It was a stromboli kind of morning

This summer my husband was playing with food again.  He mixed up a batch of minced bologna and salami and both turned out great.  Sure beats the stuff I’ve been buying at the store and yes, I’m biased.  Soon after he had accomplished his food play he wondered when we, scratch that, I could make stromboli for lunch for the employees.  It looked way too big for me at the time so we settled for making hoagie sandwiches one day.  But I knew stromboli was still on the to-do list.  So today was the day.
All of the meat ingredients were made and processed at our meat plant – ham, salami, minced bologna and hot sausage.  I purchased grated cheese, white american cheese and frozen bread dough.  I also rounded up some extra baking sheets from my daughters-in-law.

I’ve assumed everyone knows how to make stromboli but here’s my version.
Ingredients for 1 stromboli:
1 frozen bread dough, thawed
6-8 slices of ham
9 slices of salami
6 slices of minced bologna
3/4 pound of hot italian sausage - cooked, drained and cooled
4-5 slices White American cheese
2 cups shredded cheese – your choice
softened butter
oregano

Thaw out a frozen bread dough.  They were still pretty cold this morning when I started so I put them in the microwave for a short    1-2 minute spin at Power 4.  Warmer, softer dough is a little easier to roll out. Half the work in making stromboli is getting the dough rolled out to size.  I aimed for a rectangle that measured approximately 18” x 9”.
I start with a layer of ham.  I layer it in a way that when I’m done I’ve actually doubled up on the ham.  Put your first piece of ham close the edge, lay the second piece so that it covers half of the first piece and repeat.  I used about 6-8 pieces and then tore another piece in 1/2 and used at both ends so that the ends also had a second layer.  My goal is that the end pieces have just as much meat and cheese as the center pieces.

Then I repeat the same steps with salami.  I used 9 slices and tore the last slice in half again for the ends.
Next came a single layer of white american cheese.  This took 4 1/2 slices

Then a good layer of shredded cheese of your choice.  Mine this morning was a mild yellow cheddar.

Next layer is a generous portion of hot Italian sausage that has been cooked and cooled.  You can use any flavor of sausage – my gang likes things on the spicy side.
Top with another layer of shredded cheese – I used a 4 cheese Mexican mix.
And the last layer is minced bologna.
You’ll notice that things are spilling out every where but it will all get neatly tucked in the sides as you pull the dough sides up and together.

If the dough is warm and soft enough it will stretch easily as you pull up one side…

and then the other.

 

The ends will naturally have extra dough but I try to tuck the edges in and around..

and then pull out and up…


and back over.


It’s really nice if your stomboli stuffins’ stay inside where they belong while it's baking so make sure to seal all the edges together.  Here again softer dough makes this step easier.
  
Place the finished stromboli seam-side down on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  I ended up moving the stromboli’s closer to the outside edges so they wouldn’t touch each other and bake together.

To finish the boli’s I use my fingers and coat the tops and sides with softened butter. 

I’ve tried melted butter but found that it tends to run down the sides and onto the pan and then it sends the smoke alarm lady off on a tizzy. 
The last step before ready for the oven is to sprinkle oregano over the top.

Here’s my 12 stromboli’s all ready for the oven.  My son arrived and helped to deliver two pans each to each daughter-in-law to bake in her oven.  What was nice about this taking extra time this morning was that the stromboli’s had time to sit and rise a little before putting them in the oven.  Letting them rise a little makes a boli with a softer, dough-ier dough.  We like them best this way.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until it turns a golden, yummy colored brown.

I discovered that ovens are very different.  One DIL’s gas oven had her 4 stromboli’s baked in about 1/2 an hour.  The other DIL has a convection oven (I’m so jealous) and it took about 20-25 minutes.  My 4, however, took about 45 minutes in a gas oven.  So bottom line is too bake ‘em til the look ready to eat.  It’s best to take them out of the oven and let set for a few minutes – other wise the melted cheese and all the yummy juices run out.  Til we all got our stromboli’s pack in the car and delivered to the shop and served they were perfect.
Oh – and 12 of them were more then enough for our lunch gang.  We gave some to a few customers who showed up over lunch and to a neighbor at the shop (it’s good to keep your neighbors happy).  We also noticed that they’ve started to work at repairing the stonebridge that has been closed since the damage it received from the flood.  A quick look-see down the hill said there were about 5 guys working so my son, my husband and I loaded up a pan of slices and delivered it to the guys.  It’s fun to do things unexpectedly and out of the norm.  Making enough food to share is always so fun and a great blessing.
So now things all cleaned up at the shop and at home and it’s soon time to figure out what to make for breakfast for the gang tomorrow morning.  The bridge crew said they may back ‘er down a few notches so they’ll be around tomorrow morning.  =)