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These homemade, loaded, cheesy pizza pockets are an easy way of getting that junk food fix without sacrificing quality ingredients and a healthier meal.

By Hannah McClure Growing up, I was an extremely picky eater with many favorite foods. Ones that, at that time, seemed to be good food — like brown sugar Pop Tarts, crispy rice cereal, and pizza Hot Pockets. Very little hit my tastebuds right when my parents made dinner.  

Flash forward to my adult years, and I reach for boxed, shelf-stable items only to return them to the shelf and cringe at the list of ingredients. My picky eater days are fewer and fewer each year as I learn to make food I like from scratch (or mostly scratch). Best of all, when we swap out the shelf-stable boxed foods and make our own, we can determine the quality of the ingredients going in.  

These homemade, loaded, cheesy pizza pockets are my way of getting my nostalgic junk food fix without sacrificing quality ingredients and a healthier meal or snack to our kitchen table. This recipe allows you to use your favorite pizza dough. Whether it is a premade dough or one you make ahead of time, you will find these are great crowd-pleasers, though I may be biased.   

Ingredients: 

• Pizza dough 
• 14oz pizza sauce 
• ½ cup mozzarella  
• ½ cup Gouda 
• ½ cup ricotta 
• 1 cup pepperoni  
• 1 cup ground sausage, cooked 

How to: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• On a floured surface, roll pizza dough to about 1/4 inch thick.  
• Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough edges to make an even rectangle shape. Continue to cut dough into 2.5 to 3-inch wide strips. If strips are longer than about 8 inches, you will want to cut each long strip in half.  
• On half (I use the lower half) of each strip, put down pizza sauce (about 1 to 2 teaspoons per strip), a teaspoon ricotta, ½ tablespoon Gouda, ½ tablespoon mozzarella, two pepperoni slices, and ½ tablespoon sausage. 
• Wet the edges of each dough strip with a little water, then fold over to where the top half lays over the lower half. Pinch edges to seal. Using a fork, gently mash all four edges closed.  
• Lay in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Lightly spray with olive oil cooking spray, and bake for 15–20 minutes or till golden brown.  
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.  

***NOTE: These are also easy to make using an air fryer! Place a single layer on a parchment-lined air fryer tray. Set the air fryer to BAKE for 14 minutes. Stop the air fryer to flip each pocket when cook time is half done. This process works great for smaller batches.**** 

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Originally published in the March/April 2023 issue of Goat Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.