Cheesy Pizza Roll Dippers

Whip up a batch of these Cheesy Pizza Roll Dippers quickly and easily with the help of store-bought, frozen pizza dough! Layer the dippers with lots of cheese, a quick and easy homemade pizza sauce, and toppings of your choice! These puff up in the oven and are brown and slightly crispy on the bottom with ooey-gooey cheese bubbling out of the top. Complete with a delicious marinara dip, who could resist?

Oh, pizza, how I adore thee so! Honestly, Dear Reader, I love pizza in almost any shape or form. I like thin crust, thick crust, no crust, and now rolled crust too! The only rule that I have when it comes to pizza is that pineapple does not belong on it – like, at all! But, if you want to stuff pineapple into your Cheesy Pizza Roll Dippers, we can still be friends, but I’m not coming for dinner! Ha!

Truth be told, it’s probably my favourite food. And, as much as I love to eat it, I love to make it too! Sure, there are times when I’m just too tired or lazy and we order pizza from one of our go-to pizza joints. But, for the most part – like 99% of the time – I’m making the pizza myself.

MAKE-AT-HOME PIZZA

A few years ago, before the pandemic and lockdowns started, we ordered pizza every Friday night. After a long week of work and school, it was just what we needed to put the week behind us. Then, back when the lockdowns started at the beginning of the pandemic, we were spending much of our time at our house where pizza joints were not very close. Eventually one opened up, which had great pizza, but it has since closed. Even while it was in business, I still opted to make pizza at home, just because it’s not hard to do and it tasted better!

After a few months, I kept running into the problem of not being able to find our regular can of pizza sauce at grocery stores. We tried others, but I was never happy with them. I made a promise to myself that I would make a batch of pizza sauce as soon as I could get my hands on some summer fresh tomatoes. I was finally able to recreate a pizza sauce worthy of my delicious homemade pizzas. Because good pizza comes down to two things – great sauce and great dough! And my homemade pizza sauce doubles as a marinara-style dipping sauce too!

MY BEST PIZZA CRUST RECIPE

You can use store-bought, frozen pizza crust for this recipe. Or, you can make your own! My pizza dough recipe is going to be your new favourite pizza dough – trust me!  The dough takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.  And, you can load the crust with seasonings like oregano, basil, and even dried red chili flakes for some heat!

To make homemade dough, fill a glass or metal mixing bowl with hot tap water. This will temper the bowl which is important to yeast activation and growth. Measure out 3/4 cup of water that’s 110 degrees F. Pour the water out of the bowl. Place one teaspoon of sugar into the bottom of the bowl and pour over the 3/4 cup of water. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of active dry yeast over the surface of the water and let sit for two minutes.

Next, whisk in 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour and use a wooden spoon to stir the flour into the water and oil until the liquid is absorbed. Use your hand to knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball. Cover with a clean tea towel and set aside to rise for 15 minutes. (Be sure to keep away from drafts or an open window.) Then, it’s ready to roll out and assemble your pizza!

HERE IS WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post. 

FOR THE SAUCE:

• Tomato Sauce – This is most certainly the base for the sauce. Make your own or buy tomato sauce that has just tomatoes listed as the ingredients.
• Tomato Paste – The paste will boost the tomato flavour, but will also make your Homemade Pizza Sauce really thick.
• Olive Oil – This will add flavour and will also help to loosen up the tomato paste.
• Garlic – Fresh garlic will give your pizza sauce so much flavour!
• Seasonings – Every sauce needs a good balance of salt and ground black pepper.
• Onion Flakes – The Italian seasoning will have some onion flavour in it, but not enough. Adding onion flakes will result in a better flavour with some texture too.
• Sugar – This helps to cut down the acidity of the tomatoes and adds just a little hint of sweetness.
• Italian Seasoning – I have a great Italian Seasoning Blend that I use all the time and it has everything you need to make a great-tasting pizza sauce.
• Dried Red Chili Flakes – If you like heat, add in as much as you can handle, otherwise, you can skip this completely. I definitely add it to my sauce!

