Take pizza night up a notch with these sourdough calzones. Made with a flavorful sourdough crust, fill each calzone with sauce, cheese, and your favorite pizza toppings, like red onion, green peppers, or sausage – the options are endless!
Pizza night is always a big hit in our house. Sometimes it is a weekly occurrence. It’s a great way to clean out the fridge and pantry if you have things like peppers or onions about to go bad or if you need to use up cheese.
Last week I mixed up my sourdough crust in the morning so it would have time to bulk rise all day. I was planning on making our usual pizzas, but then I had an idea – calzones!
It ended up being so much fun. Each kiddo was able to make a small calzone of their own and add their favorite toppings. It may have been a bigger hit than regular pizza night.
This sourdough calzones recipe is so easy and delicious, I guarantee you’ll be making this on repeat.
What is a Calzone?
A calzone is a turnover, typically filled with the ingredients you find on a pizza, and baked in the oven. This Italian dish is made using a leavened pizza dough.
What’s Inside a Calzone?
Calzone filling can vary. It typically includes some variation of sauce, cheese, meat, and veggies.
Here are just a few ideas :
- Classic Pepperoni Calzone – Keep it simple with marinara sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni. Add a little ricotta for some extra creaminess, too.
- Meat Lovers – Pack your calzone with salami, ham, sausage, and pepperoni.
- Buffalo Chicken – Trade out the marinara for buffalo sauce and add shredded chicken and blue cheese.
- Vegetarian โ- Add in your favorite veggies – spinach, peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Make It Your Own – The best part about a calzone is getting creative with the filling. Make a fancy, delicious calzone with goat cheese and caramelized onion or keep it simple with a classic like pepperoni.
The Whole Family Can Help – Have everyone make their own calzone and pick their filling. It’s fun for the kids, and there’s no fighting over what toppings to add.
Easy to Make Ahead of Time – This is a great make-ahead dinner to have on hand for those nights you are in a pinch. Make the dough and store the dough ball in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 3 days. You can also freeze after it’s risen and been divided. Another option is to put the calzones together and either freeze unbaked or after they are baked and cooled.
Tips
- Once you add your filling and fold the dough over, don’t forget to pinch the dough together, fold and pinch again. This extra fold and pinching will ensure none of the filling oozes out during baking.
- I like to use a pizza stone to bake these. You can also use a cookie sheet. If you do, I recommend using a piece of parchment paper so the calzones do not stick and for easy clean up.
- For best results, use an active sourdough starter for this recipe. Learn how to make a sourdough starter here and how to maintain one here.
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Ingredients
For the Dough
Active Sourdough Starter – For this recipe, you want your starter to be active and bubbly. Feed it 4 to 12 hours before you begin to make your dough.
Flour – I use all purpose flour.
Water
Salt – This is really important! Otherwise you will end up with a very bland dough. I prefer to use sea salt for the best flavor.
Olive Oil
For the Filling
Sauce – We typically go with a marinara sauce, but you could also do an Alfredo sauce here, too.
Mozzarella Cheese – Learn how to make your own mozzarella cheese here.
Add Ins (optional) – Use your favorite pizza toppings to make these your own creations. We love pepperoni, bell peppers, and sautรฉed mushrooms.
Olive Oil
Tools You May Need
Large Mixing Bowl
Cutting Board (optional) – If you need to chop any of your add ins.
Rolling Pin
Pizza Stone or Baking Sheetย
How to Make Sourdough Calzones
The morning you plan to make calzones, add the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer.
Using a dough hook, mix the dough on medium mixer speed until the dough passes the windowpane test. This can take up to 10 minutes or more.
The windowpane test is when you take a small piece of dough and are able to stretch it so thin, you can see through it without it breaking.
Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at room temperature for about 8 hours.
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Split the dough into 4 for large calzones or into 6 for small ones.
Roll each ball of dough out into a circle about 1/4 inch think.
Add sauce and toppings on one half of the dough, leaving an edge around the dough.
Fold it in half to create a half circle, pinch dough together. Then roll dough over around the edges and pinch again.
Brush with olive oil. Cut 2-3 slits on the top with a knife or razor blade.
Bake for 20-25 minutes if you are making 4 and 15 – 20 minutes for smaller calzones or until fully cooked through and golden in color.
Bakers Timeline
9 PM: Feed your sourdough starter.
โThe Next Morning
9 AM: Mix together the dough. Let it rest at room temperature for about 8 hours.
5 PM: Split the dough, roll it out into a circle. Fill each calzone circle with sauce, cheese, and toppings. Fold over.
5:15-5:30 PM: Bake the calzones.
How to Store and Reheat Sourdough Calzones
If you have leftover calzones, you can store in an airtight container in the fridge or you can freeze baked calzones. I would suggest flash freezing them first on a baking sheet before adding them to a Ziploc bag.
Reheat calzones in the oven or toaster oven until warmed through.
