Pizza Cups

With a soft homemade dough that doesn’t require any resting time, these pizza cups cooked in a muffin tin are an easy lunch box recipe that kids love – and are so useful for using up leftovers!

Jump to:

• Why we love this recipe
• Ingredient notes and substitutions
• How to make pizza cups in a muffin tin
• FAQ
• My recipe tips
• Topping Ideas
• Serving Ideas
• Make ahead/storage
• Why not try…
• Muffin Tin Pizza Cups

Why we love this recipe

• It is safe to say my family is pizza-obsessed; from bacon topped German pizza Flammkuchen to Four Seasons pizza. Friday night is pizza night often made using homemade pizza dough and homemade pizza sauce or pesto. So there was definitely going to be some pizza-themed school lunchbox recipes making there way on to here!
• These pizzas are a budget friendly toddler and kids lunch box idea that can be made ahead and frozen.
• Such a versatile recipe – fill the cups with leftover cooked vegetables, ham, or your favourite pizza toppings. You can make them vegetarian or, as the dough is vegan, use a dairy free cheese or leave out altogether to make them vegan.
• Like pizza scrolls and air fryer pizza rolls, these mini pizzas are always a popular recipe to make with kids, and they are a delicious addition to a party or picnic.

Ingredient notes and substitutions

1. Pizza dough:
   1. Plain flour – All Purpose flour.
   2. Yeast – dried yeast / instant yeast.
   3. Olive oil – this adds flavour as well as helps the texture of the dough. You can use vegetable oil if you don’t want to use olive oil.
   4. Salt – brings out the flavour of the pizza dough.
   5. Sugar – white sugar / granulated sugar. This provides food for the yeast and helps it grow.
2. Cheese – I often use tasty cheese or mild cheddar cheese, whatever is cheapest. You can use mozzarella of a sharper cheddar if you prefer.
3. Tomato paste – tomato puree or homemade pizza sauce.
4. Toppings: ham, cooked bacon, pepperoni, or leave vegetarian. For vegetables I often use a little tinned sweetcorn and finely chopped capsicum / bell pepper. Other vegetables you can use are: mushrooms, cherry tomatoes (these are best placed on top of the pizza cups to prevent them from becoming soggy), a little frozen spinach, drained, or cooked broccoli or roast pumpkin.

How to make pizza cups in a muffin tin

For full detailed recipe please scroll down to the recipe card below.

1. Make the pizza dough: mix the yeast with sugar and warm water and leave to one side until frothy. Add the flour, salt and olive oil.
2. Knead for 8-10 minutes by hand, or for 5 minutes if using a stand mixer. Place the dough on a well floured board.

3. Roll out the pizza dough to a thickness of 1 cm / 0.40 inches.
4. Using a cookie cutter, cut out circles. Gather the scraps and roll out again, repeating until you have 12 pizza dough circles.

5. Place one of the rounds of dough in a lightly greased muffin tin hole and repeat with the rest of the dough.
6. Spread a little tomato paste / tomato puree / pizza sauce in the bottom of each pizza cup.

7. Fill each cup with a little chopped capsicum / pepper, sweetcorn and ham, if using.
8. Top with grated cheese, pressing the cheese down into the cups gently to stop if from melting over the edges of the dough and causing the pizza cups to stick in the tin.

9. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden.

FAQ

My recipe tips

• Brush the muffin tin with a little oil before you add the pizza dough, this will help stop the dough from sticking to the tin.
• Push the cheese down into the pizza cups, this will make sure you have lots of filling in them.
• Don’t leave filling ingredients hanging over the edge of the pizza cups, especially the cheese as this can cause them to stick in the tray and be difficult to remove in one piece.

Topping Ideas

• Veggie pizzas: 1-2 tablespoons tinned corn or frozen corn, defrosted, ¼ chopped capsicum / red pepper, finely chopped and 6 cherry tomatoes, halved.
• Pepperoni: slices of mini pepperoni or roughly chop larger slices.
• Chicken: use leftover cooked rotisserie chicken and barbecue sauce instead of tomato sauce, with a little tinned corn an diced onion.
• Ham and pineapple: roughly chop some ham and top the mini pizzas with a chunk of pineapple.

Serving Ideas

• In a lunch box for school or kindy: with some veggie sticks and fruit.
• For a kids lunch: add a spoonful of cheese coleslaw on the side or some air fryer carrot fries.

Make ahead/storage

These mini pizzas will keep in the fridge in an airtight container or covered with cling wrap / cling film for up to 3 days.

Freeze: the pizzas can also be frozen for up to 2 months. Wrap individually and then take out as many as you need at a time and defrost in the fridge overnight.

Why not try…

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