calzones: school me

[dms]

I know not a thing about them.  I've tried making them with left over dough balls, using the high hydration dough I use for tossed pies, with less than stellar results.  What do people who make these do?  Assume I know notthing about them. 

[c0mpl3x]

ricotta

[DNA Dan]

Well it's essentially a pizza that is only dressed on half. Traditional styles are usually saucy with ricotta, perhaps some meat or peppers (nothing too fancy). But basically you can put whatever you want in it.

Some of my tricks are:

1) If going for a clamshell, keep a good 1-2 inch edge clean from the sauce. Otherwise it won't seal good.
2) I moisten my edges with a bit of water before sealing the top on.
3) You have to prick some vent holes or slash the top, otherwise it will blow out the side.
4) Par bake or cook any raw meats thoroughly before using them inside. Especially if you stuff it really full.

Good luck and be creative. Basically once you have the dough technique down in making the pocket and cooking it, the real art is in the flavors of what you put in there. Simple fillings with ricotta, mozz, garlic and fresh basil are nice. Others load them up with tons of different things. If you stuff it full, it's going to take longer to cook and you need to be careful it cooks before it burns. This is especially the case for #4 above.

[c0mpl3x]

also try to keep it from mounding up like a football when you seal it off.  keep the thickness even from the center outwards, you can and/or will get a cold spot in the middle that may only be up to around 200 or so.  not quite enough for cooked food.  especially if this is for someone other than yourself

[PietroUK]

Don't make the same mistake as I have often done - namely filling them with things that are more liable to a) dribble out of the sides and b) burn your mouth - e.g. leftover bolognaise, chilli con carne.

I'm a Cornishman, so I like to create a version of the Cornish pasty - Potato, Swede, Steak - maybe with some ricotta and white pepper to mix it up a bit.

[gtsum2]

I have made several and they all turned out very good.  I use sauce, cheese, pepperoni, sausage, japs, onion..just about anything.  I use my normal pizza dough and just fold it over and seal the edges.  Cook them about 6 minutes at 625 stone temp, 800 top temp in my LBE.  here are some pics of some recent ones: - the last pic was going to be a pepperoni roll, but at the last minute I folded him up and over to make a quazi calzone...hence the seam at the top..usually I fold over and cimp the edges shut

[squid44th]

The way I make them is just about like any other pizza.  I will make the dough a little larger than the pie plate I cook it in.  I find that a glass pie plate works great for cooking individual pizzas as well as calzones.  Then I put everything I would put on a pizza in and start folding the edges over.  by using the pie plate, there is enough over the edge to just fold, that way I don;t have to pinch it off because I can't seem to get that down right.