Calzones

As Autumn approaches, the chill in the evening air encourages me to turn on my oven again. I've been wanting to make Calzones for the longest time. Well, we finally made them last weekend and I must admit, they turned out really well. Sadly, my children called them Pizza Pockets and Hot Pockets because they've never seen them anywhere else! I tried a new pizza dough recipe for the calzones and liked it enough that later in the week we made pizzas out of it (which I'll share with you next). Want to make your own calzones? Here's how.

You'll need the following:

Pizza dough (make your own or buy uncooked dough)
Tomato sauce (I used Prego.)
Grated Cheeses (Cheddar, Mozzarella, Parmesan, Provolone)
Pizza Toppings (we used only pepperoni for this first try, but next time, the sky's the limit)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Roll out your pizza dough into 7" or 8" circles. I like mine thinner, Superman likes his thicker for a breadier calzone.

On one half of the circle, spread the sauce with the back of a spoon. How much you use depends on your taste. Again I only like a little sauce and Superman and Valiant like a lot of sauce.

Then add your toppings to the area you sauced: Cheese, pepperoni, etc.

Fold over your dough and roll the edges a bit to seal them.

Beat one egg and, using a pastry brush, do an egg wash on each calzone. That is what gives you the nice golden brown crust.

Bake for roughly 25 minutes, but check your calzones after about 15 minutes to guage their doneness. Remember, you want the insides to get bubbly hot and the outsides to get nice and golden brown.

When they're done, pull them out of the oven and serve. These were really, really good and I urge you to give them a try.

That's it! That is all it takes to make calzones. So, if you're like me, you'll be saying, "Why didn't I try this sooner?"