If you’re looking for a quick and easy meal that’s also kid friendly, then look no further than these Bacon Cheeseburger Calzones. You get all the ingredients of your favorite burger rolled up into a delicious little pocket that makes it easy to eat on the go or great for parties. Just roll out some crescent roll dough, brown up some ground beef and onions, add in a few of your favorite burger toppings, fold it all up, and bake until brown and bubbly. Simple and delicious!
Making The Perfect Calzone
Personally, I prefer to let the bacon crisp up in the oven while I brown the hamburger and onion together and chop the tomatoes. It saves me some time cleaning up the stove later from all the bacon splatters. If you don’t mind the grease, though, feel free to fry it up in a skillet in a couple messy minutes. If you do cook the bacon in the oven first, be sure to lower the oven temperature once you take the bacon out, to make sure you don’t overcook the calzones.
Also, take care not to overfill your calzone. You want to be sure you can get a good seal all the way around, otherwise, you’ll have filling falling out all over. Calzone fail. Still delicious, but not as handy as just picking it up and taking a nice big bite.
Bacon Cheeseburger Calzone
Ingredients:
8 slices of bacon
1 pound lean ground beef (at least 80%)
¼ cup diced onion
¼ cup chopped bread and butter pickle slices
¼ cup ranch dressing
2 Italian plum tomatoes, diced
4 slices American or Cheddar cheese, cut in half
2 cans refrigerated crescent dinner rolls, 8 oz
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup bbq sauce, optional
Directions:
Heat your oven to 400°F and bake the bacon in a foil-lined pan in the lower third of the oven for 15 – 20 minutes, until crispy. Let it cool completely, then crumble into pieces. Alternately, dice bacon into 1/4-inch pieces and cook it in a skillet over medium heat until crispy. Drain grease.
Lower oven temp to 375°F. Add the ground beef and onion to skillet and cook, stirring occasionally until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain if necessary. Stir in the ranch dressing.
Unroll the crescent dough and separate each can into 4 separate rectangles; place each rectangle on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press or roll each rectangle into a 7 x 4-inch rectangle or slightly larger, firmly pressing perforations to seal.
Spoon about ⅓ cup of the ground beef mixture onto one end of each rectangle. Top each rectangle with diced tomato, pickles, bacon, and 1 piece of cheese. Then, fold the dough completely over the filling and press the edges with a fork to seal (the sandwiches will be full). Brush the tops with the beaten egg.
Bake your calzones for 15 to 20 minutes or until deep golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet and serve warm with the bbq sauce, if desired.
