Buffalo Chicken Calzones Inspired by Erin's Food Files

I've been following Erin's Food Files for several months now. She makes a lot of things that look delicious, but until last week I hadn't actually made any of her recipes. (Sorry, Erin some of your recipes just seem a little more involved than I generally have time/patience for. Like the Red Velvet Cheesecake. Looks amazing, but not something I'll likely try soon.) I tried four with some successes, and I'm certain that I'll try a few more. I love that she uses whole wheat flour in so many of her recipes.

I saw the Buffalo Chicken Calzones and was certain that it would be a winner. However, I made two major changes. I decreased the hot pepper sauce by more than half and I added vegetables because I thought I could get away with it. As it turns out I was correct. It was still plenty hot and you can't taste the veggies. My husband said "I suspect there are several yummy things in here, but the only thing I can taste is Tabasco." So when I make this again I think I will sneak in even more veggies and decrease the pepper sauce. Also when I was sauteing the chicken I decreased the butter by 2/3rds. It still tasted great. To scope out the original (her pictures are better) and more of Erin's great culinary creations go here.

Buffalo Chicken Calzones

1 lb pizza dough (I used a whole wheat recipe from Skinny Bovine's Kitchen that is very good.)
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced
1/4 cup hot pepper sauce
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
1 cup pizza sauce (I have recently found that I love Classico's spicy tomato & basil pasta sauce)
1/3 cup finely chopped baby spinach
2 Tablespoons cauliflower puree

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 2. Cook chicken in oil and butter until no longer pink. Add pepper sauce and simmer for 10 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, mix pizza sauce and vegetables and roll out pizza dough into two flat circles. 4. When chicken is done assemble calzones. Put half of sauce, cheese and chicken on one side of each dough circle. Fold the other half over and press edges to seal. 5. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until dough is golden brown. This makes two very large calzones. Each serves at least two, and they freeze well.

She served hers with a bleu cheese dip. I was lazy and just used Litehouse Chunky Bleu Cheese dressing. But I'm sure her bleu cheese dip is great.

In the past week I also made her Oatmeal Wheat Bread. It was a big hit. My daughter decided that it should be named "Family Bread". We also made her Homemade Graham Crackers. They were ok, but didn't look anything like hers. She served hers with ice cream. I don't think mine could take that, they're too crumbly. I think they will turn into a crust for strawberry pie. I'm not sure what I did wrong there. I also tried her Beer Bread, but without the beer. I used root beer instead of pumpkin ale. It was ok, not as fantastic as I was hoping, but I will take all the credit for that failure. I've done beer bread with Sprite before, I'll have to try her recipe again that way.