If you are planning to make these ahead of time, you can just make the dough and store in the fridge for up to 3 days or freeze after it’s risen and been divided. You can also freeze unbaked calzones.
FAQ
Nope! You can use the same dough to make a pizza to make a calzone. I use my sourdough pizza crust for this recipe.ย
Absolutely! What is sourdough not good for? It gives an extra boost of flavor that just can’t be beat.ย
The only difference between a sourdough pizza crust and a regular pizza crust is the type of yeast used. A typical pizza dough is made with commercial yeast, while a sourdough dough is made with the wild yeast from a sourdough starter.ย
More Sourdough Dinner Ideas
- Homemade Spinach Pie Recipe With Puff Pastry
- Homestyle Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe From Scratch
- Sourdough Skillet โ Healthy One Pot Meal
- Best Chicken Pot Pie Recipe With Sourdough Biscuits
- Sourdough Fried Chicken
Self-Paced Online Course
Simple Sourdough
What’s in this course?
- Make your own robust starter
- Bake your first loaves of sourdough bread
- Understand sourdough better
- Expand your sourdough bread repertoire
- Download my Complete Recipe Book
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone
Homemade Sourdough Calzone Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Large Bowl
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 1 Baking Stone or Cookie Sheet
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1/2 cup active sourdough starter 113g
- 4 cups flour 600g
- 1 1/2 cups water 354g
- 2 teaspoons salt 10 g
- 2 tablespoons olive oil 26.6 g
For the filling
- 1/4 cup sauce
- 8 ounces mozzarella cheese
- Favorite toppings
- 1 tablespoon olive oil to brush on top of the calzones
Instructions
- The morning you plan to make calzones, add the ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Using a dough hook, mix the dough on medium mixer speed until the dough passes the windowpane test. This can take up to 10 minutes or more.
- The windowpane test is when you take a small piece of dough and are able to stretch it so thin, you can see through it without it breaking.
- Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at room temperature for about 8 hours.
- Preheat oven to 425.
- Split the dough into 4 for large calzones or into 6 for small ones.
- Roll each ball of dough out into a circle about 1/4 inch think.
- Add sauce and toppings to one half of the rolled out dough, leaving an edge around the dough.
- Fold it in half to create a half circle, pinch dough together. Then roll dough over around the edges and pinch again.
- Brush with olive oil. Cut 2-3 slits on the top with a knife or razor blade.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes if you are making 4 and 15 – 20 minutes for smaller calzones or until fully cooked through and golden in color.
Notes
- Once you add your filling and fold the dough over, don’t forget to pinch the dough together, fold and pinch again. This extra fold and pinching will ensure none of the filling oozes out during baking.
- I like to use a pizza stone to bake these. You can also use a cookie sheet. If you do, I recommend using a piece of parchment paper so the calzones do not stick and for easy clean up. ย
- For best results, use an active sourdough starter for this recipe.ย
Peggy says
Very easy to make and it tastes delicious. I did the exact recipe for myself and cut the dough in half and added in some chicken for my kids and husband and we all thought it was a keeper!
Joy says
Amazing! I mixed my ingredients up in my bread machine. I used 100 gms spelt and the rest AP flour. Room temp for about 6-7 hours. In fridge for 5 days (life got in the way).It had raised even more in fridge, but it was just perfect. I rolled it out in 1 large roundish shape and used a lid to make/ cut out circles, approx 4 ” diameter. I got 11 calzones. 5 buffalo chicken and the rest pepperoni and cheese. So good! Dough was so tender and flaky. Most def making these frequently. Thank you!
Leah says
Is it okay for the dough to sit longer than 8 hours to rise? Or is that a problem? Thanks!
Sanne says
Just wanted to give some feedback: whenever I use weihgt measurements in you recipes I almost always end up needing quite a lot more flour than what the recipe says.
Lisa Bass says
Thanks for the feedback!
Elle says
It may be due to your environment. I live where it’s warm and humid I always start with less water rather than having to work with more flour ๐
Lydia says
Another observation for the folks that prepare this recipe using weight.
If you reduce the number of servings online, only the volume measurements are updated. For example:
4 srv->2 srv
Flour 4c.->2c. but 600 g unchanged!
Rebecca says
I’ve tried several SD crust recipes and always give up, but this one … this one is a winner! Thank you!!
Kayla Booth says
I donโt have a stand mixer, do you have any recommendations for someone who doesnโt have one?
Lisa Bass says
You can mix by hand. It may take a bit longer!
Alice says
Can I use Whole Wheat Einkorn Flour for this receipe? If so, how can I tweak it?
Lauren says
I used your recipe for pizza last night! Finally a dough that is not too sticky to work with! Looking forward to trying it with calzones. This recipe will be my go to from now on. Thank you!
Karen says
OMG! Looks sooo goood! Looking forward trying it ๐ฅฐ Thank you for the recipe! Have a good day ๐
Laura says
After letting the dough rest at room temperature for 8 hours, could you throw it in the fridge for a longer cold ferment?
Lisa Bass says
Yes!