Calzone (or Pizza) Dough

Ingredients

3/4 cup (6 ounces) lukewarm water
1 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast (Note: I used 1 package.)
2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
Olive oil (optional)

Directions

In a large bowl, combine the warm water and yeast, stirring to combine. Add the flour and salt, and mix until you have a loose dough.
Turn the dough and any loose flour left in the bowl out onto your work surface. Knead for about 5 minutes to incorporate all the loose flour and form a smooth, elastic dough. The dough should not stick to your hands or countertop. If it does, work in more flour, a tablespoon at a time, until it’s moist and only slightly sticky.

If you don’t need to use the dough right away, let it rise (covered with a large bowl or clean kitchen towel) for an hour and a half, until doubled in size. You can then use or keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days. (The dough is pretty workable from cold but if it shrinks back when you roll it, just let it sit for 5 minutes and try again.)

Divide the dough:

a) into 2 parts for pizzas (I haven’t tried this yet.)
b) into 10 parts for calzones

Stuff the calzones, making sure to seal them well and slice vents in the top so they don’t explode in the oven. 😉
Brush the tops with olive oil if desired. Bake in an oven preheated to 400F/200C for 15 to 20 minutes (your oven may be different).

Reheat any leftovers from the fridge in an oven preheated to 400F/200C for about 12 to 15 minutes or until heated through.
Or, I’m told you can reheat them in the microwave in 1-minute bursts on High, for up to 3 minutes until heated through.
These can also be frozen and then thawed in the fridge or reheated right from frozen.

My Notes

I used a 12cm diameter dumpling mould, similar to the middle one in the image, and I got 11 calzones from the dough. A portion for a hungry person would be 3 – 4 of them.
For my latest filling, I used a total of 1/3 cup red pizza sauce across all calzones, plus cheese, spinach, bacon, and onion.
Previously, I’ve filled these with 1/3 cup red pizza sauce (across all of them), cooked prawns, sundried tomato, shredded mozzarella, and leftover cooked onions and mushrooms.

Reheating the leftovers took 12 minutes at 400F/200C (preheated).

Next time I’ll try a cheese spinach filling:
1 onion, diced and sautéed until softened
2 – 3 garlic cloves, minced and sautéed until softened
6 ounces baby spinach (wilted in the pan towards the end of cooking the onion and garlic)
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/2 cup tomato sauce