How to Make Calzones - Recipe

 

The holiday's are fast approaching and it seems like the closer we get to them, the busier our days become. This can easily turn dinner time into stress-time or take-out-time.

 

I try to do a little damage control early in the season by pre-making and freezing a bunch of easy dinners. And while I have quite a few recipes that make the cut, our calzones are by far the favorite.

 

They are easy to make, inexpensive and freeze perfectly. Pair that with this awesome no-rise-time crust (and my favorite at that!) and you have an easy, fast and healthy meal.

 

Have your kids make their own and they will likely love them even more.

 

What you need:

Pizza crust - I use this recipe
Pizza sauce - click here for my recipe

Mozzeralla cheese

Toppings of choice

 

 

1) Prepare the dough recipe. Divide into eight balls by breaking the large mass in half, and then both of those in half, and then those again in half. You should end up with eight equal sized dough balls. I left one large here for Chris.

 

 

 

2) Roll the dough ball out on a lightly floured surface and try to create an oval shape. Add about 1 tbsp of sauce to the bottom half of your oval.

 

 

3) Add your topping and cheese on top of the sauce. If you look closely, you can see the frost crystals on my cheese. I forgot to thaw it out, but that's the beauty of freezing cheese, it doesn't seem to matter. By shredding my own blocks of natural cheese, I end up paying about 50 cents per cup, which is about half the price of the pre-shredded generic versions. So worth it!

 

 

My calzone was made with pesto instead of sauce and shitake mushrooms - yum!! 

 

 

4) Pull the back of the dough over the top of your calzone and create a sandwich out of  it. It should look like the photo below.

 

 

5) Press the edges together to seal them and then roll them up and press the inside of the roll down to seal again. See the picture below for referance. 

 

 

 

6) Most of the time, I have the kids helping me when I make these, so they make their own. We take a knife and carefully mark each calzone so we know who's is who's. Even if you don't need to label your calzone, you still need to put one or two cut marks in the top to allow air to escape while it's baking. 

 

 

7) Bake in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy!