around here, things are a special kind of crazy!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Buffalo Calzones and S'mores Cookie Sandwiches

Buffalo Chicken Ranch Calzone
 I finally made the calzones today!They were fantastic and- though I had some minor issues with the dough- fairly easy to put together. The recipe calls for cubing your chicken then marinading it in your favorite hot sauce overnight. I left the tenders whole and only marinaded them for 6 hours (still plenty of time!) before sauteing and shredding them. The dough itself was the recipe from the same site, very simple and plain, but an excellent consistency and a great carrier for the flavorful fillings.

Oozing deliciousness
I split the dough unevenly into thirds and made two calzones and a pizza. Pon had a cheese and turkey lunch meat pizza, Pug a buffalo and bleu cheese calzone, and I ate a buffalo and ranch calzone. All three of us were quite satisfied with our meals. And for dessert:

S'mores Cookies Sandwiches
These were utterly phenomenal. Heydew stopped by today to help me bake them. Well, that was the intention- Pon ended up chasing her out of the kitchen yelling "No! Hot! Get out!" He may hear something similar albeit less harshly whenever I'm cooking. So instead Heydew kept Pon busy while I baked!

I can taste your jealousy from here
The recipe yielded 31 cookies, though we only made 13 sandwiches. A few cookies were lost to sampling and the floor (boo!). I may adapt the recipe to include the marshmallow in the cookie and not make sandwiches in the batch I'm baking tonight for Pug to take in to work for Ladibugg's (a coworker) birthday. I'd briefly thought about cupcakes, but I don't have liners. Besides, I definitely have all of the ingredients for more s'more cookies on hand!

**EDIT** I've had a few requests for both of these recipes, so I'm writing them out. They are linked above, but here you go! *starred italic notes will be places I deviated or little bits of advice

 Buffalo Chicken Calzones (adapted slightly from Baked by Rachel)

Pizza Dough
Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water *warm is 100-110 degrees. Any hotter will kill your yeast, cooler won't wake it up.
1 pkg instant yeast *or 2 1/4 tsp if using yeast from a jar, like I did
*1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups water, room temp
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups bread flour *I used AP, it was fine, but I did have to add about a cup extra flour
1 1/2 tsp salt

In a bowl or multi-cup measuring cup dissolve yeast *and sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Let stand until the yeast puffs up, about 5 minutes or so. Add in second batch of water and oil, stir to combine.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix dry ingredients. Add in your liquid mixture slowly. *Check stickiness and add more flour a Tbls at a time if necessary. It is impossible to knead dough that sticks to your hands like cookie dough! the consistency of playdoh is a good reference point, so somewhere close to that is good. Remove from your bowl and knead by hand for 5-10 minutes. Form your dough into a ball and transfer to a large greased bowl. *Just pour in about a Tbls of olive oil. Eyeballing it is fine, this part is to keep the dough from sticking to the bowl of the plastic wrap as it rises. Flip the dough after tossing it in so both sides are now greased a bit. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm, but not hot, location. Let your dough rise until it almost doubles in size, 2 hours or a bit more.
Divide dough into two equal parts. On a lightly floured work area, shape each part into a small ball knead and add more flour if necessary. If it sticks to your hands, add some flour, but just a small bit at a time. Cover with a damp towel. Let rise for 10-20 minutes more. *As I said above, I divided it unevenly into thirds, and I didn't really let it rise a second time. I had a hungry toddler on my hands!
Preheat your oven to 500. Take one of the balls and roll out or stretch with your hands, to fit your pan. *I did 425 and baked the calzones for 15 minutes and the pizza for 10.

Filling and Baking

1 batch pizza dough
2C cubed chicken breast *I used 6 blsl chicken tenderloins for two calzones
1/2C+ Buffalo sauce, divided *I used the Aldi brand I had on hand. Use your favorite.
1/4C chunky blue cheese dressing *or ranch. I made one each.
1C mozzarella cheese, shredded
1C mild cheddar cheese, shredded *I used a handful of italian blend cheese in each of my calzones and sprinkled just a bit more on top.


Divide your prepared dough equally (or not) into as many calzones as you intend to make and roll each portion out into about 1/4-1/2 inch thick rectangle-ish oval-y shape. Once you're content with the thickness and size of your dough, spread your choice of dressing across half of your dough (vertically for long skinny calzone), get close to the edge but don't go over of it will be hard to seal. Next add as much chicken as will be even across all of your calzones. A handful of cheese(s) followed by a few more squirts of hot sauce, if you like it that way rounds out the filling. To close your calzone, either fold over the naked half and pinch it shut, or starting with the filled side, carefully (loosely) roll it, folding down the ends about halfway though like a burrito. Sprinkle with more cheese and bake for 10- 15 minutes, depending on your oven and the thickness of your dough.

I rolled out the dough on my silpat, then after the calzone was sealed just slid the silpat onto a tray and baked it. You could also try aluminum foil or sprinkle a little corn meal directly onto your pan and roll out and fill the calzone there. The hot sauce and dressing may leak out though, so just watch what you bake it on.

Smore's Cookies Sandwiches (lifted straight from Bakingdom) 

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (5 full sheets) graham crackers, crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed (light or dark, both work fine)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 full Hershey’s bars, coarsely chopped
  • 24 squares Hershey’s chocolate (2 full bars) *Our recipe made more cookies, so we used more
  • 6 large marshmallows, cut in half *Here too! Cooking shears did really well for the cutting, with minimal squishing of the marshmallow.
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat mat; set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, crushed graham crackers, salt, and baking soda; set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy and light in color. Beat in the egg until just combined and stir in the vanilla. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the butter mixture and beat until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chopped chocolate.
  4. Place 1 tablespoons portions of cookie dough about 2-inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until edges are golden brown and center are slightly firm. *We used a cookie scoop and baked for 12 minutes, but you know your oven best.
  5. Transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack and immediately place 2 Hershey’s chocolate squares on top of half of the cookies while they are still hot (these will be the top cookie of the sandwich).
  6. Preheat the broiler. Place the remaining half of the cookies bottom side up on the cookie sheet and place one half of a marshmallow, cut side down, on each cookie. Broil until golden, 30 to 45 seconds. Immediately place the top cookie over the marshmallow and press gently to spread it between the two cookies. Allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving. *Watch the broiling closely! I left mine in for too long the second time and the marshmallows got a little charred. Thankfully lots of people prefer them that way. Also, we did not wait nearly that long to start eating them. It is a s'more after all!
So there are the recipes! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

1 comment:

So, what do you think?