Calzone Recipe
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Calzone Recipe Overview
Preparation time: 30 minutes plus 3 hours rising time
Cooking time: 2-3 minutes in a pizza oven
Makes: 4 calzones
Ingredients Needed
Pizza Bases
- 500g/1.1lbs pizza flour (Caputo Cuoco or Pizzeria)
- 1.5 teaspoons/5g/0.2ozs instant dried yeast
- 8g/0.3ozs white sugar
- 318ml/11.2flozs water (around 18C/64F)
- 9g/0.31ozs fine salt
Pizza Sauce
- 200g/7ozs whole peeled San Marzano tinned tomatoes
- 4g/0.14ozs salt
Toppings
- Ricotta Cheese
- Mozzarella
- Salami or pepperoni strips
- Muraca chilli
- Pitted black olives
- Thinly sliced red onion
- Grated Parmesan cheese
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 MIX - Mix flour, yeast and sugar together with a whisk in a large stand mixer bowl ensuring yeast is well distributed. Add water and stir with a spatula. It should be a shaggy textured mixture.
Step 2 KNEAD - Fit dough hook on mixer and mix on low speed for 2 minutes. Note: each batch of flour is different and if the mixture is too sticky, add a bit more flour within the first minute of kneading. You should be able to see whether it is too sticky at that time. Add salt and knead for 5-7 minutes until you get a window pane effect where you can stretch the dough apart for 2-3 inches and it becomes semi translucent but does not break.
Step 3 BULK RISE - Shape dough into a round ball with no cracks and place in the mixer bowl. Cover and allow to rise for 1 hour until double in volume. I place the bowls in larger bowls with hot water in them to give them a bit of a helping hand to rise.
From top to bottom: smoothing the top of the dough, cupping and rolling against the counter, no cracks on the bottom or anywhere on the dough
Step 4 SHAPE - Have the semolina flour ready along with 4 plates with 4 bowls that can cover each plate. Divide dough into 4 even sized balls 210g/7.4ozs each. Fold each dough ball over from north to south, turning each time so that it gets four folds. Then shape it into a ball by smoothing over the dough with both hands and stretching it down into a tight ball. Then cup it on a surface and turn it slightly while cupping it (see video for instructions). By the end you shouldn't have any cracks in the dough anywhere on the ball of dough. If there are any bubbles that pop up, prick them now.
Step 5 SECOND RISE - Sprinkle the plate generously all over with semolina flour and place the dough ball on this. Place a bowl on top that will completely enclose it. Repeat with the remaining dough balls and allow it to rise 2-3 hours - 2 hours if the temperature in your kitchen is above 22C/71.6F or 4 hours if it is cold below 20C/68F.
Step 6 PREHEAT - Half an hour before you are ready to cook your dough, preheat your pizza oven. Aim for 370C/698F.
Step 7 SPREAD - Once the pizza oven is almost ready, sprinkle more semolina flour on a benchtop surface and take your pizza dough and slide it off the plate gently keeping it as round as possible. Rotate the dough pressing it out with your hands into a large round, approximately 22cm/8.6 inches. You can make the edges a bit thinner too too but try to keep the centre of the round even and not thin as you won't want it to break.
From top to bottom: Meat calzone filling, pistchio paste with strawberries and raspberries, crunchy Biscoff and banana
Step 8 TOPPING - Place toppings on one side of the dough avoiding the edge. Start with the tomato sauce, then add cheese or fillings. Fold over the other side to make a semi circle of dough and press down to seal with your knuckles. Brush some semolina flour on a pizza peel and slide it onto the peel. Slide it into the preheated pizza oven and bake for 3-4 minutes. Allow to cool for 3-4 minutes before cutting into the calzone.
Substitution notes:
Any other pizza flour brand will work as long as it's a high protein pizza flour. Caputo has around 13g of protein per 100g which is good. You want between 12-14% to produce the elastic, chewy dough.
San Marzano tomatoes can be hard to find so sub with your favourite tinned tomatoes.
Personal Note
We love having pizza and calzone parties and we've had a couple of calzone parties. And at the first one we had Laura over. We were busy making gnocco fritto also trying out making calzones. They were a roaring success. Except for one thing.
We made one and it was utterly delicious. The cheese oozed out and we were all drooling as we cut it open.
Then we made another. I didn't have a pizza plate so I grabbed one quickly from the kitchen and ran out ready to catch the calzone.
I have a natural fear of being burnt so I held my hand out gingerly worried that Mr NQN might burn me with the pizza paddle. He really hasn't ever done this but I have childhood trauma from being burnt by my parents so it's a reflex.
The calzone slid off the plate and onto the ground. It all happened so quickly. Laura quickly picked it up and exclaimed "3 second rule!" out of Teddy and Milo's reach. Pizza fan Teddy would have loved to have had the whole pizza to himself and I'm sure he saw his life flash before his eyes as his dream came true. As for me, I was laughing so hard I almost peed!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever made pizza dough at home? Would you try a sweet calzone?