Mem Day 2 - Meatlover's Calzones.

jfm0830 · May 2013

Originally I had planned to do ribs on Sunday from Wicked Good Barbecue, Dyal_SC used to post awesome calzone pics on our old board and now here. I always wanted to try my hand at calzones so here was the perfect opportunity.

I am including the pictures of making up a batch of the BGE Cookbook's Pizza Dough recipe so folks can see how easy it is to do. You don't need a stand mixer. You can easily knead most dough recipes by hand. Some people actually like hand kneading better-they find it relaxing or soothing.

For those who are interested here is the picture post of my Saturday cook: All-American Double Bison Cheeseburgers.

Onto the pix.

The ingredients are gathered: All purpose flour, sugar, instant yeast, olive oil, water & salt. I use the Kitchen scale to weigh the all-purpose flour out right in the mixing bowl. My iPad is in a protective sleeve & I have the recipe up on screen using the iBooks version of the BGE Cookbook.

The warm water sugar & instant yeast are combined in a small bowl & sit for 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile the salt is added to the flour & they are stirred on the "Stir" setting to mix.

The bowl with the yeast & wet ingredients is added to the mixing bowl & the ingredients are stirred on low to combine.

Once the ingredients are combined the olive oil is added.

After the olive oil is added, the dough is kneaded on low for 5-6 minutes. At this point the dough is allowed to rise for about 1 1/2 hours until it has doubled in size.

The dough is now almost done it's rise. Time to get started. Some diced red pepper & white onion are sauteed until they are softened.

The ingredients are all gathered: Pepperoni, imported ham, the sauteed red pepper & white onions. some herb flavored pasta sauce, a 3-cheese Italian cheese blend, Genoa salami, ricotta cheese, olive oil & kosher salt.

The dough is deflated & cut into 4 equal sized pieces. I needed two for my purposes. I refrigerated the other two wrapped in plastic wrap sprayed with a little oil. The two other dough balls get rolled out into a 12" diameter circle.

The BGE Calzone Press is placed over the dough round & the bottom side has a sharp edge which is used to cut out the piece of dough for the calzone.

The dough round is placed inside the calzone press.

Having all the ingredients portioned out & ready to go allows you to make quick work of assembling the calzones...

...The ricotta cheese goes on first. Note that you only use one half of the press to hold the ingredients & stop at the hinge line...

...the pepperoni goes on next...

...followed by the imported ham...

...the last meat is the Genoa salami...

...the sauteed onions & red bell peppers are next...

...which gets sprinkled with the Italian seasoning blend...

...& the last topping is the 3-cheese Italian cheese blend. The next step is to seal up the calzone. The edge of the dough was moistened to help hold things together & the press was folded over to seal the calzone.

The calzone is out of the press & had been brushed with olive oil & slit with a knife. It is on a pizza peel which has been dusted with corn oil.

The first calzone is one the BGE. I used separate peels for each calzone to make landing them easier and more controlled. The Egg has been heated to 450 for 30 minutes. The BGE pizza stone is set on some 1/2" plumbing shims which are on the plate setter which is installed legs down.

I am glad I checked on the calzones early. The recipe said 15-20 minutes, but when I looked in at around 13 minutes they were essentially done.

Time to eat!

I am glad I checked on these a little early. The crusts were just the way I wanted them. They had a nice little crispy snap in them when you bit in.

IMHO the only way I might have improved on these particular calzones would be to make my own sauce, something I will try when I have more time.

It is fun knowing I can whip up some tasty calzones on the Egg now whenever I want. I have my eye on a lamb calzone recipe to try next.

Jim

hapster · May 2013

Holy crap....

This is the model by which cooking blogs should be measured... Outstanding work once again Jim!

Great looking cook, results, and post...

Makes me want to delete my blog

Seriously, thanks for sharing

EddieK76 · May 2013

Jim,

Nice looking calzones bud! I always look forward to your posts both on the old board and this one

Much prefer this one

cazzy · May 2013

Great looking calzone Jim. Nice detail as always!

Egghead_Daron · May 2013

That looks great! Thanks for all the details. That will make trying these very easy. And by the way, the lamb calzone sounds like a must see. That sounds pretty dang awesome too.

chris123stock · May 2013

Very nice. Well done.

R2Egg2Q · May 2013

Looks great Jim! Adding calzones to my to do list.

RAC · May 2013

As always Awesome!!!!

BuckeyeBob · May 2013

Wow! That looks outstanding. Your posts are the gold standard on here for storytelling. Curious how you liked the calzone press and if you think it's worth the obey. Sure looks like it made things easy.

jfm0830 · May 2013

Thanks to everyone for their most kind remarks.

BuckeyeBob said:

...Curious how you liked the calzone press and if you think it's worth the obey. Sure looks like it made things easy.

@BuckeyeBob The book is still out on the calzone press actually. At $11.99 I'm not out a lot of money, so I am not gonna lose sleep over it. My "problem" may actually be user error. The Likes: I like how it cuts the dough round out for you and how the dough doesn't seem to stick to it. The finished calzone releases well from it and It is easy to clean. My problem is with the edges of the calzone. 2 out of 3 times when I go to open the press the edges of the crust don't seem to stay "glued" together. I do brush them with water, so I may not be putting the proper amount of water on the edge of the crust before I fold it over.

Chubbs · May 2013

Calzones are one of my favorites on egg thanks to Dyal. Pack them full of ricotta. Good eats. Nice post Jim.

thetrim · May 2013

Awesome cook. Thanks for sharing.

rholt · May 2013

I love the step by step photos. Great job. I gotta try this.

Dredger · May 2013

Ooooh! That looks so good. Love Italian food. Great job on the food photography. Thank you.

Lowflyer · May 2013

It's 10am and I want one! Great cook.

pwg56 · May 2013

Your cooks are always fantastic! Hungry and envious every time I see one. Was curious if you considered putting some of the sauce inside the calzone and let it heat up with all of the other ingredients.

jfm0830 · May 2013

Thanks as always for the kind remarks...

pwg56 said:

...Was curious if you considered putting some of the sauce inside the calzone and let it heat up with all of the other ingredients.

I did consider putting some of the sauce inside. I looked at a bunch of recipes to see what fillings were used and also to get an idea of how much of what fillings. To my surprise very few of the recipes put any of the sauce on the inside. I do plan to try that though, just to see if I notice a difference.

U_tarded · May 2013

jfm0830 said:

Thanks as always for the kind remarks...

pwg56 said:

...Was curious if you considered putting some of the sauce inside the calzone and let it heat up with all of the other ingredients.

I did consider putting some of the sauce inside. I looked at a bunch of recipes to see what fillings were used and also to get an idea of how much of what fillings. To my surprise very few of the recipes put any of the sauce on the inside. I do plan to try that though, just to see if I notice a difference.

i always understood calzones were dipped/smothered in sauce, Stromboli have sauce on the inside. i could be wrong however

Mem Day 2 - Meatlover's Calzones.

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