Pizza With A Twist...Or A Fold

It's the weekend, and once again time for our traditional meal of homemade pizza.  But Mike, our resident pizza maker, is away for work, so assembly of any pie would fall on my shoulders.  Sadly, this is not my forte (I'm the dough maker), so I decided it would be a good time to try making calzones instead.  Shockingly, in all our years of pizza making we've never (purposely) made calzones.  And while the calzones didn't necessarily look pretty (calzone assembly appears not to be a strength of mine either), they were chewy and cheesy and basically excellent, which was really the point!

Four-Cheese Calzones

Dough:
6 1/2 ounces warm (110* to 115*) water
1 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. olive oil
4 tsp. vital wheat gluten
2 1/3 cup all-purpose or bread flour (I prefer King Arthur brand)

Filling:
1/2 c. pasta sauce (I prefer Classico Tomato & Basil, which has 50 c./serving)
4 oz. shredded Italian-blend cheese
2 Sargento Provolone-Mozzarella cheese snacks, cut into pieces

Method:
In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water.  Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and let stand 10 minutes or until foamy.  Add the salt, olive oil, vital wheat gluten, and flour and mix until a dough forms.  Knead the dough until smooth or, if using a stand mixer, allow the machine to knead the dough on medium-low for about 5 minutes.  Cover the dough with a tea cloth and allow to sit in a warm, draft-free location for about 90 minutes.

When the dough has finished rising, preheat the oven to 450*.  Sprinkle corn meal on a pizza stone and place the stone on the center rack of the oven.  Divide the dough into four equal portions.

Stretch each portion into a small circle, about the size of a pie plate.

Evenly distribute the pasta sauce on each dough portion.  Repeat with the cheeses.

Fold each dough portion in half and pinch the seams together, forming a sealed taco shape.

 Gently place each calzone on the hot pizza stone.  Bake for 13-15 minutes, until the dough is golden and the cheese inside has melted.

Serves 4

Calories:  Approximately 428, depending upon variety and brands of pasta sauce and cheese