(Just a heads up…I started writing this post on Sunday night…but couldn’t finish it until tonight. That might help to explain the intro…)
As another weekend rolls to a close, I find myself happy that I don’t lament the fact that I’ll need to return to work tomorrow…I actually am one of the lucky ones that enjoys their job.
That said, I do lament the fact that I didn’t have more of a chance to cook this weekend. Schedules just didn’t permit. My wife (Erica) and I are in the process of trying to sell our house. Whatever time that should be spent napping (or maybe cooking) on weekends, is typically spent working on our 110-year old “fixer-upper,” discovering new real estate laws that allow us to call an “extra” room a bedroom…simply because it has a new closet in it (that I just installed…ohh…I’m so much more than just bread.)
So Erica and I FINALLY had the chance to go visit good friends of ours that are celebrating the birth of their first child. (Beautiful boy by the way…AND has the first name of “Bryan” which is my REAL first name…spelled the cool way of course.). I was incredibly excited to help our friends in any way possible…the best way a lot of times is providing food for couples with a brand new baby. So I’d made them some homemade calzones…easily “freeze-able” for a later easy meal if you just don’t feel like cooking.
Well we brought our friends 4 calzones that I’d made for them for future meals…and I thought when handing the ‘zones over “I should definitely make these tonight…I haven’t eaten a good calzone in a while.”
So without further ado…the “recipe guy” brings you another option for making home made “something” tonight.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 Tbsp honey
- 2.25 tsps active dry yeast
- 1.5 cups warm water
- 2 tsps salt
- 4.5 cups bread flour
- 1 frozen spinach (chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ¾ cup of chopped red onion
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1.5 lbs. ricotta cheese
- 2 cups packed shredded mozzarella cheese
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- Salt & Pepper
Directions:
- Combine warm water, honey and yeast and let sit for 5-10 minutes (until yeast starts to get “frothy”)
- Combine flour and salt in bowl and mix well with a fork
- Pour water/yeast mixture into flour mixture and mix in electric mixer (you can add more flour or water if needed to get a better balance in the dough…in all honesty, I typically end up adding an additional ½ cup of water (slowly) to get to the proper mixture) Transfer dough to another bowl that’s been LIGHTLY coated in olive oil. Cover the dough (with a tea towel) and let it sit for at least an hour (until it doubles in size)
Here's the dough before rising...
...and after rising.
- While dough is rising, cook spinach (as described on the package…make sure it’s properly drained and squeezed of all water)
- Cook chopped onions & garlic in a frying pan (about medium heat) for about 6-8 minutes (until onions are translucent)
- Combine cheese, spinach, onions/garlic mixture and the egg (salt & pepper to taste) – set mixture aside
- Once dough has risen for an hour, ‘punch’ down and cut into 6 equal-sized pieces
- Take a piece of the dough and flop each side on a lightly floured surface. Spread the dough between your hands (mainly thumbs and first two fingers) until you get between a 10-16 inch “circle” (I put circle in quotes because good luck with getting a perfect circle. Don’t be afraid if it’s too thin, it will always rise and become thicker once you bake it.)
The hand is there for scale...not sure how helpful it is.
- Spoon cheese/spinach mixture on to one side of the dough circle. Fold the empty side over the mixture and fuse it shut by “crimping” it with a fork.
It's about 3 1/2 heaping tablespoons of filler
- Take a sharp pearing knife and cut three slits in the top to allow breathing while baking it.
Is that not the prettiest calzone you've ever seen?
Make sure to get a good cross way crimp with the fork...or everything will leak out when you bake them
- Grease some baking sheets (Crisco always works best for me) and bake the calzones for 15-20 minutes at 450 degrees.
The finished product
**Serve it with tomato sauce, Alfredo sauce…whatever. It’s a calzone…there’s not much you can put on top of it that wouldn’t be good.
**Also, these are great for freezing. Just wrap them a couple of times with saran wrap (to keep the freezer burn out). When you’re ready to eat, just preheat the oven and put them in (no need to defrost…just let them cook an extra 5-7 minutes depending on your oven).
That’s all I got…I hope you enjoy it!
