Give Leftover Pizza The Waffle Iron Treatment For A Crunchier Slice
Leftover pizza is a worthy snack straight out of the fridge — you might even be among the many who think next-day pizza tastes better cold. However, if you prefer your pizza hot or want to crisp up your leftover pie, reach for your waffle iron. Using a waffle iron to reheat your leftover pizza is a super fast and easy way to transform a cold, rubbery slice into a crunchy, gooey bite. Think of it like a pizza panini or a campfire pie iron pizza, only you don't have to haul out the dough or toppings to make this delicious snack.
To make your waffle iron pizza, all you need to do is grab a slice of leftover pizza and fold the tip up to the crust so that the bread entirely covers the toppings. Then, cut off the extra, including the crust, so you're left with a triangle. Optionally, before folding, add extra toppings to jazz up a plain slice. Preheat your waffle iron, then place your folded pizza triangles on top and close the lid.
If your waffle iron is large enough and you have a couple of slices of pizza, you can skip the whole folding process and simply stack them on top of each other with the bread facing the outside. Cutting off the crust is still a good idea because it will be easier to close the waffle iron lid.
Tips for making crispy waffle iron pizza
The ideal leftover pizza waffle should be extra crispy on the outside and super gooey on the inside — similar to a pizza pocket or calzone, a perfect handheld snack. What you don't want is a sticky mess left all over your waffle iron and a sloppy pizza bite devoid of toppings. To avoid this, it's a good idea to spray your waffle iron with butter or cooking spray. This will prevent the bread and any cheese or toppings that spill out from sticking to the waffle iron.
It only takes about five minutes for your leftover pizza to heat up and get nice and crispy in the waffle iron. If you add more toppings, be mindful that an overloaded pizza pocket is more likely to spill out onto the iron. Too much cheese leaking onto the hot surface may burn, but a tad on the sides of the pizza waffle is fine and will add delicious flavor and crispiness to your snack.
Finally, if you had deep-dish for dinner last night, you might be out of luck with this leftover pizza hack since a thick slice likely won't fit in your waffle iron. Trying to fold a slice of deep-dish pizza will likely prove impossible, and stacking them will make it so thick that the waffle iron lid won't close properly. Instead, stick with a thin or hand-tossed pizza crust.
If you don't have leftovers, make it from scratch
Using leftover pizza is an easy and quick way to reheat and reinvent a previous meal, but you can also use the waffle maker to make pizza from scratch. This concept will feel super familiar if you've ever used a pie iron to make pudgy pies over a campfire.
Buy or make your own pizza dough and roll it out so that it fits in the waffle maker, leaving some room to expand as it cooks. Close the lid and brown your dough, letting it cook for a couple of minutes before adding your sauce, cheese, and toppings. Then close the lid for a second time and let it cook for a few more minutes until crispy. Again, spraying the waffle iron with cooking spray is essential for keeping the dough and toppings from sticking to the hot plates.
You can also make it more like a pie or pizza pocket by adding another layer of dough over the toppings and pinching it closed. If you don't have any pizza dough on hand, you can use sliced bread, crescent rolls, or canned biscuits.
If you don't have a waffle iron, consider heating your leftover pizza on the stove. Did you know you can even cook frozen pizza in a cast iron skillet? And if you want to add some sugar and spice to your slice, hot honey can single-handedly save your mediocre frozen pizza.