Smoked Mozzarella and Apple Mini-Calzones

On Saturday night I had friend and her family coming over for dinner. I hadn't spent much time with this friend recently and so having her family of four coming over gave me the inspiration to try all of these amazing recipes I keep finding on Pinterest. I actually had 5 new recipes to try on her family as guinea pigs! Watch out and cross your fingers!

I started out the evening with a Smoked Mozzarella and Apple Calzone. I found smoked mozzarella at Whole Foods. I really wanted to use whole wheat pizza crust, but I didn't have time to make my own and the grocery store only had regular pizza crust. I had quite a bit of the various filling ingredients left over, but I don't think I could've managed to stuff any more things inside.

My guests gave it the thumbs up. I loved them with the dijon mustard for dipping, my husband didn't. This was labor-intensive so next time I might try and use crescent rolls, although that might be sacrificing too much flavor to save some time. I'll let you know...

Makes 12.

Ingredients:

1 whole wheat pizza crust

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tbs butter
1 medium apple (honeycrisp, fuji)
1 cup diced smoked mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
handful of fresh thyme
handful of fresh chives

extra virgin olive oil for brushing
dijon mustard to serve

Instructions:

1. Make the pizza dough or use store-bought fresh dough, let it come to room temperature
2. Warm butter over medium heat in a saucepan and add the thinly sliced onion. Continue to move them every so often until they begin to caramelize, about 12-20 minutes.
3. Seed and cut the apple into a rough dice. Pull the thyme leaves and give them and the chives a nice chop. Get all of your fillings in order.
4. Roll out dough into a rectangle shape. Roll it thin, but not too thin since you don't want it to rip. Make 3x3 inch squares and lay them on a floured baking sheet.
5. Pile toppings into the middle of the square. Take a pinch of onions, then apple, both cheeses then herbs. Add a twist of black pepper if desired. Fold one corner across to the opposite corner, gently press and fold the open edges and pinch or roll the edges.
6. Brush the top of each mini calzone with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake in the upper third of the over for about 14 minutes, until tops are crispy brown. Let them rest a minute before eating. Serve with dijon mustard for dipping.

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