Calzones

I came home from work yesterday to find my poor baby girl suffering from a cold. She normally clings to me but when she's sick she clings even more. I knew dinner had to be quick and easy or a meltdown would occur. So, instead of boring (but easy) pizza, I tried a calzone recipe. It's pretty much the same as pizza, but different enough to make me feel good. :) I wish I could say it turned out perfectly and then follow with a series of gourmet photos. Unfortunately, I was scatter-brained yesterday (and today) and messed up every... single... step. Thankfully, it was delicious, ugly, but delicious. I found a dough recipe from allrecipes.com and then added my own filling.

Calzone Dough Recipe:

• 1 1/4 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar
• 3 cups of bread flour
• 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast

Put everything in the bread machine and select the dough cycle. When it's done, roll or pat it out to a 16x10 inch rectangle, transfer to a greased cookie sheet. Put the filling on one side, fold over and seal with water. Brush the top with melted butter. Bake for 35 minutes at 350F.

That is how I made the calzone dough. Next time I will follow the recipe and criss cross the dough across the top. The only reason I skipped this step is because I forgot about it (doh!). Not only did I forget to criss cross, but I also forgot the moz. cheese and had to unfold it. Trying to refold it was a pain and resulted in holes on top and an ugly edge that did not seal properly. The only difference between this recipe and the original is that I skipped the powdered milk. Go here for the original recipe. 

Now for the filling. I didn't measure anything out. I just added a few spices until the meat had some flavor, but not too much. 

Filling

• 1 lb ground beef (or less, but not more or it will be over stuffed)
• 1 bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• A few cloves of garlic (2 or 3), roughly chopped
• Handful of black olives
• Handful of green olives
• Mozzarella cheese
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Paprika
• Salt and Pepper
• Ricotta

Pizza Sauce

• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon Oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon or so of sugar
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Cook the beef with the bell pepper, onion and garlic cloves. Drain any oil. Return to heat and add about 1 tablespoon of onion powder, 1/2 tablespoon of garlic powder, 1 to 2 teaspoons of paprika, salt/pepper to taste. I did not measure any of this, I just added until a light flavor was created. The mixture shouldn't be too strong.

For the sauce, mix ingredients. Taste because I never measure my pizza sauce either. Some people love super-sweet sauce and some like it sour.

On half of the dough spread the ricotta, add 1/2 to 3/4 of the pizza sauce, pour on the meat mixture, add the olives and moz. cheese. Fold the dough over and seal with water and brush the top with butter. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes.