Skip to main content

Half-Wheat Monster Calzones

By February 24, 2010April 11th, 2011Food, Kitchen, Main Courses, Recipes

What better way to start a recipe post than to show it half gone right? Last week my brother was raving about his “beefy calzones” and I knew I just had to make my own. I’ve never done a lot of bread baking other than pizza so this of course presented a new challenge to again make something both yummy and healthy. Of course in our house, pizza topping preferences are WW3, so this is a great recipe to customize, even within in your own household.

INGREDIENTS (makes four “beefy” calzones):

For dough:

  • 1 (.25 ounce) package of active dry yeast
  • 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour + 1 cup bread flour (or just use 2 cups bread flour)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons white sugar

For stuffing:

  • 2 cups tomato/pizza sauce
  • 1 cup mozzarella cheese
  • 1 cup mushrooms
  • 1 cup chopped pepperoni
  • 1/2 cup sliced olives
  • 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon oregano
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy,
about 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, combine 2 cups bread flour (or 1 cup whole wheat flour
+ 1 cup bread flour), olive oil, salt, white sugar and the yeast mixture; stir well to combine. Beat well until a stiff dough has formed. Cover and rise until doubled in volume, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (175 degrees C). (Note: 30 minutes is the minimum time, we usually wait an hour.)

3. In a medium bowl, place all of your stuffing ingredients (in our case mushrooms, pepperoni, and oregano) excluding tomato sauce and cheese. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of the olive oil over the ingredients and toss to mix well. Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Saute your stuffing ingredients for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently. Lower heat  to low and stir in tomato sauce/pizza sauce and stir for another 2 to 3 minutes until stuffing ingredients are evenly coated.

4. On floured surface roll out dough and divide into four pieces. Press each half into a circle, then use rolling pin to roll into an oval shape. On each oval place 1/4 of sauteed stuffing goodies and top with cheese. Wet your finger (clean hands people!) and rub along the edge that has the stuffing on it. Fold other half of dough over and press edges together. Pinch or roll edges to seal. Place calzone on prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining calzones.

5. Brush with remaining olive oil and place in oven. Bake until golden brown, around 20 minutes. I recommend over-cooking a bit, so the crust gets crispy.

They are MASSIVE!

“OM NOM NOM!”

So there you have it, another super easy recipe to pull out on a packed weeknight or make with friends on a Saturday night. Easy to customize, fun to make, it’s one you can’t not have fun with or make your own.

Note: If you have leftovers, do NOT reheat in the microwave. To retain crispness, it has to be reheated in the oven.


7 Comments

  • Looks yummy! And funny, too — we just made some of these last week. Planning to post as one of our dinner in a flash sometime. Ours were mostly cheese, though. This looks really good! And fantastic tip on not microwaving. We learned that the hard way!

  • Jessica says:

    Yeah, we were pre-emptive, as we’ve learned with other things that for whatever reason, wheat dough is more spongy and therefore absorbant. The crust tasted better the second day when another round in the oven removed the rest of the moisture from it. It was more crusty.

  • Yum! This looks great! Your dough came out amazing, too…

  • Zibi says:

    Your calzone looks amazing. I love the action shot of your mixer kneading the dough 🙂 I make pizza at home all the time so thanks for the reminder that I could reshape the dough into a hefty calzone instead.

  • Jessica says:

    Thanks, I love that shot too! We make pizza a lot too, it’s a way to use up whatever is in the fridge, and it’s fun to get creative with ingredients and toppings. Even pizza sometimes needs a makeover, and this is a fun way to use the same ingredients and have some fun.

  • Leah says:

    Thanks for the tip on wheat! I’m also wondering if more time cooking would help — I sometimes precook my pizza crusts to ensure some crispness.

    By the way, I got to your blog via LA Green Girl. I’m definitely enjoying some of your back entries!

  • Jessica says:

    we’ve tried pre-cooking the crust with some luck, but the half and half has just enough sweetness that it makes it more enjoyable. We haven’t been able to perfect the whole wheat to that end without a lot of added sugar or honey. I hope to experiment with more bread baking this spring.