Cheesy Calzones

Even though the temperature was in the 90's yesterday, we decided we needed to get out and about so we went for a stroll around downtown Charleston.  If you have never been here, it is a beautiful city.  Now, it is not what I would call a real city like New York or Seattle but it is a city non the less.  There are so many old homes of varying styles and periods and it is what I like to call a walking city.  It's fairly small so you can get just about anywhere on foot.  We visited the renovated Slave Market (slaves were not sold at the Market, it was built after the war for recently freed slaves to sell their wares at), walked the Battery and checked out some of the shops on King Street.  The advantage to where we live in Charleston is that we are close enough to downtown but far enough away to feel like we live in the country.  I will have to have the husband take a few pictures (I appointed him staff photographer last night).

I had never made calzones before but they sounded pretty straight forward and I had the ingredients so here goes!

Ingredients

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup diced pepperoni
• 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions

1. To Make Dough: In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add the oil, sugar and salt; mix in 1 cup of the flour until smooth. Gradually stir in the rest of the flour, until dough is smooth and workable. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for about 5 minutes, or until it is elastic. Lay dough in a bowl containing 1 teaspoon olive oil, then flip the dough, cover and let rise for 40 minutes, or until almost doubled.
2. To Make Filling: While dough is rising, combine the ricotta cheese, Cheddar cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms and basil leaves in a large bowl. Mix well, cover bowl and refrigerate to chill.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
4. When dough is ready, punch it down and separate it into 4 equal parts. Roll parts out into thin circles on a lightly floured surface. Fill each circle with 1/4 of the cheese/meat filling and fold over, securing edges by folding in and pressing with a fork. Brush the top of each calzone with egg and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.

So I actually filled ours with the ricotta, Parmesan, provolone, caramelized onions and sausage.  The filling was tasty but next time I will try something a bit moister. The crust is fantastic though!  The original recipe said this would make 2 calzones but each one would have taken up its own cookie sheet.  We had a simple Italian tomato sauce with this. 

The recipe is from Allrecipes.com.  This maybe my new favorite source as they allow you to change the servings and the site does the ingredient calculations for you.