My First Stromboli

While everyone else was out grilling, well not everyone since it was 90° outside, I was inside working on my first stromboli.  When Lien announced that the Bread Baking Babes would be making Stromboli for May, I knew I had to bake along with them for the first time.  I think my favorite cuisine, besides Mexican, is Italian and I had not yet tackled a stromboli.

The dough was very easy to work with, and after chafing for 5 minutes, the dough ball was so smooth, shiny, and satiny, that I had to stop a moment and admire it before I had to flatten it.  (After going to Heather's blog "girlichef", I was introduced to what it means to chafe the dough.)

For the filling of my first stromboli, I used large, sandwhich pepperoni that I had cut at the deli, very thinly sliced country ham also cut at the deli, a handful of basil leaves from my herb pots, three cloves of minced garlic and smoked mozzarella.  I wasn't able to find smoked swiss, so I thought I'd give this a try.

The smoked mozzarella was very good, but it didn't get all oozey and gooey like other cheeses when they're baked.  My husband said this was a good thing, but the cheese did not come out of the holes that I had poked through the rolled stromboli with skewers.  However, maybe I should have put the cheese slices on the dough first, so that they would be right against the holes I would be poking through the rolled log and maybe it would have oozed out a bit. 

The dough rolled up quite nicely and I only had a little bit of sticking to the mat.  I tried to roll it as loosely as I could, like a swiss roll, and here it is all ready for the oven.  I baked mine on a sheet of parchment rather than directly on an oiled baking sheet.  Also, mine didn't bake for quite the full hour, as it seemed done and was quite browned on the outside.

My finished stromboli was a little tricky to cut, but we managed to make a couple nice slices for each of us and we dug in.  This is a very filling dish and it was tasty, but a little too salty for me.  My husband said he thought this was better than the calzones I've made, but myself, I happen to like the calzones better.  This was a nice little challenge and now I can check another item off my mental list of things I want to try.  I will need to think how I can vary the filling ingredients, so that it's not quite so salty next time.

Oops,  I didn't get my post submitted in time for the roundup of stromboli creations, but you can go here to Elle's blog, "Feeding My Enthusiasm"" to view all the wonderful stromboli.

Thank you for visiting my blog!