Post-party calzone

Being vegan presents me with a few challenges every now and then and it's safe to say that planning ahead is rather important. According to the myth thou, there's "nothing" I can eat! On the contrary, the options are unlimited. It gives me a chance to explore the world of flavor and "out-of-the-ordinary" foods. It's quite an adventure from time to time.

What ppl usually comment on is the tragedy of me not being able to eat tacos or pizza. Apparently they've never heard of beans. Today I felt like something yummy after a night out celebrating being done with the first of my last exams. Since pizza's not a hit without cheese I realized that calzone did not require cheese and in some ways is actually better than pizza.

Ready, set, cook!

Make pizza dough (probably the easiest thing in the world):
4,5 dl flour
1,5 dl water
1,5 teaspoons oil
0,5 teaspoons salt
25g yeast
pepper <-- my best recommendation! It makes the dough really tasty

Topping: anything you'd like! Here's what I put in:

Crushed tomatoes

Corn

Onion

Beans

Mushroom

Leek

And yes, I'm a natural with the yeast. For some reason beyond me I'm exceptionally good at making things thrice the size it should be.

Heavenly bread

I've always enjoyed cooking and baking, and I might spend more time than the average Joe/Jane in the kitchen. Today I made a wonderful scampi-mango wok which was so good that I didn't even get a chance to take a picture of it. Next time :)

With this in mind it might not come as a surprise that I prefer to bake my own bread. It took some time finding a recipe that I really liked and since I'm involuntary vegan (I'm a vegetarian and also allergic to milk) I had to make sure I found a good recipe which did not contain milk. After some strolling around in the world of full grain bread recipes, I ended up deciding on one only adding a few of my own adjustments. It's very tasty and I can't wait to get up in the morning to have breakfast and then waiting a couple of more hours to have lunch.

Here's the magical recipe (2 loaves):

• 1 liter water
• 50 g yeast
• 2,5 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• approximately 1 dl olive oil
• 2 dl wheat bran
• 2 dl wheat germ
• 4 dl wholemeal flour
• 4 dl wholemeal rye
• approximately 7,5 dl flour
• sesame seeds
• sunflower seeds
• linseeds

Add all the dry ingredients (including the seeds) except wheat flour and stir thoroughly. Heat the water to 37 C. Stir the yeast in some of the water and mix all the yeast and the rest of the water in the batter bowl. Knead the dough well. Add the flour bit by bit to make the dough firm. Don't let the dough become too hard and firm. It's better to leave it a tad soft and light before it is set aside to rise.

Cover the dough with plastic and let it rise to double size for 30-40 minutes in a sheltered place.

Turn the dough on the table. Knead it smooth and add some more flour if too soft and light. Make sure it doesn't turn firm. Cut it in half and shape it into two loaves laid in well-greased tins that take 1 1/2 liters. Cover them with cloth and let it rise for about 30 minutes. Bake on lowest rack in oven at 200 C for 50-60 minutes. I do not recommend hot air baking. Cool on a rack.

Enjoy!