Calzone with Mushroom Capsicum Filling

Calzone means stocking in Italian. It is a pizza folded over and shaped like a crescent. Baking pizza from scratch was this month's challenge from the Sweet Punch team. I like to have my pizza loaded with Mushroom and Capsicum on top. I have already posted a Musroom Capsicum Pizza in this blog. So I wanted this to be different in some way. That's one of the reasons I chose to go with calzone. Another reason is because, my little one cleanly sweeps off the pizza topping along with mozzarella and gives me her plate back with the pizza base in tact. Since I was making the dough myself, I had the option of shaping and sizing it as per my will.

The pizza dough did not turn brown but it was well cooked. I baked for about 18-20 mins. And I was unsure whether baking for more time would turn the dough hard. We enjoyed the calzones very much. They were quite filling and a welcome change from Pizza. Thanks Divya for choosing this, this was the first time my dough raised well and I'm slowly overcoming my yeast inhibitions.

Recipe source - Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

For the Crust (Makes 2 crusts):

 1 teaspoon Active Dry Or Instant Yeast

4 cups All-purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Kosher Salt (or ordinary salt)

⅓ cups Extra Virgin Olive Oil

To make the Crust:

1. Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.

2. In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

3. Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. 

4. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it. 

***It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.

For the filling:

Ingredients:

Capsicum - 1, diced

Onion - 1 medium, diced

Mushrooms - 8-10, washed and sliced or diced

Onions - 2 medium, finely chopped

Tomatoes - 2 medium, pureed or finely chopped

Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mozzarella Cheese - grated, to garnish the pizza with

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and saute onions till they turn transparent. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes off. Add tomatoes and saute till oil oozes out. Add tomato sauce and salt. Add mushrooms and capsicums. Once mushrooms are cooked well, saute till extra water content is evaporated and you get a spreadable consistency.

To assemble:

Sprinkle your pizza stone or baking sheet with cornmeal/semolina. Roll out the dough into small thin discs. Place the filling in the centre, top it with grated mozzrella cheeze. 

Fold the discs in crescent shape.

With the help of a fork, join the edges as shown in the pic. Also pierce the calzone in a couple of places using a fork. (Egg wash could be applied if desired)

Bake for 15-20 mins at 200C in oven. (Adjust time according to tempertaure)