TikTok's Garlicky Pizza Rolls Are An Easy Upgrade For The Frozen Classic
Sometimes you're in the mood for an entire pizza, and other times, just a few bites will do. That's where pizza rolls usually come in. The snack food is made up of the same ingredients as pizza, including mozzarella cheese and tomato sauce (and often, pepperoni), but instead of being spread out on a pizza crust, they're wrapped up in bite-sized pieces of dough. Invented in 1968, pizza rolls have become so popular over the years that the term was officially trademarked in 1985 by Pillsbury, the company that bought the rights to Jeno's Pizza Rolls and renamed them Totino's Pizza Rolls. While they're plenty tasty on their own, they can easily be customized and upgraded, as illustrated on TikTok.
The biggest appeal of pizza rolls isn't so much the quality of the ingredients but rather the convenience of being able to store them in the freezer and heat them up whenever you're craving pizza (just not a whole pie or slice). But like most foods that come out of the frozen section of the grocery store, pizza rolls aren't exactly gourmet. Dipping them in marinara sauce is perhaps the most obvious way to spruce them up, but there's another equally simple, Totino's-approved option: Drench them in garlic and cheese.
How to upgrade pizza rolls like a TikToker
While pizza rolls are sold in many different flavors, you can't actually tell what they are from the outside. The outer layer — which used to be made with egg roll wrappers — is relatively plain. This makes it easy to turn them into a garlic knots hybrid. Garlic knots are traditionally made out of knotted pizza dough brushed with butter, garlic, and parsley. According to a TikTok trend, a similar technique can be applied to pizza rolls. "This little trick is about to be a huge game-changer for you," one content creator claims in a video that gets extra garlicky. Totino's has even gotten in on the fun.
@totinos The internet told me to do it. What should I try next?
As the pizza roll brand demonstrated in its own TikTok, all you have to do is bake or air fry your pizza rolls like usual and combine garlic with melted butter — though some TikTokers use olive oil for similar results. While many people have taken to brushing the mixture onto the pizza rolls before baking, Totino's recommends tossing them all together post-bake in a large bowl until thoroughly coated before sprinkling on grated parmesan cheese and parsley. The advice might be worth taking, given that the company has some experience with flavored pizza rolls.
Totino's used to make parmesan garlic pizza rolls
Considering how many TikTokers tried out the viral pizza roll hack, you might assume that it would only make sense for Totino's to release a premade version of it, but the truth is the brand already did once before, and it wasn't successful. Back in 2013, Totino's came out with "pizzeria" style pizza rolls in flavors such as chicken parmesan, meatball marinara, and cheesy garlic. Instead of the traditional tomato sauce and cheese filling, the cheesy garlic pizza rolls were stuffed with "creamy cheese sauce and garlic."
Not too long after its release, Totino's made the decision to discontinue the new flavor. Responding to a customer's Facebook post asking where they could get them, Totino's explained that the company decided to discontinue cheesy garlic pizza rolls because they weren't selling well. That was back in 2016, and Totino's has yet to bring them back. However, adding the garlic and parmesan on your own is evidently an even tastier option.