Gluten Free Hot Pocket Arepas {Pizza Flavour}

Delicious, easy, no bake, gluten free hot pocket arepas made with pre-cooked white cornmeal and a basic pizza style filling.

This morning started much like any other mornings; with my boyfriend and I unable to agree on what to eat for breakfast… I wanted pizza muffins and he wanted pizza pockets.

I mean why did he want pizza pockets in the first place? Who knows. They’re not really a big thing over here in the UK (at least not as much as I remember them being back home in Canada). I’ve literally never seen him eat one. Not even before being gluten free. That’s nearly 14 years of pizza pocket free living so quite a random craving!

Neither of us were willing to spend time baking, let alone come up with a decent gluten free recipe, but it got me thinking “hey, we could easily make an arepa version!”.

As I’ve talked about many times before (like here and here), arepas are so quick to make, the dough is easy to handle and there’s no baking needed (although you can bake them if you prefer that to pan frying – but brush a bit of oil over them first if you do). That and they’re delicious so it’s a win-win situation.

Unsurpisingly, the result was amazing. I mean how can the combination of arepas, pizza and hot pockets ever go wrong?

What you’ll need for this recipe is pre-cooked white cornmeal (I use PAN, as shown in the picture below). You don’t have to use this brand, but it’s by far my favourite and it’s certified gluten free. It can be surprisingly hard to find (here in the UK) depending on where you live. Some mainstream supermarkets sometimes stock it, but more often than not it’s easier to find in independent supermarkets/shops (particularly those that stock South American/Mexican products). Otherwise you can buy it online.

Ingredients

For the dough:

1 cup / 140g pre-cooked white cornmeal (I use P.A.N. which is certified gluten free)
1 cup / 235ml water
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
Cooking oil of your choice
1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)
1/2 to 1 tsp sugar (optional)

For the filling:

Pepperoni (or anything along those lines – I used Morrisons german salami slices)
Pizza sauce (I make a really quick pizza sauce with tomato purée, olive oil and herbs) {recipe here}
Mozzarella cheese (the hard/low moisture kind that often comes already grated)

This recipe yields 2 hot pockets.

For the filling:

Make the pizza sauce. I make a really quick one by mixing tomato purée, olive oil, oregano, basil, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper and a bit of water. It’s really basic, but it works and the flavour is perfect! {recipe here}
Finely chop the pepperoni.
Grate the cheese (if not already grated).

For the hot pockets:

Mix everything together with your hands until there are no lumps left.
Divide the dough into 4 portions and roll them into balls with your hands.
Make patties and smooth out the edges to get rid of cracks. Just be careful not to make them too thin. They need to be strong enough to hold all the filling without cracking.
Put some pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese on one patty and cover with another. Don’t overdo the filling and leave enough space around the edges to be able to close the pockets off comfortably. Press the edges together until properly sealed and smooth out the edges (using your fingers or a knife). If you overdo the filling and the top layer cracks, don’t worry, you can smooth it out using the back of a knife (and a little bit of water). That’s what I had to do and they turned out just fine! 🙂
Pan fry on low/medium heat, in olive oil (or cooking oil of your choice), until the outer layer becomes crispy (4 to 5 minutes on each side).
Wrap in kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.