Calzones

My Sister in law, Sheri is one of the best cooks I know. She taught me a lot about cooking in the early days of marriage to her little brother! I lived a long way from home, so she took me under her wing. She became the sister I never had. Grant and his sister Janay, and brother Brett often joke about how she acted like their mother, even though she was only a year older than Janay, and two and three years respectively, older than the boys. When they were young Sheri would refer to them as "the kids". She has a gift for taking care of people and is one of the most generous people I know. This is a recipe she gave to me a long time ago, and it has since become a Foster family favorite. It is great as a main dish, or as an appetizer, cut into strips, with the sauce served on the side.

Calzones

Dough:
6 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup butter or margarine, melted
½ cup cracked wheat (found in baking section)
1 tablespoon yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
water

Boil 2 cups water and ½ cup cracked wheat in saucepan until water is absorbed and wheat is soft. Takes about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Place yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar in ½ cup warm water. Let stand 5 minutes. Measure flour, salt, ½ cup butter and ½ cup sugar into food processor with blade and process about ½ minute. Add yeast mixture, and cooled cracked wheat mixture. Add 1 to 1 ½ cups warm water. Mix well. Shape dough into a ball and place into large bowl. Cover with cloth and let rise for about 1 hour until doubled in size.

**If you can not find cracked wheat, skip the whole boiling water and adding the cracked wheat step. Just add extra flour to the recipe. I would start with about 1/2 cup white or wheat flour.

Sauce:
1 can S & W thick and chunky tomato sauce
1 large clove garlic
2 teaspoons oregano
1 teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon basil
½ teaspoon rosemary
pinch of sage
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tomato, chunked
Put all ingredients into saucepan, cook over low heat until sugar is dissolved.

Filling:
Grated mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, ricotta cheese
Chopped olives, onion, fresh spinach, sauteed mushrooms, pepperoni etc.

Roll out dough into 6-8” circles. Put desired fillings into each circle, just covering one half of the circle. Fold the other side of the dough over, crimp edges, and seal. Bake on a pizza stone or a cookie sheet at 425-450 degrees for
15-20 minutes. Serve with sauce.

Note-
This photo is not mine, and I can't find the link to credit the original photographer. 

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