If you have made pizza dough in the past, you can easily make calzones. The recipe for the crust is literally the same. The execution is different. Instead of pressing out the pizza dough into a large circle, you just divide the dough into smaller pieces for individual calzones. To cut the dough, a bench scraper is just the right tool! A bench scraper has the sharp edge with a nice handle.
And stick with me till the very end to find a glimpse of my new favorite topic: Product reviews! Check out my three favorite tools in the kitchen and why I feel you too should invest in good products for your cooking needs. You know what they say, “you get what you pay for!”
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Published February 22, 2022
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Adorable things kids do
“Abcdefghigklmnopqrstuvwxyz now I know my ABCs next time won’t you sing with me”
That amazing line is from our middle son, Matthew, who decided to write me a note. He asked me if I checked my blog and was snickering and smirking. That kid will not let me hug him, but he will do silly jokes that make me smile. Sometimes our littles let us know they love us by doing these cute things.
As a mom who has her #1 Love Language as physical touch, it is sometimes difficult to know if my kid loves me when he outright refuses to let me hug him. But when I sit back and look at moments like opening my blog to work on this post, and seeing his cute little note, I know he does love me. See, Matthew may not like physical touch, but he is an Acts of Service and Words of Affirmation kind of kid with a healthy dose of Quality Time thrown in.
Matthew detests having his pictures taken, is always saying, “mom, why do you always take pictures of everything all the time?” But, when it comes down to it, that kid is right next to me looking at all the pictures and judging my photography skills. Kids. You may not know it, but I can literally hear this picture. Matthew saying, “MOOOOM, don’t be rude!” And a second later grabbing for my camera threatening to scratch the lens until Tyler hollers at him to not touch mom’s camera.
Can you make Calzones with Pizza Dough?
For dinner this night, I made a single batch of pizza dough and was able to make ten calzones. Typically, one pizza dough recipe will get us three pizzas that are around 14-inches. More can be made from this dough, but I did make them really big today.
For the filling, you can choose whatever you want to go into the calzones. We chose to make ours a four-meat calzone with cheese and a few random items from the pantry like ranch, cheese and capers.
Four-Meat Calzones Recipe
Ingredients for Four-Meat Calzones
Pizza Dough
Salsa
Ranch
Shredded cheese, any will do
1 egg
Italian Seasoning
Capers
2 Cans Tomato sauce
Mild Italian Sausage
Pepperoni
Hard Salami
Summer Sausage
Calzone Directions
1. Make the pizza dough. If you have never made pizza dough from scratch, check out my blog with the recipe for the easiest Homemade from Scratch Pizza Dough! Pizza dough, once made, needs to rest for twenty minutes before you can start to roll it out.
Making pizza dough is quite easy, especially when you have a KitchenAid mixer.
2. On a cutting board, cut up the meat that you want to use in your filling. We used pepperoni, hard salami and summer sausage. Dice them small or into 1/2-inch pieces then place them in a large bowl. Now is also the time to start preheating your oven to 400 degrees.
3. Add your dressing and sauce to the large bowl. We used ranch, salsa and 2 cans of tomato sauce as we did not have marinara.
4. This is the time to add more flavors to your filling mixture if you desire to do so. We added capers, shredded cheese and Italian seasoning. Then, mix it all up with a large spatula
5. To make these calzones pop with a depth of flavor, I cooked up Mild Italian Sausage, drained the meat, let it cool down, and then added it to the filling mixture. To drain any grease from your cooked sausage, once it is fully cooked lay it out on a plate that has a few sheets of paper towel on it. Once the sausage is cooled down you can add it to the filling mixture.
6. Once your pizza dough has rested, at least twenty minutes, divide it in half then use a bench scraper to cut the dough into three-to-four pieces. Out of one pizza dough recipe, you can make anywhere between six-to-ten calzones. Check out my blog with the best pizza dough recipe that works great for calzones!
7. Using a rolling pin, roll out each pizza dough ball into an oval that measures around five-to-seven inches across. The dough should then be rolled out and does not have to be perfectly round.
8. Using a large spoon to place 1/2 cup of filling mixture into the center of the rolled-out dough. Spread it out a little so it is not just a filling-ball in the middle.
9. Fold the back of the dough on top of the front. Then with your fingers, lift the bottom dough edge and fold it over the top and pinch together to create a seam. You can go back after it is pinched together to make the edge look “cute”.
10. Once the edges are all sealed, now is the time to pretty up the seamed edges if you desire. Just like a pie crust, there are numerous ways to edge a crust or dough together. I literally just pinched mine and made sure there were no gaps. Then, place your calzone on a Baking Stone or sheet and give it an egg wash, and finally slit a few vent holes in the top. Half of these calzones were then sprinkled with garlic powder and a delicious Pizza seasoning blend. Bake until the edges are golden brown.
For the last fifteen yours, I have used a Pampered Chef Baking Stone for all of my baking needs. I have had one since Tyler and I were married in 2008, and another more recently since the second we got at our wedding decided to smash on the floor. I am still sad at its demise.
Remove the Pampered Chef Baking Stone from the oven and let the calzones rest at least ten minutes before eating as the filling will be hot. Enjoy!
~Monica
Four-Meat Calzone Recipe
Calzones with a Four-Meat Filling Recipe
Equipment
- Large Bowl
- Baking Stone
- Spatula
Ingredients
- Pizza Dough
- Marinara
- Salsa
- Ranch
- Mozzarella Cheese shredded
- 1 Egg
- Italian Seasoning
- Capers
- 2 cans Tomato Sauce
- 1 pound Mild Italian Sausage
- Pepperoni
- Hard Salami
Instructions
- Make the pizza dough.
- On a cutting board, cut up the meat that you want to use in your filling.
- We used pepperoni, hard salami and summer sausage. Dice them small or into 1/2-inch pieces then place them in a large bowl.
- Preheating your oven to 400 degrees.
- Add your dressing and sauce to the bowl. We used ranch, salsa and 2 cans of tomato sauce as we did not have marinara.
- Now is the time to spice up the filling mixture! We added capers, shredded cheese and Italian seasoning. Then mix it all up!
- To make these calzones pop with a depth of flavor, I cooked up Mild Italian Sausage, drained the meat, let it cool down, and then added it to the filling mixture.
- To drain any grease from your cooked sausage, once it is fully cooked lay it out on a plate that has a few sheets of paper towel on it. Once the sausage is cooled down you can add it to the filling mixture.
- Once your pizza dough has rested, at least twenty minutes, divide it in half then use a bench scraper to cut the dough into three-to-four pieces.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out each pizza dough ball into an oval that measures around 7-7 inches across. The dough rolled out does not have to be perfectly round.
- Using a large spoon, place 1/2 cup of filling mixture into the center of the rolled-out dough.
- Spread it out a little so it is not just a filling-ball in the middle.
- Fold the back of the dough on top of the front.
- Then with your fingers, lift the bottom dough edge and fold it over the top and pinch together to create a seam. You can go back after it is pinched together to make the edge look "cute".
- Once the edges are all sealed, now is the time to pretty up the seamed edges if you desire.
- Just like a pie crust, there are numerous ways to edge a crust or dough together.
- Bake until the edges are browned, around 10-15 minutes.
- Remove the baking sheets from the oven and let the calzones rest at least ten minutes before eating as the filling will be hot.
Notes
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