Calzones and Cinnamon Bread

That's why they call it bakestravaganza.

I have never in my life baked pizza crust or bread from scratch...so I figured, why not do both? And of course, there is no time like the present.

First, we have calzones. Apparently "real" Italian calzones don't have any sauce on the inside...they just use it on the side to dip the calzone in. So that's what we did. I made the dough first, which by the way was the most perfect pizza/calzone dough I can imagine, and on the inside, we had ricotta, mozzerella, spinach, pepperoni, basil and oregano.

I brushed the edges with egg before sealing, which helped a lot, and then brushed egg on the outside of the dough, which turned it a great golden color. Here you go!

Next up, I've been challenging myself with my baking by letting Jim pull any crazy dessert he would like out of a hat and then making it. That resulted in the delicious Portuguese egg tarts, and now he chose this pull-apart cinnamon bread. Let me just say, I am consistently amazed with how the most minute variations in the same basic ingredients can yield such deliciously different results. This bread contains only butter, milk, yeast, sugar, flour, egg, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, but somehow through the magic of the recipe and the science behind kitchen chemistry, it becomes something spectacularly more than the sum of its parts.

Ladies and gentlemen, cinnamon sugar pull apart bread.

Yes, I will unashamedly admit that it is ten times better (and tastes more like a cinnamon roll) than my much slaved upon creative endeavor of last week, maple pecan cinnamon rolls, and it achieves the effect without a drop of glaze, frosting, icing, nothing. And of course, the cherry on top is the utter fun that is eating pull-apart bread. Yes, it peels layer by gooey layer just like those peelable biscuits, but a thousand times better. Yes, you will consume probably half the loaf before you are able to control yourself. No, you will regret nothing.

This is comfort food night in our little household and oh, how comforted I am.

In other news, we signed a lease on the spectacular house that we were looking at. I absolutely cannot wait to get into my new kitchen!

And as I look at the clock I realize it's everyone's favorite day of the week. Perfection! Happy Friday all!