DIY Hot Pockets
By Jenn | January 21, 2010
As I’m constantly searching for ways to make it realistic for me to cook more meals at home, and bring more meals for my lunch at work, I LOLd when I read about homemade DIY hotpockets! But of course! This is a foodstuff I’d not yet considered…
I lived on Hotpockets when I was in Junior High, eating one every day upon my return home from school. Along with a bag of buttery microwave popcorn. Good times! Back then I loved the melty cheese-like substance and the rectangles of pink ham packed into each pocket. Now, my eating habits and food choices have changed somewhat, and I can’t even imagine eating one of those things… but the idea of a hot pocket is still absolutely fabulous– a little handheld envelope of crust sweetly protecting a filling of food. Basically it’s like a calzone, or a Cornish Pasty (which I lived on throughout my semester in England during college…hmm, I sense a trend here…). Portable! Freezable! Easy to have a bunch in your freezer for those moments when you need food, stat!
So why not make my own? The recipe linked to above is mostly a guide for making the whole-wheat dough, which is good as I’ve never actually made dough. From there I can get creative, filling the things with any kind of veggies I want, and maybe adding in the vegan sausage they suggest or maybe not. Savory pockets! Sweet pockets! Dessert pockets! (maybe not!) And if I double the recipe I’d then have a whole lot of these things in the freezer, which = a whole lot of quick and healthy meals.
I’m thinking that it’s probaly best to slightly underbake them, if my final intention is to then freeze them for later reheating/eating. Anyone have thoughts on that?
Have you ever made homemade hot pockets, aka Calzones, aka Dreampockets? What’s the most luscious food combo you can think to put inside your dream pocket?
[Image by TVOL via Creative Commons]
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Topics: Food |
I found a new restaurant that specializes in “hand-held pies” today. Because our schedule during the thick of the swim season makes it impossible to eat together, I bought 8 for my three boys and husband and a salad for me so we could all have something to grab. $35.00 later, I was thinking about making my own gluten free versions (so I can eat them, too!) and putting them in the freezer! What a timely - and great - post! Thank you!!!
I have to admit - I was really impressed with the 100% compostable Sugar Cane Fiber packaging for my salad today! I haven’t seen it before this and I love that fact that it’s available!
Hah! I so totally did- I got the Flying Apron (a gluten free, vegan place in Seattle) recipe book for Christmas. I made Indian curry pockets for food this week- carrots, peas, onion, garbanzo beans, sweet potato, spices and coconut milk. Mmmm. The recipe made a TON, too, I’ve got 9 very filling pockets and ended up making rice to go with the leftover veg.
Your comment made me think of another option which, in addition to freezing the hotpockets, you can always make extra filling and freeze it to serve with quinoa, pasta or your grain of choice or to simply eat as an open sandwich (in case you get sick of hot pockets.)
Wait, what? Sick of hot pockets? This is possible?
:)
We don’t make the pastry like pockets you have here but a standard at home is perogies. Which can have pretty much anything inside but usually it is a mix of mashed potato, onion and cheese. They freeze wonterfully and you can microwave them or fry them up (with onions) pretty quick. The usual serving is with sour cream and optional bacon bits. I can look around for the easy recipe we have been using at the moment.
Thanks for the reminder on the pastry ones though, we will have to think about making a few of these.
I have made stromboli’s which are like extra large “hot pockets”. I made it w/ store bought dough and it was disgusting. Then i made my own healthy pizza dough (which was surprisingly easy with a stand mixer and the dough attachment) and the Stromboli was amazing. I am sure it can be made into smaller portions and frozen. It was important to make slits on the top while it baked so the steam could escape. I stuffed in layers of ham, provolone, salami, mozzerella, roasted red peppers, & pepperocinis.
Great idea! It probably depends how you want to reheat them. If you’re planning to use an oven to reheat, under-cooking seems like a good idea (my frozen chimis came out slightly burnt when I reheated them recently). But for tossing in the microwave it shouldn’t be necessary.
The slightly under cooked deal works with bread stuff as well, like cinnamon buns and just plan buns. My mom always did them in those tin foil pie plates, cook them almost done, then cool and freeze. So in the morning you just grab a plate and toss it in the oven and fresh buns/cinnamon buns. Yummy!!
Just reminds me of all the nice and yummy things you can do when you actually have a big freezer.
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