Sunday, November 27, 2011

Pizza Bubble, Part Deux; also known as The Florentine Experimentation

So, if you read my post about the Pizza Bubble, you know that I wanted to play around with the recipe some more. We tried what I think I am going to call Chicken Florentine Pull-a-part.  It was seriously yummy.



Basically, I took Happy Home Fairy's concept and changed up most of the ingredients.  I substituted crescent rolls for biscuits, chicken for pepperoni, added in spinach, a few things like that.

I used:
4 cans Pilsbury Crescent Rolls
1 can chicken (I used Hormel's White and Dark Chicken.)
2 cups shredded mozzerella cheese
1 cup fresh spinach, finely chopped
1/2 cup melted butter (I actually used 1/2 cup of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray.)
onion powder (to taste)
garlic powder (to taste)
black pepper (to taste)
Kraft Three Cheese Blend (to taste)



I started by spraying the bundt pan with Pam; over the sink, as always.



Then I opened a can of chicken and drained it really well.



I put the chicken in a bowl and stirred it well, so it wasn't clumpy.  I added the two cups of shredded mozzerella and about half or so of the chopped spinach.  I sprinkled in some garlic power, some onion powder, and a little bit of blackpepper.  Then I mixed it well.
  
Yes, I am using my fancy Country Crock Ware to mix in.

I opened the crescent roll dough, separated each piece, and spread them out.  I took about a tablespoon or so of the chicken mixture and put it on each piece of dough.  Then I wrapped the dough up around the mixture and formed it into a ball.



In a separate bowl, I added the melted butter, the rest of the spinach, some garlic and onion powder, and some of the Three Cheese Blend.  I mixed this well and added in the balls of dough, a few at a time.  I stirred them around until they were well coated, then moved them to the bundt pan.




Then I baked it.  When I took it out of the oven, I put a plate on top of the bundt pan, turned it over, and gave it a few taps.  It came out easily and was beautiful.



There were some complications though.  I cooked it on 350 degrees, for about 1/2 hour, as I had the Pizza Bubble.  It looked done, but was still a bit doughy inside.  It was pretty brown on the outside, so I was concerned about that burning while I cooked it further.  I decided to go ahead and pull it apart and spread it out on a baking sheet.  I lowered the oven to 300 degrees and cooked it about another 20 minutes.  That seemed to do the trick.  I think I should started at 300, although my oven can run a little hot, so 325 might work well for most people.  I would probably plan on cooking for at least 45 minutes or so.



However, I don't know that I liked the crescent rolls particularly more than the biscuits and I think the biscuits would have cooked quicker.  They did when I made it with the pepperoni.

I do think the butter (or in our case "butter") is tastier than the olive oil I used on the Pizza Bubble.  I think I will definitely stick with buttery over olivey in the future.

I also plan to add significantly more spinach next time, especially in the buttery coating.  The amount I used this time seemed to disappear and I was hardly aware that there was spinach there.

I am thinking it might be good to add some onion too.  Maybe a little finely chopped onion to the chicken mixture.  I thought about adding it this time, but was afraid it might make it too moist.  I wonder how dried minced onion might work.

I ate my serving plain, but I think it might be good with any number of dipping sauces, which would be nice if serving it at a party.  Anyway, it hasn't reached perfection yet, but I would give this one an A-.

3 comments:

  1. Mmmm, this is very similar to the chicken roll-ups that I made the other day. Have you tried them yet?

    If you're looking for a dipping sauce, what about a spinach dip? Maybe one that's on the thinner side?

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  2. Hi Kathy, I'm your newest follower. i also have white weathered hutch blog. i came over from there. Thanks for folling and also my etsy shop.
    I'm going to check out some of your recipes, they look awesome.

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  3. Yum! Like a savory monkey bread! My girls would love this! Welcome to blogging and thanks for following me - am following your too.
    Kelly

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