Stromboli

I love making homemade pizza, but this week I thought I’d try something a little different…homemade calzones!  Calzones are pizza dough that is folded over and stuffed with cheese and your favorite pizza ingredients.  If you’ve never tasted one, then you need to try one pronto!

I thought I was making calzones, however there’s one distinct difference between calzones and Stromboli that I never knew about until today.  Calzones are served with sauce on the side whereas Stromboli has the sauce baked inside.  I set out to make ‘calzones’ but in actuality made Stromboli.

For this recipe I wanted to experiment with making my own dough and marinara sauce.  If you take the long route and make everything from scratch, like I did, this will take an hour and a half to complete.  Given that the Stromboli bakes for 35 minutes I didn’t find this to be too time consuming.  If you feel this is more time than you’d like to spend in the kitchen, make it easier on yourself and buy store bought dough and marinara sauce.  By choosing this route, the recipe will only take 30 minutes from start to finish!

Cover dough & let rise

What I learned when making this recipe is that the dough will be sticky.  Don’t worry as this is normal.  Just make sure your work surface is floured, as well as your hands.  Also, be sure to use parchment paper (different than wax paper).  It’s a wonderful way to line your baking sheets and easily remove food that would normally stick.   This works great with the Stromboli, by not only keeping your pans clean but also helping to easily transfer them.  I discovered that laying the parchment paper on my counter, assembling the Stromboli on top, and then transferring it to a baking sheet worked best.  Don’t try picking up the uncooked Stromboli and moving it.  It’s very hard to do as the filling weighs the Stromboli down and the dough will become misshapen upon transferring.   I found this out the hard way after I could barely move my first Stromboli to the baking sheet.  I was finally able to move it, however my perfect shape became distorted.  I used parchment paper for the rest of my Stromboli and transferring them was a cinch!

Choose your favorite ingredients for the filling

The dough does not need to be a perfect circle.  This is how mine looked.  Good enough!

Brush with egg wash & make slits to vent

The Stromboli came out great!  I chose to add ricotta cheese to the inside mixture which gave it a rich creaminess.  I highly recommend adding ricotta to yours.  The homemade marinara sauce was addicting.  We liked it so much that even though the sauce was in the filling, we ate the Stromboli with a side of sauce for dipping as well.   Each individual Stromboli was quite large and I found that one half was filling for me.  Ryan loved them as well.  We found these to be a nice lunch option on the weekend while we watched the football games.   Enjoy! 

Stromboli

Adapted from Calzone recipe by D. Adams, allrecipes.com 
& The Best of Vegan Cooking,by Priscilla Feral (Amazon Affiliate link)

Serves: 4-6 people

Prep Time: 

• 60 minutes (IF making dough & marinara sauce from scratch)
• 10 minutes (IF using store bought dough & marinara sauce)

Total Time:

• 95 minutes (IF making dough & marinara sauce from scratch)
• 30 minutes (IF using store bought dough & marinara sauce)

 

Ingredients:

Dough

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon dry milk powder
• 1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Filling

• Your favorite pizza toppings such as pepperoni, mushrooms, etc.
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• Ricotta cheese (optional)

Marinara Sauce

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
• 4 tablespoons fresh basil (chopped)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 2 cups crushed canned tomatoes

 

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl or KitchenAid Mixer add water and sprinkle yeast on top.  Let stand 5 minutes or until yeast is slightly foamy.  Then add salt, dry milk, sugar, and bread flour.  Mix until a ball of dough begins to form.
2. Cover bowl and place in a warm spot (such as a microwave).  Allow dough to rise for 30 minutes.
3. While dough is rising, make the marinara sauce.  Add the olive oil to a large pot and heat over medium heat.
4. Add garlic next cooking for 1-2 minutes (allowing garlic to slightly brown, but not burn).  Then add the crushed tomatoes and herbs.  
5. Simmer marinara sauce until ready to use.
6. Pre-heat oven to 350˚F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
7. After dough has risen, knead and break apart into 4 even portions.  Roll each portion out one at a time on a floured surface.  Roll/shape into a medium to large size circle.  The circles do not need to be perfect shapes.
8. Transfer dough circle to the parchment lined baking sheet.  Spoon marinara sauce on one half of the circle leaving a ½ inch space from the edge of the circle. 
9. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of marinara sauce.  If you opt to also add ricotta cheese, place 2 or 3 dollops on top of the mozzarella cheese before adding pizza toppings.  Now top with your favorite pizza toppings.
10. When the filling is complete lightly sprinkle with mozzarella cheese before pulling/folding the other half of the circle over the completed side.  You should now have a half moon shape.  Lightly pinch the ends to seal.  Take a fork and use the tines to press down on the sealed edges.
11. Create an egg wash by combining 1 egg plus 1 teaspoon of water.  Lightly brush over the whole stromboli and edges. 
12.  Repeat process to make all 4 strombolis.  When all have been assembled, use a sharp knife to make 2 to 3 slits on top as this will allow steam to escape while cooking.
13. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown (cooking times will vary depending upon the size of the stromboli).  If desired, top with parmesan cheese before serving.