Mummy Pizza Bites (Easy Puff Pastry Halloween Appetizer)
Mummy pizza bites are small puff pastry pizzas dressed up for Halloween. Each one gets a spoonful of pizza sauce inside a scored border, thin strips of mozzarella laid across it like bandages, and two green olive rings near one end for eyes. Underneath the decoration, it is cheese pizza on flaky pastry, so there is nothing for a picky eater to object to. One package of frozen puff pastry makes twelve, baked at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes, about 35 minutes from start to finish.
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The mummy look comes down to one thing. Cut the mozzarella into thin strips from a block and leave gaps between them, because the cheese spreads as it melts, and those gaps are what keep the sauce showing through as bandage lines.
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Why You'll Love These Mummy Pizza Bites
- Frozen puff pastry does the work. No dough, no rising, no rolling.
- Twelve from one package, enough for a class party or a family dinner with leftovers.
- Kids can lay the strips and set the eyes, and uneven ones look more like mummies, not less.
- They work as a Halloween dinner, or as easy Halloween appetizers on a party table.
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Ingredients and Substitutes
- Puff pastry. Regular frozen sheets, thawed according to package directions. All-butter works and browns a little deeper. Keep it cold until the moment you top it. Rectangles also give the bandages more room than the round mini mummy pizzas.
- Low-moisture mozzarella, cut from a block. Shredded melts into a single sheet, and the bandages disappear. Skip fresh mozzarella, since the water it releases soaks into the pastry.
- Pizza sauce. About ½ cup across the batch. Any more per piece, and the pastry softens underneath.
- Green olives. Pimiento-stuffed, sliced into rings yourself. The red center reads as a pupil from across a table, which plain olives do not.
How to Shape the Mummies
Score a shallow border about ½ inch in from each edge, cutting only the surface. That border puffs into a frame that holds the sauce in place.
Cut the mozzarella into thin strips and lay them across the sauce at slight angles with visible gaps between them. Thin strips melt outward into the gap rather than into each other, so the sauce remains visible as a red line, and that line is what your eye reads as a bandage. Set two olive rings near one end and press them down so they do not slide.
A few strips will close up anyway. Mummies are not symmetrical.
What to Serve With Mummy Pizza Bites
Extra warm pizza sauce for dipping is all they really need. For a bigger spread of easy Halloween appetizers:
- A skeleton veggie tray balances a pastry-heavy table.
- Halloween pasta salad can be made the day before and gives the table something cold against all the warm pastries.
- Jack-o'-lantern stuffed peppers make it a kid-friendly Halloween dinner, and they bake at a similar temperature.
- Air fryer mummy dogs are the same wrapped-mummy idea with hot dogs, and faster.
- Halloween hot dog fingers hit the same savory note from the same dough aisle.
- A pumpkin cheese ball is made ahead and gives the adults something to stand around.
- Halloween drinks for kids finish the table with no extra oven time.
- Once cooled, they can be a part of a Halloween charcuterie board with the rest of the Halloween party appetizers. For the sweet end of the table, mummy Halloween cookies run the same bandage trick in icing.
Mummy Pizza Bites FAQs
Assemble, cover, and refrigerate a few hours before baking, same day. Keep the pastry cold until it goes in the oven, or it will not rise the same way. Bake straight from the fridge.
Reheat in a 350°F oven for 5 to 8 minutes, or in an air fryer at 325 to 350°F for 2 to 4 minutes. The microwave warms them through but softens the pastry. They are also fine cold in a lunchbox, which covers Halloween lunch ideas for the next day.
Yes. Mummy pizza works on any of those bases with small adjustments. Crescent dough bakes faster, in around 12 to 15 minutes. English muffins give you round mini mummy pizzas instead of rectangles. Puff pastry is what I reach for because the scored border holds the sauce where you put it.
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Equipment
- Two large rimmed baking sheets
- Parchment paper
Ingredients
- 2 sheets frozen puff pastry thawed (one standard package, sheets about 10 x 15 inches)
- ½ cup pizza sauce about 2 teaspoons per bite
- ¾ teaspoon dried oregano
- 4 ounces low-moisture mozzarella cheese cut from a block into thin strips
- 24 small green olive rings 2 per bite
- All-purpose flour for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the thawed puff pastry sheets on a lightly floured surface. Cut each sheet into 6 equal rectangles, for 12 rectangles total. Cut across the short side into three, then across the long side into two.
- Arrange the rectangles on the prepared baking sheets, leaving room between them to puff. Using a sharp knife, lightly score a border about ½ inch in from the edges, cutting into the surface of the pastry without cutting all the way through.
- Spread about 2 teaspoons of pizza sauce inside the scored border of each rectangle. Sprinkle lightly with the dried oregano.
- Cut the mozzarella into thin, narrow strips. Arrange them over the sauce in a crisscrossed, slightly uneven pattern, leaving small gaps between the strips so the sauce shows through.
- Place 2 green olive rings near the top of each rectangle for the eyes, pressing them down lightly.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the puff pastry is puffed and golden brown and the cheese has melted. Begin checking at 18 minutes, as ovens vary and these pieces are small. Swap the sheets between racks halfway through if your oven bakes unevenly.
- Let the mummy pizza bites cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before serving. Serve warm.
Notes
- Use regular frozen puff pastry, thawed according to the package directions. All-butter puff pastry also works and browns a little deeper.
- Low-moisture mozzarella melts with less excess moisture than fresh mozzarella. Cutting it from a block into thin strips is what keeps the bandage pattern visible.
- Leave small gaps between the cheese strips. The mozzarella spreads as it melts, and the gaps give it somewhere to go.
- Keep the sauce to about 2 teaspoons per rectangle, roughly ½ cup for the batch. More than that softens the pastry underneath.
- Twelve rectangles will not fit on one sheet with room to puff. Use two sheets, or bake in two batches and keep the second tray chilled until it goes in.
- To make ahead, assemble, cover, and refrigerate for a few hours before baking, ideally the same day.
- Keep the pastry chilled until it goes in the oven.
- To reheat, use a 350°F oven for 5-8 minutes or an air fryer at 325°F for 2-4 minutes. The microwave warms them through but softens the pastry.