Anyhow, I consulted my King Arthur Flour 200 Year Anniversary book for a quick dough calzone recipe/process. They had one of course. I modified the recipe and process a bit. #1, their recipe called for enough to make like 4 huge calzones. I split the recipe in half. I ended up making 1 big calzone and threw the other half of the dough I made in the fridge so I can make another tonight if I want.
ANyhow, from memory, here was my recipe:
3 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 T salt
1/2 T sugar
1 T active dry yeast
1/8 cup EVOO
3/4 cup warm water
I put the sugar and yeast in a bowl, added the warm water, mixed with whisk until dissolved and set aside to activate the yeast. In the kitchen aid mixer, I added the flour and salt and blended. I dug a well in the flour and put the bowl on the mixer. Once yeast was bubbly after about 7 minutes, I added it and the EVOO to the center of the well. I put the dough hook on and let it go. I let it mix and knead for about 10 minutes. I had to drop about a tablespoon more water in about 2 minutes in. Came out nice and elastic. Rolled into a ball, put a little EVOO ina big bowl, added the dough and rolled around to cover in EVOO covered and let it set.
Time to make the toppings...or fillings:
Didn't have any fresh veggies on hand so I made due. I used roasted red peppers from the jar and chipotle peppers from the can. I had some of my go to red sauce on hand so no need to prep that.
For meat, I started with about 8 strips of bacon. I cut it up into about 1/2" slices and cooked it until crisp in the pan. I then took about a quarter lb of garlic sausage and fried it up in the bacon grease, cutting it up with the wooden spoon into about marble size chunks while frying. Then, I took a half can of canned mushrooms (I know, sacrilege) and fried them up in the bacon grease and peppered them heavily once removed from grease. I then dumped the bacon grease in a shot glass and drank it (not really, just seeing if you're paying attention).
So, after I prepped all these fillings and cleaned up, about 30 minutes of rise time went by. The dough had risen to not quite double, but it was about 7 PM at this point and still there was more rise time to go once the calzone was prepped. I cut the dough in half and used only half for the rest of this. I rolled it out to about 10"-12" in diameter. Then I started filling it in this order:
Motzerella, sausage, red sauce, minced onion, parm from can, roasted red peppers, chipotle peppers, bacon, more red sauce, mushrooms, more motz, some cheddar.
Then, I wet around the edges, folded the calzone over and sealed with a fork. Here it is, ready to rise again. I loaded up the pizza peel with cornmeal, put the calzone on there and covered in plastic wrap for 40 minutes:
OK, ready to go in the oven. Just before I put it in the oven while it was still on the peel, I brushed the top with egg wash (1 egg, 1 T water) liberally. then I sprinkled a lot of minced onion and toasted sesame seeds on the calzone. I put 3 slits across the top so the steam from the inside will vent there instead of breaking open the calzone.
Here it is on the stone just as I put it in the oven.
I start with a cold oven and set it to 450 degrees. Once it hits 450, I kick it back to 400 which took about 15 minutes. Here it is at this point:
About 5 mintes later. You can see the egg wash is helbing turn it to a nice golden brown:
Almost done!
The final product, about 15 minutes into the 400 degree cook. Perfectly golden. I let it rest on the hot stone for 10 minutes before I dove in. It was a long 10 minutes.
Here's the inside. Not great detail because my camera phone sucks on my blackberry but you get the idea.
I could only eat half of it, dipping it in Light Ranch with a high ball of Jack and Diet Coke. Damn this was good. And start to finish including some rise time it took about 2.5 hours. Not bad.
