true they did.

Baked Pizza Rolls

What’s nice about making your own is you get to customize the toppings and make them exactly the way you want!

For this trial run, I went with a simple mozzarella and pepperoni combo.

 

Yield: 4

Baked Pizza Rolls

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Baked Pizza Rolls pack a delicious punch with the ease of a baked appetizer.

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 27 seconds

Additional Time 5 minutes

Total Time 35 minutes 27 seconds

Ingredients

• 1 package egg roll wrappers
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese divided
• pizza toppings of your choice, chopped small
• approx 1 cup pizza sauce
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1-2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1Tbsp dried parsley
• 1 egg

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 and line cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In a shallow bowl mix panko, dried parsley and 1/4 cup parmesan together and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl toss together mozzarella, the other 1/4 cup of parmesan, pizza toppings and fresh parsley just until combined.
4. Sit egg roll wrappers on cookies sheets in a single layer.
5. Break the egg into a small bowl and scramble with a fork adding a little water if desired to make an egg wash.
6. Use a brush or your finger to brush 3 sides of the egg roll with egg wash.
7. Place a small Tbsp of pizza sauce on the eggroll wrapper, nearer the edge without the eggwash. Then place 1 Tbsp of toppings on the sauce.
8. Fold in the edges as seen in the diagram below, then roll the wrapper towards the last edge with eggwash. Once rolled, pick up and tuck any edges into the sides.
9. Repeat for all egg wrappers.
10. Using a brush, lightly brush egg wash on the outside of a filled eggroll, then roll in the panko mixture. SIt back on cookie sheet.
11. Once all rolls have been rolled in the panko mixture bake for 15 minutes, turning halfway until golden.
12. Allow cooling for at least 5 minutes as the insides will be really hot!

Notes

I also made a simple marinara by taking plain tomato sauce, adding some Italian seasoning and grated parmesan to use for dipping.

Donair sauce would also be delicious!

I had my doubts about how good these were going to be, but after just one bite I knew I’d surpassed my own expectations, and that doesn’t happen all that often! This is a recipe I’m going to come back to the next time I need to bring something to a party that’s for sure!

Because I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, I didn’t take photos of my rolling technique by the end I had it down to a system that worked pretty well so I’ve drawn you a couple of diagrams. I’m sure there are a million other (and better) ways to roll these but this way worked well for me.

How to roll

This is a terrible diagram showing that I basically just folded the sides in and rolled them up, then tucked any part of the wrapper that was sticking out in the sides. The first few I tried rolling like and egg roll and that didn’t work great for me but rolling worked wonderfully. Especially once I got on a roll (pun intended)! 

Anyway, however you roll them, these little babies are delicious!

Enjoy!