CALZONES

I made calzones for my family last week and everyone loved them! Not only were they delicious, but we all enjoyed being able to customize our dinners. Use items you have on hand for the filling and the cost drops dramatically. Factoring in the homemade dough and all the fillings, this dinner cost us about $3.50, or .70 per person.

I was inspired by this "Real Italian Calzones" recipe from allrecipes.com. However, I didn't actually follow the recipe much, as you can see by the final result!

We love Jay's Signature Pizza Crust, so I used that for the dough:

• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour 

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and brown sugar in the water, and let sit for 10 minutes.

Stir the salt and oil into the yeast solution. Mix in 2 1/2 cups of the flour.

Turn dough out onto a clean, well floured surface, and knead in more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and cover with a cloth. Let the dough rise until double; this should take about 1 hour. Punch down the dough, and form a tight ball. Allow the dough to relax for a minute before rolling out. 
 
I divided the dough into 4 portions, then cut 1 of the 4 in half, for smaller calzones for my kids. You can roll the dough out, but I just stretched it into a circle with my hands, until it was about 1/4- 1/2 inch thin. 
 
Calzone Ingredients:

• about 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• any combination of the following- pepperoni, diced ham, diced chicken, bell peppers, olives, fresh tomatoes, sauteed onions, mushrooms, broccoli, or pretty much anything you'd want to put in it!

Combine the olive oil and Italian seasoning. Once you have the dough spread out, brush the inside with the oil, leaving about a 1" perimeter dry. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, then add toppings on one half of the circle of dough. Make sure you're not filling the calzones too full or you won't be able to seal the edges. Since I had a leftover vegetable tray from my daughter's birthday party, we used a combination of peppers, halved grape tomatoes, canned mushrooms, olives and pepperoni.

Seal the edges by simply folding over the unfilled side of dough and pinching the edges together.

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Enjoy!