Edwards Hot Pocket Recipe

One of the most popular foods in our house, right now, is homemade hot pockets.  We’ve had a few requests for the recipe, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to write it all out.  Don’t worry, I hate those cooking blogs where there’s a bunch of talking before the recipe, so I’m just gonna jump right in! 

This recipe takes about 45-60 minutes of prep and 20-25 minutes to bake. 

Ingredients: 

(makes about 8 hot pockets)

Dough:

• 1 ⅓ C Warm Water
• 1 TBSP sugar
• 1 packet active dry yeast
• 2 TBSP melted butter (can sub an oil instead of butter)
• 3.5 C Flour
• Seasoning (we use garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, paprika, and cheese if we’re feeling fancy)
• 1 egg
• 1TBSP cool water

Filling:

• 1 small head of broccoli chopped into small pieces
• ½ onion chopped (we chop it SUPER small with our food chopper)
• 4TBSP Butter (or oil)
• 4TBSP flour
• ⅓ – ½ C shredded cheese
• Seasoning (again, we use garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, paprika)
• ½ pint heavy cream (you can use half and half or milk, but may need to increase the butter and flour)

Instructions:

• Combine the warm water and sugar into a mixing bowl.  Stir until most of the sugar is dissolved, then add the yeast and gently stir.  I have found if I stir too vigorously, I kill the yeast. Allow the mixture to get a foamy layer as the yeast starts to work.  This will probably take 5-10 minutes.  If you find it’s not foaming, you may have killed the yeast.  You can try placing the bowl in a warm oven to help it along.  If that still doesn’t work, then start over with a new packet of yeast. 
• Once you have a thick foamy layer, add the melted butter (or oil) and seasonings to the water/yeast mixture.
• Add in the flour ½ C at a time, using a dough hook on your stand mixer to mix. Continue adding until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl (you may not use all the flour, or you may need a little extra). Continue kneading the dough for 3-5 minutes.  If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can combine and knead by hand. (10 minutes)
• Once you have a ball of dough, cover and allow it to rest in a warm area of the kitchen until it has doubled. This takes about 20-30 minutes for us, but I am not super picky about letting it completely double.  I let it sit for however long it takes me to make the filling.  If it hasn’t fully doubled, then I just use it anyway, as long as it has done some rising. 

While the dough is rising, make the filling:

• Boil the broccoli until tender. 
• While the broccoli is boiling, melt the butter in a sauce pan and saute the onion.
• Whisk in the flour to make a roux, whisking constantly. 
• While whisking, add seasonings to taste and then add all of the cream.  Don’t stop whisking or you’ll get clumps.  If you do get clumps, don’t worry, you can whisk them out as much as possible, but if you can’t get rid of them all, no worries. They are barely noticeable when in the hot pocket.
• Keep whisking occasionally while bringing the creamy mixture to a simmer (uncovered) and allow it to thicken.  
• Once it’s a good, thick, gravy-like consistency, add in the cheese and mix until it’s all melted, then reduce the heat. 
• Drain the broccoli and add it into the creamy mixture and stir. Remove from heat.

Now it’s time to make the hot pockets. 

•  Preheat the oven to 400*F
• Beat down your risen dough and put it on a floured surface.  I usually do a little more kneading at this point, but not a lot.  Add a little flour if the dough is sticky. 
• Divide the dough, cutting the ball in half, then the halves in half, and so on until you have 8 equal pieces. 
• Roll out one piece at a time.  I just flatten by hand and I don’t worry about them being perfect rectangles…as long as I get it close. (Tip: once I have it flattened out, I put a floured spatula under half of it so I can easily transfer the pocket to the baking sheet once it’s filled)
• Scoop about ⅓ – ½ C of filling onto the dough. (if using the spatula tip above, put the filling on the side that is on the spatula, NOT like I did in the photo…it didn’t work out so well, haha)

• Fold the dough over and pinch the edges or push the edges with a fork to keep it closed.
• Transfer the hot pocket to a prepared baking sheet (we use parchment paper for easy clean up) Then repeat the process for the remaining 7 pieces of dough.
• Once you have them all on your baking sheet, cut 2-3 slits in the top of each pocket so they vent while baking.
• Whisk the egg and 1 TBSP of water, then use a pastry or silicone brush to brush the egg wash onto the tops and sides of each pocket.

• Bake for 20-25 minutes. 
• Once they’re done baking, I like to sprinkle a little more cheese on top. Then serve and enjoy!

We will usually make a double (or triple) batch and then wrap each hot pocket individually and freeze for easy meals or lunches for Jason to take to work. 

Also, I have estimated all of these ingredient amounts because I am the WORST when it comes to measuring.  I eyeball everything and cook by feel.  So I hope I estimated correctly.  The good news is that this is easily adjusted if needed.  You may not need all the flour, or you may need a little extra.  You’ll know by the sticky-ness of the dough, you don’t want it to stick to your hands. If the filling doesn’t thicken up enough, you can mix flour and water (usually 1TBSP of each) to add to the creamy mixture and heat until it thickens properly. 

You can also get creative with the fillings.  Ham and cheese, creamy turkey and broccoli, buffalo chicken, chicken bacon ranch, the list goes on.  You can also play around with the seasoning you put in the dough when making it.  We are more limited in our options because of our safe ingredients, but I’d love to hear how other flavors turn out.  If you make these, please come report back and let us know how it went!

Speaking of safe ingredients, because of the corn allergy, I think it’s important to know that our safe products are usually very brand specific.  Here’s the brands of all the safe ingredients we use for these hot pockets.

• Zulka Morena sugar
• Red Star active dry yeast – ONLY the red 3 pack strip
• Butter – from a local dairy 
• Einkorn All Purpose Flour (or Einkorn Whole Wheat Flour)
• Seasoning – Our Salt is Evolution Pink Himalayan, all other seasonings are single spices from Frontier Co-Op
• Our eggs are from a local farm that only washes their eggs with water. 
• Locally grown broccoli from a local farm
• Onion is also from a local farm
• Kerrygold Dubliner Cheese (for some reason this is the ONLY mass produced cheese our corn allergic people have been able to handle)
• Heavy Cream comes from the same dairy as our butter.