Calzones
Dave and Dexter were gone last night on an overnight 6th grade field trip to Upham Woods. I knew they would get awful food while they were there so I thought I would surprise them with Calzone. The calzone recipe in Homebaking by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid uses salami and cheese for the filling but I’ve gone more Chicago-style with Italian sausage, peppers, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes.
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup whole wheat white flour
3 cups unbleached white flour, more or less
2 medium to large Italian frying peppers
1 medium Onion
3 o4 handfuls of little mushrooms
2 or 3 Roma tomatoes, diced into 1/8″ cubes, no juice or seeds
3 cloves Garlic, chopped fine
8 oz. Mozzarella cheese, grated
12 ounces Italian sausage, hot or sweet, browned and cooled
Put the water, yeast, salt, olive oil, and honey in the mixer bowl. Add the cup of whole wheat white flour. Mix well for 30 seconds. With the mixer running gradually add the remaining flour, pausing after every cup to allow the mixer to work it in. Once all the flour is added check the dough’s consistency. If it is too wet add some four to the bottom of the bowl, if its too dry add some water (not much). Scrape the dough off the mixer paddle and switch to the dough hook. Let the mixer work the dough on medium high for about 5 minutes or until it is smooth. Oil a bowl with olive oil and turn the dough out into it. Cover with saran wrap and let it rise for 1 -2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 375. Chop the veggies into 1 inch chunks. Toss with olive oil and garlic and turn out onto a foil covered baking sheet. Add salt and pepper and bake until they look roasted. This process will get rid of excess water and make for better calzones. The photo above shows the veggies before they’re roasted.
Combine the veggies in a bowl with the sausage and Romas. Toss to combine and cool. The photo above is of the calzone stuffing.
Turn the dough out onto the counter. Work it down with your hands for a minute and then divide it into 6 pieces. Work each piece into circles. When the dough becomes too elastic to work set it aside and start another circle and work through them that way until they are about 8 inches across. The photo above shows the dough as it is being worked through to 8″ circles.
Preheat the oven to 425.
Place a pile of filling in the middle of one half of each round, making sure there is a 1/2 rim of dough clear (very important). Fold the dough over the filling, pinch the edges together and fold over, pinch again.
Let them rise for 30 minutes. Right before putting them in the oven poke a few little holes in the top of each calzone, brush with olive oil, sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes.
This is Dave and his calzone.
I’ve never made calzones before and I’m not sure I’ve ever ate one either. They were great. They are a lot of work but they are so good. Dave and Dexter each ate two but one was more than enough for me. There is one leftover for Dave’s lunch tomorrow. Have you ever made calzones?
Tomorrow I’m shopping at Madison’s new Trader Joe’s so I’ll post on that. On Saturday night we’ll shut out servers down at 10:00 p.m. The blog will be parked at my ISP so you can view it but you won’t be able to post comments. We do this to avoid any Linux or BSD headaches with the time change. Adios for today.
comments
2 Responses to “Calzones”
Leave a Reply
I’ve never made calzones, but I sure do love their Cuban counterpart–empanadas. I bought the “3 Guys from Miami” ebook for $5 long before they were so well known. They have a rich, flaky dough recipe that contains cream cheese and butter. They do include some sample recipes on their website, but alas not the empanada one, though I’ll send it along if you’re interested.
http://icuban.com/food/index.html
Thanks Jacob. Send me the empanda recipe…I love Cuban food.