FOR THE PIZZA:

• Pizza Dough – You can buy two portions of frozen pizza dough and follow the package instructions or make your own dough.
• Pizza Sauce – The ingredients listed above will make enough pizza sauce while leaving enough leftover for the dipping sauce too!
• Cheese – Any cheese will do. I used a mozzarella and cheddar cheese blend.
• Salami & Pepperoni – I used both because I love to combine the two of them on my pizza. You can use regular or extra spicy.
• Parmesan Cheese – This adds saltiness and lots of familiar pizza flavour.
• Nonstick Cooking Spray

HOW TO MAKE CHEESY PIZZA ROLL DIPPERS

MAKING THE SAUCE

Before you can start to assemble the pizza, you will need to prepare the sauce. If you opt to buy sauce in a jar or can from your grocery store, you can skip this step. Please be advised that these Cheesy Pizza Roll Dippers are prepared with sauce, but not very much at all. These pizza rolls are meant to be dipped in a warm homemade marinara or pizza sauce.

So, if you buy the sauce, first, make sure it’s a sauce you are familiar with and really like the taste of. And, secondly, buy enough to prepare the pizza rolls with leftovers for the dip! All in all, you will need about two cups of pizza sauce. You can read all about my homemade pizza sauce here, or you can follow the instructions in the recipe card below.

To make my homemade sauce, add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, olive oil, garlic, salt, ground black pepper, onion flakes, sugar, and Italian seasoning to a saucepan. If you want a spicy sauce, go ahead and add the dried red chili flakes too. Normally, I don’t cook the pizza sauce, but in this case, heating it through means that you will have a warmed dipping sauce once your pizza rolls are ready to eat. Whisk the ingredients together and cook over medium-high heat until the sauce starts to bubble. Remove the sauce from the heat and set aside.

PREPARING THE DOUGH

If you choose to use store-bought, frozen pizza dough, as I have, follow the instructions on the package for thawing and preparing the dough for use. However, if you choose to make homemade pizza dough, you can follow my instructions a few paragraphs above. Either way, you will need two sheet pans, because this recipe makes two long pizza rolls which are then sliced before baking.

Roll the dough, whether it be store-bought or homemade on three-quarter size sheet pans. The measurement for those are 21″ by 15″. Be sure to lightly coat the pans with nonstick cooking spray before rolling out the dough. The dough does not need to be perfectly rectangular, nor does it need to fit the pan exactly, but it should be as close as you can get it without tearing or puncturing the dough.

ASSEMBLING THE PIZZA

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. And, line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside. Next, ensure the dough on the sheet pans is sitting on the counter with the longest side of the pan closest to you. Spread each rolled pizza dough with 1/4 cup of pizza sauce. Cover the entire surface of the dough with the exception of the top one inch. The sauce will be spread very thinly.

Next, sprinkle two cups of shredded cheese over each pizza. At this point, you can add the toppings of your choice, however, do not use chunky toppings as they will make the dough impossible to roll. I’m using only sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. To be quite honest, simple sauce and cheese or cheese and pepperoni are best. Lay the toppings on top of the sauce, but do not place any toppings on the top two inches!

Once you’re happy with the placement of the toppings, you will need to roll the dough. Starting at the bottom, roll the dough tightly starting on one side, tucking gently until you get to the other side. Go back to the previous side again, and roll the same way, working back and forth until you are left with a log.

Slice the log into 3/4 inch slices using a serrated knife. Place the slices, flat side down, onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake for 7-8 minutes or until the dough has puffed up, has browned, and the cheese is melted. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle over one tablespoon of parmesan cheese. Stir the remaining tablespoon of parmesan into the leftover pizza sauce and transfer the sauce to a bowl.

Plate the pizza rolls on a platter and place the bowl of dipping sauce in the middle. Feel free to garnish with fresh basil leaves, more parmesan, and dried red chili flakes, if so desired. Serve immediately!

SERVING SUGGESTIONS

Serve these with a nice salad for a complete meal. I would suggest something like a Caesar Salad, because these Cheesy Pizza Roll Dippers can certainly stand up the strong flavours of a caesar. In addition to the dipping sauce in this recipe, you could also use my favourite pizza dipping sauce, which is my Newfoundland Donair Sauce. It’s not for everyone, but I love it. In fact, I could probably put that sauce on just about anything!

Lastly, since I’m of the belief that pizza should be served with sides, I would suggest two classics that most pizzerias offer as well. Those two classics would be potato wedges and chicken wings. I happen to have recipes for both of those things and you can find those recipes here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen.  In my opinion, pizza pairs so well with wings and wedges.  Take a look at my Chili Ginger Garlic Honey Wings and my Paprika and Parmesan Potato Wedges for a complete meal idea!