Fancy for Friends...a gluten free, vegetarian killer!!

When true friends come from out of town to visit, you have to pull out all the stops, am I right?  Well I've been working on gluten free, vegetarian calzones now for a little while and I finally perfected them enough to try out on some innocent bystanders. So when our friend Lisa came to visit from good ol' Tennessee I served them up.  You can stuff these guys with whatever you want, and you can save extra or leftover dough for another time.  However you fix them, this is sure to be a favorite, just make sure you stock up on the tunes and beverages because the prep on this one is one of those preps you save for special occasions such as this one. 

For these spinach, broccoli, artichoke, and mushroom calzones you will need the following:
For the dipping sauce:

3 cans crushed tomatoes
2 tsp garlic powder
3 tsp onion powder
3 tsp Italian seasoning
Salt and pepper to taste
For the filling:
1/2 large red onion chopped
2 cups broccoli chopped
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1/2 can mushrooms or 1 cup fresh
1/2 can artichoke hearts
3 cloves garlic minced
Olive oil and butter

1 egg beaten w/ a splash of milk
(you can do this right before the oven so wait)
Mozzarella cheese
Feta cheese
For the dough:
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tsp honey
1 cup warm water (not hot!!)
3 cups Bob's Red Mill all purpose gluten free flour and a little extra for dusting
Must Have this!!! 6 tsp xanthan gum - Bob's Red Mill sells this, but this will not work without xanthan gum!!

First thing is first.  Take your warm water and add the salt, honey, and yeast to it, stir it a little bit and set it off to the side for 10-15 minutes.  While that is sitting, put your gf flour and xanthan gum in a bowl, and go ahead and get all of your other stuff out and ready to go, and by the time you get it all ready, you will be ready to pour your yeast mixture in to the flour and mix it up.  The yeast mixture should smell like beer and have a nice layer of foam on top. If it doesn't look and smell like this - (the picture is scratch and sniff so go ahead and scratch it) you may have something wrong.  Try again, but yeast is almost foolproof so you shouldn't have a problem unless it is ridiculous cold in your house.

 If the mix is too dry and doesn't form a nice sticky ball then add a little water, if it is too wet, add a little more flour.  Once you get it to a nice doughy consistency, knead the ball for at least ten minutes.  No crazy technique here, just mush it around and fold it up and mush it some more for ten minutes.  After the kneading, get a clean bowl that the whole ball will fit in to nicely, put about a tsp olive oil in it and then roll the dough ball around in the oil and then leave the ball in the bowl, cover and let it rise for about an hour.  That's right, an hour, so now you have time to complete the rest of the recipe, and drink some wine, talk to your friends, let your dog lick your face.....OK, set the bowl of dough to the side in a warm place for an hour and it should almost double in size, and after a while should make little popping noises - that's just carbon dioxide popping out of the dough from the yeast - no the yeast is not trying to tell you ANYTHING.  While this is going on let's complete the rest of the stuff.

Get all of your filling ingredients except for cheese and egg and milk and saute them in about 3 tbsp olive oil and a couple pats of butter.  While this stuff is getting soft, pour the crushed tomatoes in a sauce pot, turn it on low heat and add the seasonings.  When all of your filling ingredients get warm and soft, turn them on low heat, and just keep an eye on your dipping sauce.  You can take a little break now just keeping an eye on your filling and sauce from time to time.

After the hour is up, take your dough out and cut it in to quarters.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Roll one of the quarters out with a rolling pin on some flour so it doesn't stick.  Get it good and thin as you want it and then add some filling in the center along with some mozzarella and feta and roll one side over the filling and press it on to the other side.

 Take a pizza cutter and cut off the excess dough and roll the edges up and pinch them tight.  Move the calzone to a greased baking pan, and slice a small breathing hole right in the top.  Repeat these steps for however many more calzones you want.  This recipe usually makes 4 large ones, but you can make 8 small ones if you'd like.  After you get them all stuffed and folded, take that egg and milk mixture and brush the top of each one liberally.  Pop 'em in the oven and bake until golden brown.  Take them out, let cool for a little bit while you divide your dipping sauce in to some small saucers and it's time to eat.  I left some pics that should help with all of this stuff.

ENJOY!!!!