Ham n' Cheese Stromboli with Mustard Sauce

Ham n' Cheese Stromboli with Mustard Sauce

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Not sure about most folks but, my Mom raised six children and always had a complete dinner on the table every night.  I learned a lot from her about organization and cooking.  She threw more parties then I could ever imagine. (and at 85, she is still doing so too!)  If it was a large party or small get together, she always had the right food, enough of it and everything was always super tasty!   I remember when I helped her make these little ham sandwiches as a part of an upcoming cocktail party, and thought it was so odd we were pouring a mustard & butter sauce over the tops of all these little sandwiches we worked on building. (ok, I thought she was crazy!)  LOL  somehow, the sauce just seeps into the bread and creates a wonderful and tasty "crust" and turned a simple ham sandwich into a cocktail party - treat!  I decided to try and turn that into a stromboli for dinner and I will admit, I am glad i did and now I am excited to try all sorts of cheese/meat combos with different sauces too!  I have seen similar sandwich recipe all over the internet - I'm sure back in the 1960's my Mom got her recipe she uses from the Chicago Sun Times 'recipe section' as that is where she got most inspired... I don't know who else to credit for this recipe so, the credit goes to my Mom!  ~Enjoy! Diane 

Ham n' Cheese Stromboli with Mustard Sauce 

Mom's Ham n Cheese Mustard Sauce Ingredients:
5 Tablespoons Butter
1 Tablespoon Yellow Mustard
1 teaspoon Minced Onion
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Poppy-seeds

Combine all sauce ingredients in small saucepan on stove top, let butter melt and stir everything together, turn off burner, set aside to prepare/assemble stromboli.  

Stromboli Ingredients: 
1 package/tube of Pillsbury Thin Crust Pizza Dough
or 
Homemade Pizza Dough (this recipe for the New York Times/Cooking section) 
2 ¾ cups  bread flour
2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)
2 teaspoons sea salt
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup warm water
2 or 3 tablespoons medium or coarse cornmeal

If making Homemade Dough:
Put the flour, yeast and salt in a food processor. With the machine running, pour the oil through the feed tube, then add the water in a slow, steady stream. Continue to process for 2 to 3 minutes (the dough should form a rough ball and ride around in the processor). The finished dough should be soft, slightly sticky and elastic. If too dry, add a bit more water; if too wet, a tablespoon or so more flour.
Lay a 12-inch-long piece of plastic wrap on a clean work surface. Work the dough into a rectangle on the plastic, about 8 inches long and 6 inches wide. Press your fingers into the top of the dough all over, making indentations as though it were a focaccia bread. 
Fold the left third of the dough over (as you would a letter) and repeat the indentations. Fold the right third over and make the indentations again. Cover the folded dough with plastic wrap and let rise for 20 minutes.
Cut the dough in half, form each piece into a neat ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and transfer to the freezer. The morning before you want to make pizza, transfer the dough to the refrigerator to thaw.

Assembly for Stromboli: 
Preheat oven to 380.
Lightly brush olive oil over a non stick cookie sheet.  Lay pizza dough (that has been rolled out in a large rectangle) onto cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with cheese leaving the edges bare by about 1-2 inches all the way around. Next, lay one single layer of ham over cheese.  Starting from bottom (short end) roll away from you (upwards), tucking in edges slightly as you go.  Turn the completed, rolled stromboli to center onto cookie sheet, lightly pat down all over to create a flatter (more square) stromboli (((once rolled it will look like a circular log, you want to pat that down a bit)))  Check over your dough and pinch together any seams or holes in dough that may have opened up.  place three small "airholes" on top of dough with a knife - this will let the bread vent while cooking.  Place in oven and bake for 15 mins.  Pull cookie sheet out of oven and use a knife to make slits in the top of the stromboli dough (about 2 inches long), at this time you will also baste your bread with the mustard sauce - depending on how large your stromboli is...you may not use ALL the sauce. If needed, use a paper-towel to quickly mop up any sauce that has puddled around stromboli on the cookie sheet and place back in the oven to finish cooking another 15 minutes (keep an eye on the crust for any burning)  you want a nice brown crust without any burning of the bottom crust.) 
Take out of oven and let cool 5 minutes before slicing and serving.