Blake Makes

(Blake Bakes) The Reuben sandwich is a thing of pure beauty; rye bread, beautiful corn beef, glorious melted cheese and thousand island dressing. I know, no sauerkraut is practically sacrilegious but I can’t stomach the stuff. It’s all thrown together and preferably pressed on a panini maker.

Unlike many people, I wasn’t introduced to this beautiful sandwich until my twenties. My future mother-in-law asked me if I minded having them for dinner one night, and was in horror when I said I had no idea what this ‘Reuben’ she spoke of was. So began my love affair with the Reuben.

I came across a mention of Reuben calzones awhile back, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. Today was the day I finally decided to get down to business and toss the recipe together.

I went to the store and purchased all the ingredients necessary to make them. I cheated this time and used fresh dough from the Publix bakery. I won’t do this again as the dough was tough and would not roll out properly, it ended up giving me very thick breading and a smaller calzone. I normally use the Peter Reinhart dough recipe.

What you need for the filling:

• 1/2 pound sliced corned beef
• 1/4 pound provolone cheese
• Thousand island dressing
• Pizza dough

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cut dough into 2 even pieces, 4 if you want smaller calzones. Roll out into a circle to about 1/4 inch thickness.

Spread about 2 teaspoons of thousand island dressing in the center of the dough. Place a piece of provolone cheese on top of the mixture and top with 3 to 4 slices of corned beef. Finish off the pile with another slice of provolone cheese. Fold dough over the filling and pinch the edges shut, making sure nothing can leak out. Follow the same instructions for the remaining dough.

Place on baking sheet and slice 2 to 3 holes in the top of the dough so that steam may release.

Place the calzones in the oven for 15 minutes. You should have some provolone cheese left over, remove the calzones from the oven and top each calzone with half a slice of provolone. Return to the oven for 5 to 10 more minutes; keep an eye out for the dough to turn a nice golden brown color.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes then slice in half.

I found that I needed more dressing as some leaked out during baking so I poured some into the open cavity that formed when I cut the calzone in half.

Lexi is just dipping her foot into the culinary world and has a passion for baking. A few dozen failed experiments later and here she is finally making food that people love. She is based in Tampa, alongside her loving fiance and spends her non-baking free time supporting him in his music career. She also loves videogames, movies and reading. You can read about the current events in her life at Lexib0t.com.