Mini Spinach Calzones...

It's another pizza night for us this Friday evening and we have quite the fun little treat to share - these Mini Spinach Calzones!

I wonder if we'll ever get tired of doing this each week, but so far the pizzas are coming out of the kitchen left and right. I don't see us slowing down anytime soon... as long as we can keep up the variety! Use whatever dough you want as a base, but of course, I toddled off to the pantry so I could grab the ingredients for our favorite whole-wheat pizza dough. I've made this so often now I don't even bother to look at the ratios anymore... I do think we should branch out and try a few other types at some point, but this one is so consistent and a breeze to make.

Rather than popping out tiny pieces of dough and pressing each one out for these mini guys, once my pound of dough was ready to work with, I stretched it out into a fairly large square and then divvied it up into smaller squares. In the center of each, I placed a small dollop of a creamy, spinach-laden filling made from stirring together creamy cheese, spinach, Parmesan, scallions, a clove of garlic, crushed red pepper and one of those "special" ingredients that go surprisingly well with spinach, fresh grated nutmeg! To help the dough stick together, we brushed the edges of the squares with an egg wash, then folded over the dough of each square into a triangle and sealed the edges together using the tines of a fork.

After placing the charming triangles on the baking sheets, we brushed the tops with a little more of that egg wash and randomly tossed on a bit of Parmesan cheese. You'll also want to puncture the top of each with a fork so the air has somewhere to go as these enclosed pizza pockets bake. Since they are miniature, they won't take long to bake - ours were pipping hot and golden in just about 12 minutes!

After we had all we could eat tonight, I wished I had made a double batch of these - I think they would be perfect to freeze and have on hand for a speedy, nutritious afternoon snack after a trip through the toaster oven or microwave. You could play around with the filling to suit your wants - how about replacing the Parmesan with feta, use a flavored cream cheese or even try adding some crumbled crisped bacon into the mix? Serve them alone for a poppable one or two-bite appetizer by themselves or have a warmed bowl of your favorite pizza or marinara sauce on the side for dipping!

Recipes
Mini Spinach Calzones