Every Sunday is the same in my house. We wake up, play most of the morning, eat some form of breakfast and then I start making my weekly grocery store list. We come up with menu for the week and it's generally planned by browsing through cookbooks, old episodes of show favorites on Food Network or old standbys that we love. I've really been trying to change things up in the kitchen and making new meals. Some of them are easy, some are hard. Some are one pot creations and some use every pot and bowl in the house! And my kitchen has been a wreck night after night!
This past Sunday was nothing different. The scene was making homemade pizza dough for use in homemade calzones from, you guessed it, The Pioneer Woman! I didn't get a chance to actually make the crust earlier in the day for Sunday dinner, so I was making it for dinner on Monday. So easy, right? Well, it was easy but it so didn't turn out like it was supposed to! I didn't create a ball in the mixer, nor did it create a ball when trying to form it by hand. Instead, I had a substance that resembled something along the lines of paste that literally stretched from one hand to the next, creating a cobweb effect along the way! I placed it in an oiled bowl, as suggested, threw that in the refridgerator and when I opened the door the next day, it had grown three times its size!! Not sure if this is even useable or edible! Guess I will try again some other time. Side note, I had the most amazing sous chef!
So here's what I did. First, I added warm water and yeast to a bowl and let that sit a spell.
Then in another bowl, I added my dry ingredients and mixed them together with olive oil until just combined.
The I added the water and yeast mixture, slowly, into the mixer with the other ingredients. (The green spoonula you see is one of McKinley's. He was "helping mama".)
At this point, it was supposed to start coming together and the dough should have formed a ball.
Here my sous chef is keeping an eye on things to make sure the dough turns out correctly.
He's helping the mixer along as I'm telling him not to put the spoon in the bowl while the mixer is going!
And here is the unformed dough that is literally paste!
So the next day, as in Monday night of the calzone dinner, my husband runs to the store for dinner rolls. (That's what Ree used during the episode that she made calzones. I wanted to attempt the pizza dough to make it more authentic.) Here is how you make homemade calzones!
Brown some hamburger meat along with chopped onion.
While the hamburger is browning you better get to grating your cheese! You need Mozzarella and Monterrey Jack. And, after the meat has browned, at some tomatoes. The recipe called for Ro-Tel tomatoes and chilies, but I was thinking that McKinley might eat it, and didn't want anything too spicy. I added diced tomatoes instead.
Add your grated cheese to Ricotta and mix together.
Add the cheese mixture to the cooled meat mixture. Set aside.
Now, this is when I would have used my "from scratch" pizza dough but that didn't happen. Enter the dinner rolls purchased at the grocery store! I started this process by flouring my surface, dinner roll and rolling pin.
Start rolling out each roll, flipping sides, rotating and flouring when needed.
Fill each calzone with some of the meat mixture. As you can see, I have added pepperoni as well. The recipe called for hamburger and breakfast sausage, but opted for pepperoni.
Fold each half over the other and press closed with a fork. As you can see, mine are very thin. I'm thinking of using a larger dough of some sort next time. Maybe the from scratch pizza dough.....
Place each calzone on a baking sheet that's been lined with parchment paper. Helps for easier cleanup if some of the filling oozes out. Drizzle with olive oil and brush each one to ensure it's completely covered. Then bake!
Serve along side your favorite side. We had a salad, with our homegrown cherry tomatoes. For day two, I served up fries. Still haven't attempted her homemade french fries. They were so good and differently a recipe to experiment with in different fillings!
Want the ends and outs on the pizza crust and calzone recipe? Check out the pizza crust here and notice how awesome hers look! See the calzone recipe here!
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