Cooking with kids can be equal parts “ I love seeing them smile and engage with their food” and “why do I not shop at Costco for extra jumbo packs of paper towels?!”
While I don’t have any kids of my own I have taken care of kids of all ages and one of my favorite things to do with them is cook. The trick is finding a recipe with the perfect balance of not too messy and making kids feel like they can do it on their own. With summer in full swing I’ve got a fun recipe for you and your kids to enjoy making together!
Yeast Free Mini Calzones!
The best part about this recipe is 1. Who always has active yeast packets in their fridge? And 2. The dough is vegan and very simple to make. So depending on what you fill your calzones with it can accommodate all sorts of diets. I filled my with marinara sauce, white onions, broccoli, green peppers, and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. To keep it vegan just leave out the cheese, to satisfy the carnivores add pepperoni or sausage. The fun part is creating a little fillings buffet and letting kids fill their own calzones!
To make your dough you will need:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
(You can also add rosemary to make delicious rosemary dough!)
Mix all dry ingredients together well and get out all of the clumps. Make a small well in the middle of your dry ingredients and add ½ cup of water and 1 tablespoon of olive oil while mixing slowly. If the dough is still too dry add a little more water or oil until the dough becomes sticky but NOT wet.
Allow dough to chill covered in the fridge for 15-30min.
If you have parchment paper you can roll out portions of dough into small ovals, if you don’t have parchment paper simply dust a countertop or cutting board with flour and roll out your dough there. If you don’t have a rolling pin use a smooth drinking glass and dust the outside of it with flour.
Ovals can be as large or small as you want your mini-calzones to be but remember you need to leave enough room to fill the calzone and fold it over to seal! Also remember to put your fillings on one side of the oval only so you can fold the other side over the top to seal it.
The rest is up to you, fill your calzones with whatever you like; veggies, meats, and cheeses. Once your calzones are full simply fold over the side of the calzone you didn’t put toppings on and seal the edges by pinching them together. Don’t forget to brush the tops of the calzones with oil and cut a slit in the top of each calzone to let steam out!
Bake at 375 for about 20min or until calzones are golden brown.
Fun tip: Instead of cutting slits on top of the calzones cut the first letter of everyone’s first name so not only do you not lose track of who’s calzone is who’s but kids get a little personalized meal!
Enjoy!
-J
July 10, 2015
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