Calzones

These weren't the prettiest calzones I've ever made, but it's still nice to have a photo to go with the recipe so here it is. 

This recipe comes from my friend, Tonya, who lovingly brought us our first calzones when I was in the trenches of pregnancy nausea with Soren.  Since then, they've become a favorite for both Reese and Aaron and are liked by everyone. It's a great last minute dinner when I run out of time or whatever I'd had planned on cooking sounds less exciting than this deliciously cheese stuffed carb fest. We fill our calzones with ham and pineapple, spring veggies, caprese toppings, pepperoni, smoked gouda, jack cheese and bacon, or the classic mozzarella and olives (Quincy's favorite).  

Yield: 2 giant calzones. I double the recipe for my family since we don't mess around when it comes to bread. We eat until we're "stuffed to the muff" and there's usually almost a full calzone leftover for lunch the next day.  There's need enough when I make a single batch unless we're having a big salad with it or something. Seems like two and a half to three calzones is the right amount for my crew of 6. 

Ingredients: 

2 ½ to 3 c. Flour         

1 TBS Sugar

1 tsp Salt                     

2 ¼ tsp yeast

3 TBS Olive Oil                 

1 c. very warm Water (120-125 degrees)

1-2 tsp Italian Seasoning 

Directions: 

Mix flour, sugar, salt, italian seasoning and yeast in large bowl. Add oil and warm water.  Mix until dough is soft and eaves sides of bowl.  I just mix by hand with a wooden spoon or danish dough whisk. Place dough on lightly floured surface.  Knead 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and springy.  Cover loosely with towel and let rest 20-30 minutes while you get all the toppings ready.

To braid bread (after it is done raising in bowl) : Split dough in half.  Take section and roll into a thin rectangle (probably a 1/4 inch or so... pretty thin).  Brush a little melted butter down the center of dough and spread within an inch from all edges (don't want the edges wet, it makes it difficult to press the strips down when you braid).  Then put toppings down the middle of the rectangle maybe a width of two inches.  From there you will take a pizza cutter and slice lines from the toppings, perpendicular out to the edge of the bread, on both sides of the toppings (make sure you have the same amount of strips)  Then you just start at the top pulling one strip and folding it across the toppings (angled slighly down) then alternating sides. The right goes over the left (angled slightly down) and repeat.  At the end, you just pinch the bottom shut after the last braid.

After calzones are assembled, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with garlic salt.  

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes  

Slice calzone into 4-6 smaller pieces and serve with pizza sauce to dip.  

Honey Wheat Black Bread, Black and White Swirl Bread, and Honey Butter

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. room temperature water* (100°-110°F)
4 TBS vegetable oil
2 TBS caramel color
1/2 c honey
3 1/2 c wheat flour (100% winter white wheat)
3 1/2-4 c all purpose flour or bread flour
2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder
2 TBS active dry yeast (I use SAF yeast---it's the best!)
2 TBS vital wheat gluten
2 tsp table salt
cornmeal for dusting bottom
oatmeal to decorate top

Instructions:
1) Combine water, oil, caramel color, and honey in KitchenAid until well mixed. 

2) Add yeast, whole wheat flour, cocoa, gluten and salt, making sure not to dump the salt directly on top of the yeast (salt kills yeast).   Mix until well blended. Use a rubber scraper to make sure the entire contents of the mixer bowl are well mixed. Sometimes ingredients like to hide in the bottom of the bowl and the color doesn't mix in evenly. Give everything one good scrape by hand. 

3) Let mixture rest 10-12 minutes.  

4) Add all purpose/bread flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Dough will start to climb the mixer.  Stop adding flour when the dough clings to hook and almost cleans the sides of mixer.  

5) Let dough rise until doubled in mixer bowl bowl, covered with a towel. About 30 minutes.

6) (if making swirl bread, Skip step 6 here and use directions below for step 6, returning back to this recipe for step 7. )  Divide in half. Shape into loaves by rolling dough flat on an oiled surface, into an oval/rectangle about 12 inches long x 8 inches wide.  Then roll up sideways into a 12 inch "log", pinching seam and ends together.  

7) Roll bottom side (seam side down, obviously) of loaf log in cornmeal and top side in oatmeal, then sprinkle top with sea salt or a little coarse pretzel salt.  

8) Place loaves into two 3 1/2 x 12 inch metal loaf pans. Cover with dishtowel and allow to rise until big and loafey (yes, loafey), doubled and delicious.  Be patient, it may take about 40 minutes to an hour. (note: less time if it is a very warm/humid day…maybe 25 minutes.)

9) Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. The bread top will suddenly turn a little white/dry on top when it's done and the smell, OH THE SMELL, will tell you for sure that it is done. 

10) Cool on wire racks and enjoy with honey butter (see below for recipe). 

Note: instead of  making two 3 1/2 x 12 inch loaves, you can make three 3 1/2 x 8 inch loaves (med standard size) or  a bunch of mini loaves (adjust bake time a little shorter) or  even just throw a lump on a pizza stone and make it like an old fashioned artisan loaf. This recipe is SO user friendly. Get on it and make something amazing!  

Speaking of amazing, see below for swirl recipe:


For swirl bread or marble rye: Yield 4 loaves
Use recipe and directions above except make two batches of the bread recipe. Omit the cocoa powder and caramel color in one batch.  In that same batch, add 2 TBS of wheat flour and (optional) replace up to 1c of the whole wheat flour with rye flour. 

1) Divide each recipe into 4 equal sized dough balls, so you have 4 dark and 4 light colored balls. 

2) Roll loaves out very thin so they are in a 12 inch long x 8 ish inch oval/rectangle on a greased surface.  

Layer rolled dough into a "dough sandwich" as follows: 
Loaf 1: dark, light, dark
Loaf 2: dark, light, dark
Loaf 3: light, dark, light
Loaf 4: light, dark, light

3) Press the layers down tightly together with a rolling pin so there are no air bubbles between them.  

4) Roll the entire "sandwich" up into a log and be sure to pinch the seams tightly so that no contrasting dough color is peeking out.  You will have two "wheat bread colored" loves and two "black bread colored" loaves. Follow directions as seen above in step 7. Rise, Bake, etc. 

Honey Butter
Who knew how easy it is to "whip up" some honey butter?  This recipe comes from my friend, Angie, who introduced me to the goodness of honey butter. 

Use equal parts butter and honey (1 lb salted butter to 2c honey). 

Soften butter on countertop for an hour, then whip in kitchen aid until fully blended and nice and fluffy. Store in fridge. You can halve or quarter the recipe, but don't. You'll want butter to share when you share all that bread!