Christstollen Calzone and LOVE

Wow…it is the week of Christmas 2011!!! It is a busy week for sure, but SO fun. For several weeks we have been having practices with the young elementary children for the church Christmas pageant. It is always so fun and it is always a "made for TV moment" on Christmas Eve. I always sit with the “animals”. This includes sheep and cows. They are mostly Kindergarten and 1^st grade boys. (Can I just whisper…type casting!!) They cannot sit still and they definitely make smells. They are in a constant state of wriggling, punching, poking and bumping, but they can sure baaaaa and mooooo on cue! I have always had a tender spot in my heart for little boys and sheep…Baaaaa!!!!

I guess because I have been sitting on the floor in front of the stage, I have been seeing a wonderful view looking up to the stable where the manger of hay is center stage. I love the words swaddling clothes...(without all of the theological foreshadowing stuff). I just love the idea of a newborn baby all wrapped in cloth as a way of providing warmth, comfort and security. It represents an act of love. I don’t have an actual picture of my little animals making their Saturday night appearance....wish I did, but I would have needed too many mama permission slips. Yikes!! Here, though, is one of my Nativities.  I made it twenty some years ago. As I placed the figures, I thought about a baby all wrapped in white cloth in the midst of hay and lots of sheep. I thought about a new scared mother, totally in love with her newborn child. I sighed.....such love!

In thinking…as I do… the question came to my mind…what food most represents love to me???? Answer...BREAD! We have all heard “bread is life”. So...Life is given by God…God is love… Especially shown in the gift of His Son that first Christmas…This tiny babe we now celebrate... AND…bread from early in our human history has had a sacred connection...Holy Communion, Passover Matzah…So…on this special week of Christmas, I made a Christmas bread. Sorry, how my mind works.... All my little animals helped inspire this recipe. I created a Christstollen Calzone. Most Christmas stollen are flavored sweetly. They usually contain dried fruits and marzipan. My recipe is a savory stollen...more sheep and cow like...I thought more like a calzone, but with the shape of a classic stollen and using the inspiration of the season of Christmas. I have made the dough “red” in color and with the green gooey filling….ummmm….can we just say CHRISTMAS!! Don’t be afraid of yeast dough! This is not a finicky dough…easily put together and sooo worth the extra effort. I mean, what is better than the smell of baking bread…NOTHING!! A gift of Christmas!!! You can make this before or after Christmas. Make this when everyone is ready for pizza, but hey…it’s a special time...so make a Christmas Stollen Calzone instead! Special!!!

Christstollen Calzone Recipe:

1 cup water…should be warm to touch

(I usually use an instant read thermometer and like it to be about 110 degrees)

Add to water:

1 package of dry rapid rise yeast

2 tsp. of natural sugar

Stir to mix and allow to “Just be” for 5 minutes or so…

 Look at how good the yeast is...lots of foam!

In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients:

1 ½ cups all purpose unbleached flour

¾ cup whole-wheat flour

¼ cup vital wheat gluten

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. of kosher salt

2 tsp. of dried basil (or oregano if you prefer)

¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper

Add ½ cup of your favorite marinara sauce to the water and yeast…stir well.

Make a well in the center of the flour and add:

2 T. of extra virgin olive oil

all of the yeast, and marinara liquid.

Stir well. The dough will be soft and ready to turn out onto the counter to knead.

Dust the counter with all purpose flour and begin kneading the dough, pushing and turning with the heels of your palms. Add more flour as needed (could be up to ½ to ¾ cup more of flour). The dough will become shiny and elastic. This takes about 10 minutes. You can also do this in a stand mixer with a dough hook, but I just love to knead dough by hand!! Form the dough into a ball. Put 1 T. of olive oil in a bowl and place the kneaded ball of dough in the oil. Roll the ball over so that the oiled bottom is now up and on top.

Cover dough and place in a warm place to rise. It will need to double in size. The time it takes depends on the temp where the dough is rising. At least an hour or two will be needed.

While dough is rising make the filling:

1 (8 oz.) package of frozen spinach - thawed

(chopped) – I could only get leaf…the store was all out for all the spinach dip being made I guess hehe!!  Just chop after thawing and it works just as well. To quick thaw from a frozen state – open paper box and place on a plate. Place opened box in the microwave and cook on high for 2 minutes. Leave it in the microwave until the spinach is cool to the touch. Squeeze out the water and place in several layers of toweling. Allow this to absorb any additional moisture)

While the spinach is drying out... take...

