Savory And Sweet Calzones.

I was watching Giada the other day - Little Big Head with teeth and tits.

And she was making this sweet calzone -

Ricotta and Chocolate Hazelnut Calzone.

So, I decided sweet and savory calzones were in order for tonight's meal. #1 Giada's sweet Nutella thingie. I've watched Giada use Nutella for years now. I finally bought it and dang, I should've gotten this earlier. Chocolate and hazelnuts. Mr. H. and I spread some on a graham cracker and it was absolutely lovely. He told me it didn't need to be refrigerated, then told me he was going to hide it, because if the kids ever found it, we'd never have it on hand. Smart man. #2 Rosie's savory pizza calzones. With homemade mushroom/garlic/onion/oregano/fennel seed/tomato/tomato sauce. And chorizo and pepperoni. With Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. First, I started on my dough.

Whenever I make a pizza dough, a bread, a foccacia - whatever type of bread- I never measure. I just go by feel. But since I have a food blog now, I feel obliged to measure this stuff for my readers who may actually be intimidated by kitchen stuff.

So, above, I have 1 packet of yeast 1/2 cup warm water 1 TB sugar bag of bread flour salt Now, HERE are the INSTRUCTIONS to make BREAD. Any kind of Bread. Or Pizza Dough. Or Foccacia. (For foccacia, make the basic dough, then slather on butter, drizzle olive oil, and sprinkle rosemary on top.)

I poured 1/2 cup warm water in a bowl and sprinkled the packet of yeast on top.

I sprinkled about 1 TB sugar on top of the yeast, stirred, and left to proof.

When it has "proofed," meaning the yeast/water mixture is all poofy and the yeast is active, I squirted a tablespoon or so of extra light olive oil into the mix.

I have egg yolks left over from all the whites I used the other day to clarify my beef stock, so I added in 3 to the yeast mixture. You could just add in one egg. It ain't rocket science.

Maybe 1 1/2 cups flour got forked into the mix. Then I turned it out onto my board. This is the clumpy mass at first.

Kneaded it for about 10-15 minutes, adding in a tablespoon or so of flour as needed, every so often.

Covered with plastic wrap and set it in my little special place for rising. Here's Rosie's TIP 101 AGAIN for helping bread dough rise: What I do is wet a kitchen towel, then nuke it for 90 seconds. I wrap the towel around the dough bowl and set it inside the microwave to rise. The steam and the heat from the towel help the dough rise. Now, I'm working on the savory part of tonight's meal.

I have two chorizo sausages that I used simply because I was tired of looking at them in the deli drawer. I also had some pepperoni, onion, garlic, mushrooms, tomato sauce, and one huge, honkin' tasteless tomato.

First, I cooked the chorizo. And, man, is that some fatty sausage.

After cooking, I angled the pan, sopped up the grease, then squished the sausage, and sopped up more grease.

I chopped the shrooms, onions, and garlic. Cooking Tip #102 - When mincing garlic, run your knife and fingers under warm water. Helps to keep the garlic from sticking. And the more you work your garlic, the stronger the flavor.

I cooked the shrooms first in extra light olive oil. I like to use Bertolli's Extra Light. This oil doesn't overpower any food I cook and it's just a nice behind-the-scenes oil. Never add salt to your mushrooms when you're trying to saute them. The salt brings out the moisture in the shrooms, thus steaming them, not sauteeing them.

I added in onions and garlic.

A can of tomato sauce, to which I added water, swirled, and poured the rest out into the mix.

Oregano.

And my special ingredient ... (small voice) Fennel Seeds. (InaPhiles, don't throw things at me.)

Rosie's Cooking Tip #103: When preparing pepperoni for your pizza, slice it, dice it, chop it, whatever, and place on paper towels. Nuke it for 20 secs at a time several times, until you get the grease out. Blot with more paper towels. See? All that grease would have been on your pizza!

Crap. That's a tomato. On sale at Harris Teeter. I just peeled it. That's just sad.

Peeled, chopped tomato went into the pizza sauce.

Beat the risen dough down. My fave part.

I divided the dough into 6 balls.

Taking one ball at a time, press down and form into a disk...

For the savory pizzas, I added some of the sauce onto half of the dough, then topped with cubed mozarella and grated parmesan. I folded the dough half over the filling, sealed and crimped it, then brushed with an egg glaze.

Baked in a 450-degree oven for about twenty minutes.

OK. This was quite good. All right, DAMN good. What I did wrong, heh ... What I did wrong... You won't be hearing me say that very much. What I did wrong ... was not put enough sauce and cheese in the calzone. I thought I had plenty. Noop. Go over the top on the tomato sauce and the cheeses.

The bread dough rose very nicely and gave itself up to the airy interiors. Should've put in more sauce and cheese to ooze into those spaces.

Isn't this nice?

Crunchy exterior. Oozy interior. The best of both worlds.

Now, I'm starting on Giada's sweet calzones. Heh... Giada's calzones. I'm 12.

My mise en place: 3/4 cup whole milk ricotta cheese 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese 1 large egg yolk 2 TB powdered sugar

I put all the ingredients into my mini Cuisinart. Mixed, transferred to small bowl, covered, and refrigerated for 30 minutes.

Next, I blended 2/3 cup Nutella with 3 TB heavy cream.

On three of the pizza rounds, I spread out the ricotta mixture.

Then topped with the Nutella mixture.

Sealed, crimped, and brushed with an egg glaze.

Baked both sweet and savory calzones in a 450-degree oven for about 20 minutes. Probably should have put a few vent holes in the calzones.

Savory calzone.

Sweet calzone with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

Then I put a fresh strawberry/sugar puree on top.

Step back. I will KILL for this.

Absolutely divine. And the best thing yet, I have all these ingredients left over. Plus homemade puff pastry in my freezer.

I will sooooo be making something with the strawberry glaze, the mascarpone and ricotta, the Nutella and cream. And my puff pastry. And it will be AWESOME.

Trust me on this.