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By Christie Vanover | Published March 3, 2012 | Last Updated December 28, 2022

I had a fun time with this recipe. I wanted to re-create these amazing pizza rolls that I used to order in Manhattan, Kansas, at a place called Gumby’s pizza. I ordered a basketful and dipped them in ranch dressing. That and a tall beer and you could call it a night.

My goal though was to make a quick and easy recipe. I know these don’t carry the same traditions as West Virginia Pepperoni Rolls that were introduced to America by immigrant coalminers, but they are a great solution for a super easy snack or appetizer.

I experimented a lot with this recipe. The first challenge was cooking it at the right temperature so the cheese didn’t ooze out of the knot before the dough was cooked. The second challenge was choosing the right dough.

At first, I used homemade pizza dough, but that takes a couple hours to proof. My next tests were with refrigerated and frozen dough. I baked pepperoni knots with canned breadstick dough, crescent dough, pizza dough and refrigerated piecrust and frozen puff pastry sheets. I brought all the samples to work, and the Pillsbury refrigerated garlic breadstick dough won hand’s down.

This is a super simple recipe. Just un-pop the can, unroll the dough, cut the strips in half, add a pepperoni-cheese sandwich, knot it up, season and bake. I’ll definitely be making these again. Enjoy.

Pepperoni Knots

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Servings 16 pepperoni knots

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Ingredients

1 can refrigerated garlic breadsticks
16 one-inch slices mozzarella cheese
32 slices pepperoni
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. kosher salt

Instructions

Unroll each breadstick and cut them in half.
Roll each piece into a log about 6-8 inches long. Sandwich a slice of cheese between two slices of pepperoni. Set the pepperoni and cheese on the center of the rolled dough.
Grab both ends of the dough and tuck one end under the other end, creating half a knot.
Place each knot on a greased or silpat-lined baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine the Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese and salt. Sprinkle some seasoning over the knots. Bake in a pre-heated 450-degree oven for 8 minutes.
Serve immediately or refrigerate and reheat in the microwave for one minute.