Gary's Third Pottery Blog

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Gary's third pottery blog

WRITE TO ME! garyrith@yahoo.com Come see me! Open studio HERE! November 25-26 (11-4 each day); Aurora Art and Design, daily until 12/24; Cooperstown Art Assoc. daily until 12/24; Ellis Hollow Community Fair, 12/10; December 10, Little Red Wagon at the Space at Greenstar. All material on this blog unless stated otherwise is copyright Gary Edward Rith 2016

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Calzones: Gary's killer kalzones REvisited!

People have been asking:  "hey, how do you make them calzones again????" and on the one hand, I like to be CHIC and mysterious...and keep my secrets.  That keeps you reading!  I tantalize you with glimpses of my awesome life!  Like NOOK here, the dog that my beagle loves, and who I walk several times a week.....dang, you can see, he is the BEST.



BUT, OK, so I have the evening classes, the daytime dog walking and the OH YES pottery that is s'posed to be my primary job....but here is the brilliance of calzones.  I made 7 HUGE ones Monday, which means the leftovers sit in the fridge, ready for the last minute dinner prep for a couple of evenings, and oh MY, they get more luscious as they sit in there, flavors combining brilliantly.
You can fill calzones with anything.  I have used a little tomato sauce with onion, "cheese", "sausage", peppers, but our favorite is the spinach, potato, mushroom ones like the ones pictured here!****  I want  to try that with broccoli rather than spinach some time, and even try chopped apple and raisins someday for a breakfast calzone.... YUM!

****Gary's calzones!

-In a large bowl, place 2 1/4 teas. yeast, 1/2 teas. sugar and 1 1/2 cup warm water.  Stir briefly, then let it sit a few minutes until really foamy.
-Stir in garlic powder, basil, oregano, pepper flakes, 2 TBS olive oil, then stir in 2 1/2 cups flour.  Stir in a little bit more flour at a time until it is not sticky.
-Roll dough out onto a floured counter, knead the dough for awhile until it is lovely.  Place into an oiled bowl covered with a towel to rise, about an hour or so.
-THEN preheat oven to 400.
-For easy peasy calzone:  finely dice bell pepper, onion, "cheese" mushrooms, "sausage", whatever you like.  Open a jar of spaghetti or tomato sauce.
-Punch down dough, divide into 6-9 small balls.  6 would be enormous, 9 would be small.  For us, 7 or 8 is a good size each.
-Flatten ball with your hand, then roll with the rolling pin to about an 8 inch circle, not too thin.
-Spoon a little tomato sauce--do NOT use too much--then add some of the fillings.  You need to fold the  dough over easily, and fold the edges together easily, so be careful of overfilling.  It is hard to move a filled uncooked calzone, so I usually form them in place on the cookie sheet where it will be baked.
-crimp the edge with a fork, and slice openings across the top for vents.
-once you have them all laid out neatly on a cookie sheet or 2, bake 20-25 minutes.  They will look PERFECTLY golden.
-they are super hot at first, so they can cool a couple minutes before eating, leave extras on your wire cooling rack and put in the fridge for another day.

I CANNOT say this enough:  they are EASY, and DELICIOUS!  Try other fillings! Let me know how it goes!

9 comments:

smartcat said...

I've been making calzones for years and never thought of making a breakfast calzone. Yum!

I finally noticed that you have a halo in your header photo! :-D

Sandi McBride said...

I learned to love Calzones in Colts Neck New Jersey...and you really need to try scrambled egg calzone....sort of an omelet with everything included...my family get them three times a year...Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving...mornings...love your sweet cat..
Sandi

Lori Buff said...

Yea, I gotta make these.

Anonymous said...

I need to try this from scratch. I always cheat and use the frozen bread dough which probably doesn't taste nearly as good.

Hilary said...

That dog is just adorable and clearly he adores you.

Michèle Hastings said...

So yummy! I make a breakfast pizza every so often, a breakfast calzone would be even better.

Elaine said...

Thank You!

Stacey B said...

What is your favorite "cheese" to use? I'm transitioning to a vegan diet and looking for recommendations :o)

smalltownme said...

My older son made calzones while I was out of town. Why hasn't he made them again? WHy why wHY?

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I am a full-time studio potter, sculptor, and dog walker, married to superhawt Missus Tastycake.