That's right the dish-o-the-week is indeed another PW recipe. The calzone's were absolutely scrumptious, and filling. We'll be eating on them for awhile, but I did have some issues with making them. Mostly the issues arose from my own inexperience, but some of them were due to unclear directions in the recipe. I know what you're thinking, I just said I had issues with the Pioneer Woman. It's just a minor detail, don't worry ladies and gents, my love for the P-Dub is still true, although as Speed Racer said, "The honeymoon may be over..."
So the first part of making a calzone is making the dough for the yummy yummy outside. Usually this is made of pizza dough, and the same is true for the Pioneer Woman recipe. She uses a pizza dough recipe from her book. So first things first:
Get your yeast ready! I had surprisingly, never made a dough with yeast before. So this was a new experience.
Next up, some flour and salt, with a little olive oil...
So then you mix it all together. This is where I started to run into some problems. Problem numero uno: I do not have a stand mixer so this all had to be done by hand. Nothing wrong with that, sometimes it's fun doing it the old fashion way. Problem numero dos: in the recipe it says "You can also mix by hand until the dough comes together." I've never made pizza dough before, so I feel like most of this is my lack of knowledge. But what is together enough? Just till it's gooey? More than gooey? Do I need more flour? I should have went with my gut and added more flour but I didn't. So, as I read another recipe later, after this was all said and done, I saw an entry that said you should knead the dough for 10-15 minutes. So..yeah.
Here is my un-kneaded dough, tossed in olive oil.
After that I put a moist towel over it, and put it in a warm place where it would not be disturbed, ie my ginormous microwave.
Two hours later, after my dough had risen, it had risen indeed! I began on the filling.
Added some tomatoes and chilies...
And they're done! Not. Yeah so this is my next picture. Why? Because chaos ensued in my kitchen, and my hands were covered in flour and dough. So basically what happened, was that I started mixing the cheese and egg together, then added the meat. But it also looked completely different from the pictures in the cookbook. I still haven't figured that one out. Perhaps I didn't let my meat cool long enough, or maybe I should have drained the tomatoes first. I also ended up with ALOT of filling. But the primary issue was that since I had not thoroughly kneaded my dough, it was sticky and super hard to handle. So my first calzone turned out looking like this:
Kinda came apart...just a bit. But the rest were more or less okay. And they were good but they needed something a little extra to me. That I still can't put my finger on. I think this is just one of those things that will get better the more I make it, and tweak it a little.
I served it with delicious mashed potatoes. Of my own recipe! I mean, you really can't get enough starches.
Mmmm creamy.
And the end, the ugly truth is that my kitchen looked like this....
Did I mention that we don't have one of those new fangled dish washing machines? Just me and my handy scrub brush. So in conclusion folks, it's all part of the cooking learning curve. I will make better dough next time, figure out why I had a plethora of filling, and eat a delicious calzone for lunch. No worries fans, me and P-dubs are still BFFs. If only in my mind.