Calzone #2
Mar. 1st, 2022 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerA month ago I wrote about making calzone at home for the first time, using store-bought dough. The results were good... but I could see room for improvement. Thus I tried Calzone #2 a few weeks later.
One process improvement this time was that I remembered to take pictures as I worked. 😅 It flummoxes me that as much as I enjoy photography and have integrated it with other pursuits, particularly hiking, I have to remind myself to take pictures when cooking.
This picture shows the dough rolled out to a circle... or as close to a circle as I could get. These store-bought dough balls are rarely as workable as from-scratch bread dough I've made a few times.
I've piled the toppings up on one side of the dough. This time I skipped including the slice soppressata I used last time (it wasn't very tasty). I doubled up on pepperoni instead. I also added onions and reduced the amount of ricotta cheese I used. Those were two additional ideas for improvement I'd noted. From here I folded the circle of dough over into a half-moon shape and pressed the edges together.
The dough here is only half the 1-lb ball that came in the package. The other half is that separate lump in the upper-left corner of the picture. I had other plans for that piece; more about that in my next blog.
I baked it in the oven for [mumble] minutes. Maybe 12? I don't remember now since it was a few weeks ago. Recipes like this I judge by how they look, not what the clock on the wall says.
One change I made with the cooking was to increase oven temperature to 500° F. That was recommended in the recipe I followed but I decided to try 450 instead the first time because multiple responses to recipe blog I followed said, "OMG, don't use 500, it burns!" I used 500 and it didn't burn. 🤷♂️
How did it turn out? On the whole Calzone #2 was better than Calzone #1. The higher cooking temperature allowed me to slightly brown the top crust without overcooking the bottom crust. I enjoyed the pepperoni and bit of onion, minus appallingly poor soppressata (from Whole Foods, of all places!), as fillings. Reducing the amount of ricotta cheese I used was also an improvement, though I went a little too light on it this time. I'll try to dial that in right next time. Finally, there's room to go heavier on the fillings than what's shown in the first picture. This calzone came out feeling... not quite stuffed. And I was still slightly hungry after eating it. So I'll scale up the mozzarella and pepperoni next time.
One process improvement this time was that I remembered to take pictures as I worked. 😅 It flummoxes me that as much as I enjoy photography and have integrated it with other pursuits, particularly hiking, I have to remind myself to take pictures when cooking.
This picture shows the dough rolled out to a circle... or as close to a circle as I could get. These store-bought dough balls are rarely as workable as from-scratch bread dough I've made a few times.
I've piled the toppings up on one side of the dough. This time I skipped including the slice soppressata I used last time (it wasn't very tasty). I doubled up on pepperoni instead. I also added onions and reduced the amount of ricotta cheese I used. Those were two additional ideas for improvement I'd noted. From here I folded the circle of dough over into a half-moon shape and pressed the edges together.
The dough here is only half the 1-lb ball that came in the package. The other half is that separate lump in the upper-left corner of the picture. I had other plans for that piece; more about that in my next blog.
I baked it in the oven for [mumble] minutes. Maybe 12? I don't remember now since it was a few weeks ago. Recipes like this I judge by how they look, not what the clock on the wall says.
One change I made with the cooking was to increase oven temperature to 500° F. That was recommended in the recipe I followed but I decided to try 450 instead the first time because multiple responses to recipe blog I followed said, "OMG, don't use 500, it burns!" I used 500 and it didn't burn. 🤷♂️
How did it turn out? On the whole Calzone #2 was better than Calzone #1. The higher cooking temperature allowed me to slightly brown the top crust without overcooking the bottom crust. I enjoyed the pepperoni and bit of onion, minus appallingly poor soppressata (from Whole Foods, of all places!), as fillings. Reducing the amount of ricotta cheese I used was also an improvement, though I went a little too light on it this time. I'll try to dial that in right next time. Finally, there's room to go heavier on the fillings than what's shown in the first picture. This calzone came out feeling... not quite stuffed. And I was still slightly hungry after eating it. So I'll scale up the mozzarella and pepperoni next time.
