Those Calzones

This recipe has changed the way I do pizza.  Seriously.  We used to buy 95% of our pizzas as a convenience food and 5% of the time when we wanted something a bit nicer I would make something, though usually on a bought base.  Slowly things started changing and I started making more and more of our pizzas and the bought base changed to flat bread bases.  Then I started using this recipe and now we probably make 95% of our pizzas from scratch and buy the occasional one when I need Wolf to grab something on his way home from work after all my plans for the day have fallen in a heap.

This is our pizza base, calzone shell, cheeseburger roll up dough, it's so easy and it's so fun for the kids but without the mess that kids cooking usually involves.

Grab a bowl with a lid, make it a lid that fits well, not just a cover.

Chuck in...

1 3/4 cups SR flour

handful of grated cheese (60g?)

1/4 cup olive oil

2/3 cup water

pinch salt

pepper

"Pizza Topper" herb mix or whatever herbs/spices you want.

put the lid on, make sure it's fitting tight.  Hand it to a kid and tell them to shake it in a circular motion (or just shake it if they are like my kids).  If you don't happen to own one of these genius labour saving devices then you can shake it yourself.  Or if you don't have a bowl with a good fitting lid you can just stir it with a spatula or your hands.

Now you have your dough... you need to turn it into something... It's got quite a bit of stretch to it so I find it easiest to work it with my hands rather than a rolling pin.  For the mini calzones I pulled off chunks a bit smaller than a golf ball and made a flat "circle" about 10cm diameter.  I say "circle" because it sure wasn't a square or a triangle but it was also lacking some rather important circle identifiers... like actually being round, and symmetrical and stuff... but you get the picture.  Anyway, spread the whole thing with sauce of some sort leaving about 1cm all around the edge sauce-free.  then put your fillings on half the circle still leaving your sauce-free zone free from toppings too.  For the boys I use ham/bacon and pineapple and cheese. Then fold the edge over with a sort of pinch and roll thing to make sure it's good and shut.  If you are making bigger calzones you will need to prick them with a fork but I find for these mini ones that they don't need it.  You could probably brush them with milk or sprinkle them with cheese or something at this point but I don't think they need it.  Chuck them in a moderate oven until they are browned and cooked looking.  About 15 minutes but it's going to depend on how big you do them and how thick you make your bases.

I press the dough out REALLY thin for both these and my pizzas.  The cheese and oil in the crust makes it kind of crispy but the cheese also seems to make weak points as you are trying to spread it out.  I am sure I have forgotten something here, I have been imagining myself making them to try to make sure that I don't skip a step but I probably still did.  When I make pizzas usually I make a double mix and do one pizza each for Wolf and I and the boys make a calzone each.  Wolf eats a pizza and there is some of mine left for our lunches and Lion and Dragon each have some calzone left to go in the fridge for their lunches.  It works well.

I have also used this for a side dish... spread out your pizza base and then spread out some cherry tomato halves, sprinkle with crumbled feta and then drizzle with olive oil... or mix minced garlic in with the dough mix and just use Parmesan on the top of the pizza... or top your pizza with feta, Parmesan and cheddar... mmmmm, yummy.

If you like a thicker base you can add 7g of dried yeast and make it hot water and then once you press it out into shape you cover it with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 10-15 minutes.

I have tried to put a photo with this but it's just not working so if you want to see them again you can go here.

I was also going to do a whole cooking show for you but just making sure I gave you all the ingredients was challenge enough for me...

Now go and make some pizzas and calzones for the ones you love!