7 oz. of extra firm tofu – ½ of the standard 14 oz. package

(Wrap tofu in toweling. Place on plate and cover with another plate or I used a small cutting board. Weight the plate with a heavy can…I used some beans. This pressing takes out some of the moisture in the water packed tofu)

Chop up an 8 oz. package of baby bella mushrooms. Place in a hot skillet with 2 T. of extra virgin olive oil. Sauté until golden and then add 1 T. of fresh thyme leaves. Add 2 green onions chopped and 1 clove of garlic chopped. The pan will become dry… keep moving around the veggies. Then, deglaze with 2 T. of white wine, or veggie broth. Allow all of this to cook until the liquid is again evaporated. Add a bit of salt and pepper at this point. Wait to season...until the mushrooms have browned. Salting before the mushrooms are seared, causes the mushrooms to release too much liquid and they will stew, rather than brown.

(This is all about building layers of flavor)

Place all in a large bowl:

Dry chopped spinach

Pressed tofu (crumble with your hands)

Mushroom mixture...cooled a bit

2 T. chopped roasted red pepper (jarred is fine)

2/3 cup mozzarella flavored veggie shred “cheese”

¼ cup nutritional yeast

2/3 cup vegan cream cheese

½ tsp. red pepper flakes

¼ tsp. onion salt

½ tsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. dried basil or oregano

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

Mix thoroughly with large spoon, or better yet your hands. Chill the filling until the dough has risen.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Take risen dough and cut in half. Cut in half again, so there are now 4 equal pieces of dough. Roll into balls.

Roll each ball of dough into an 8 or 9 inch circle. Take filling out of the refrigerator. Divide the filling into 4 equal portions. Roll the filling into a 6 inch log and place along the far end of the dough circle.

Now to form into a stollen shape….Take far end of circle (away from the filling) and fold over across the filling (baby).

Press dough around the filling. Then flip up the “tail” of the circle back across the stollen. 

Crimp the edges of the stollen to seal in and tuck the ends underneath.
The "babe wrapped in swaddling clothes" is now formed.

 Place all four of the stollen calzones on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake the stollen calzones for 30 minutes in 350 degree oven.

Take out and brush stollen with earth balance vegan spread. Dust with some nutritional yeast, almond flour (finely ground almonds), oregano, kosher salt, and pepper.

Put stollen calzones back in the oven for 20 minutes more.

While the Christmas stollen calzones are finishing baking, prepare the marinara. Place the remainder of the jarred marinara into a pan to heat.

I always season up jarred sauce. If you make your own, disregard this portion.

If using jarred sauce ( use approximately 3 cups of sauce)

Add:

1 ½ tsp. of basil

1 ½ tsp. of oregano

2/3 cup wine

½ tsp. of red pepper flakes

¼ cup of natural sugar

Drizzle of olive oil

Allow to simmer on low while the stollen calzones are finishing.

When the stollen calzones are done remove from oven.

Gorgeous!!

Here is what the stollen calzones look like cut open!

Christmas colors for sure!

Serve with the spiced up marinara.

Eat this with a crisp salad and you will have a filling yummy meal!!!

All of this bread baking for Christmas??? Yes! Nothing says love like the smell of baking bread. The word yesterday was…LOVE. We lit the fourth advent candle and love was remembered in sooo many ways. 

We sang carols and lullabies in choir and I then remembered singing to my own babies....“You Are My Sunshine”. It’s easy to love our little babes, but the challenge comes loving those outside, or even inside our families that are not little babes. We speak of love, but how challenging it becomes to  DO LOVE when we don’t get our way. When things don’t go “according to OUR plans and expectations”…let’s face it…each of us gets in the way of real love happening. My wish for all of us this Christmas is that the sweet aroma of baking bread will remind us of the sweetness of LOVE. It truly is the answer for all of our life’s challenges. The word rolls off the tongue so easily, but we all know how difficult it really is to DO…right??? We all KNOW better than we DO! My prayer is that each of you this week will recognize and become aware of the ways that your selfless ways of showing love will influence the people and situations in YOUR LIFE and bring about a real Christmas in each of your celebrations. Really, being aware of this and DOING IT will be better than any wrapped gift under your tree. As you swaddle someone in love, I know love will rise within you...just like rising bread. As quoted from a sappy Christmas movie this week…"LOVE is the secret ingredient!" Add love to your recipes this week. There is always hope...always love....even when we cannot see it.

It’s been cold, but my knock out rose is the bush that never quits…little buds of hope! A little Christmas rose!

“Lo, how a rose e’er blooming from tender stem hath sprung,

Of Jesse’s lineage coming, by faithful prophets sung.

It came a floweret bright, amid the cold of winter,

When half spent was the night.”

Thoughtful living moment today: Love IS the miracle of Christmas, the sweet aroma when all respond…ahhhhhh, how sweet! Yes..bake some bread ...or swaddle a pug! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!! And I LOVE YOU...Leslie :-)