Sarah's Taiwanese Calzones

      Yesterday (Sunday), was the first day this year that I did only 2 hours of schoolwork!  Amazing!  I seem to live in my classroom on Sundays.  In order to celebrate taking a break from lesson planning and graduate classwork, I decided to cook.  Zach had a basketball game to coach, and I thought about going.  However, it started to slightly rain, and I love to cook when it's raining.  It only rained for 10 minutes, but I imagined that it kept raining.
       I've made calzones before, but they were never anything special.  These weren't bad but not absolutely amazing.  In the words of Zach, "They're good."  Nothing special, just good.  That's ok.  I've come to the conclusion that I'm not great at making amazing calzones.
       I did have some leftovers for lunch today, and despite the fact that I accidentally put it in the freezer and not the fridge, it tasted just as good as it did fresh. 

The lovely ingredients.  In my calzones I put tomatoes, mushrooms, olives, 地瓜叶 - the Taiwanese don't have spinach, so I used sweet potato leaves instead.   That was the first food I knew the Chinese name for but not the English name. 

I let the dough rise for 2 hours.  I got a little busy cleaning out drawers in the kitchen, and I lost track of time.

 

 

Finished product.

Here's the recipe.  

Calzone Dough

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 packet yeast
• 2 1/2 cup flour (I used whole wheat flour for part of it).
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil

1. Combine sugar and warm water in a bowl.  Sprinkle with yeast and allow to foam.
2. Combine flour and salt in a separate bowl.
3. Add flour to yeast mixture and stir to combine.  Add oil.
4. Stir if possible, then turn mixture out on to a floured surface and knead for several minutes until smooth.
5. Oil dough ball and set aside.  Allow to rise until doubled or so.
6. Once ready to cook, preheat oven to 450°F.  Divide dough into balls.
7. Roll a dough ball into a flat, circular shape.
8. Add the toppings and pinch the calzone shut. 
9. Bake until lightly brown.
10. Allow calzone to cool slightly before eating.