Homemade Hot Pockets—bread pockets with a filling of marinara sauce, cheese and pepperonis. They can be frozen for an easy lunch or snack. Use the yogurt function on your Instant Pot to quickly raise the bread dough.
Homemade Hot Pockets
Instant Pot Homemade Hot Pockets are 1000 times better than regular hot pockets. They are fun to make too! Freeze the leftovers and pop into the microwave for a quick snack or lunch. These remind me of calzones a bit.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel where I share Instant Pot stuff with you weekly. This week I share a step by step recipe of how to make homemade hot pockets with pizza filling.
I got the idea for hot pockets from the runzas I made a couple of weeks ago. The bread dough used in the runzas was so easy to make and so tasty. I thought it would be fun to try different fillings inside the dough. This time around we tried a pizza/lasagna filling and it turned out delicious. Ideally I would freeze the leftovers to have a quick lunch at-the-ready for kids during the summer. Unfortunately, they are already all gone. Next time doubling the recipe might be in order.
Some Homemade Hot Pockets Tips
- The dough is FAST and easy. There is just a bit of mixing that occurs and no real kneading. Plus the dough only needs to raise one time. With the help of your Instant Pot yogurt function you can raise the dough in less than 30 minutes. If you don’t have the yogurt button the dough will raise in about an hour.
- Stuff the dough with enough but not too much filling. You want a good filling to bread ratio but not so much that the dough bursts open. I weighed my dough into 3.75 ounce portions so that they were all equal and then I used almost a ½ cup of filling.
- The filling can be made to your liking. I used a jar of spaghetti sauce, chopped pepperoni, sausage, bacon, mozzarella, parmesan and ricotta. But you can mix and match what you like and what you have in your fridge. Some other choices would be sliced olives, peppers, mushrooms, ham, pineapple, etc. Think of all the pizza toppings that you like! Next time I’m going to try a chicken alfredo version of a pizza pocket.
More Instant Pot Recipes You’ll Love…
Homemade Hot Pockets
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 12 pizza pockets 1x
Description
Dough bread pockets with a filling of marinara sauce, cheese and pepperonis. They can be frozen for an easy lunch or snack. Use the yogurt function on your Instant Pot to quickly raise the bread dough.
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 4 1/2 tsp instant yeast (also called quick rise yeast)
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 eggs, slightly beaten
For the filling:
- 1 (24 oz) jar marinara sauce/spaghetti sauce
- 1/2 cup chopped pepperoni
- 1 cup grated mozzarella
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- Optional: 1/2 pound ground Italian sausage, browned and drained
- Optional: 1/2 cup crumbled bacon
- Optional: 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (or in a large mixing bowl) add 1 ½ cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Set aside.
- In the microwave or on the stove heat the milk, water and butter to 120°-130° F (this isn’t that hot, I use a digital thermometer*)
- Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Stir a few strokes. Then add in the eggs. Mix on low speed adding in 1 cup of flour at a time until it starts to clear the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic (just a minute or two).
- Place dough in a greased bowl and let raise for 1 hour OR place in greased Instant Pot liner and set Instant Pot to yogurt function LESS (use adjust button to get it to less, it should say 24 hours) and let it raise for 25-30 minutes. Dough will double in size.
- While dough is raising prepare the filling. Add spaghetti sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella, parmesan, sausage, bacon and ricotta to a bowl and stir.
- Punch the dough down. Then divide it into 12 equal portions (mine was 3.75 ounces each). Work with one portion of dough at a time. With a rolling pin, roll a portion of dough into 6 inch x 8 inch rectangle/oblong shape. Scoop a heaping ½ cup of filling into the middle of the dough. Bring two sides of dough up to each other and pinch to close, pinch the ends to close as well.
- Place each filled dough (seam side down) onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (you might need 2 pans to fit all of them). Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes and then serve.
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Could gluten-free flour be used instead?
I’ve never tried that. I worry about it honestly. I don’t have enough experience with bread making and gluten free flour to give you a good answer.
Has anyone tried store bought frozen bread dough for these hot pockets? To save time you could thaw dough in fridge overnight and set out to rise on counter. I will give this a try because the recipe sound great.
Let us know how it goes!
Hi Karen
I love your how to do video’s .. This time while watching I noticed that when you dumped the salt on your YEAST!!! That’s a BIG NO, NO…………..My experience when working with dough you KILL the YEAST…
oops! Well it turned out in the end. I wonder if it’s because I used the instant yeast
What is the mixer you are using? I enjoy using your recipes and videos.
Hi Marie, it’s an old bosch mixer from the 90s.
First off, I want to thank you for the wonderful recipes you have been sharing! Every week I am trying one if not more. Each one has been enjoyed by my family.
I usually make dough in my bread machine, have you tried your recipe in one as I was wondering if you would make any changes
Hi Ann, I don’t have a bread machine so I haven’t tried this recipe that way. I’m definitely not a bread expert so can’t say if it would work or not 🙈
I made the dough in my bread machine because my Instant pot doesn’t have the yogurt function. It turned out great. I just added the dry ingredients and yeast first, the the wet ingredients and then set it on the “Dough” function so that it would just mix and rise the dough. Then I removed it, added the filling and baked them. My family loved it!! Karen’s recipes are wonderful! I’m always sharing her website with people.
★★★★★
Thank you for sharing! Glad to know this.
do you freeze them after they are cooked and just reheat or do they get soggy?
I cook them all the same day. Then wrap the leftovers in foil and freeze. Reheat in the microwave for 1 minute (not the same texture) or in the oven bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until warmed through.
This recipe was amazing and delicious!!
★★★★★
Thanks Greg! Glad you liked it 💗