Braided Pizza Calzone

Making pizza is always a fun an exciting experience as the possibilities are endless. With so many combinations of toppings and styles of making it you can really do anything!!

For this Instructable I have created a Braided Calzone full of Pepperoni, Cheese and Pineapple.

**A lot of People wonder the difference between a "Calzone" and a "Panzorotti" well the simplest way to explain the difference would be that a Calzone is baked not fried like a Panzorotti**

Prep - 20 Mins Cooking 20 mins Standing time 10 mins

Total time - 50 mins

Materials Needed

For the Calzone

1 - Pizza dough ( home made or store bought which ever you prefer)

2 - Pizza Cheese ( I used delicious mozzarella)

3 - Parmesan Cheese for topping

4 - Pepperoni (Good Quality)

5 - Pineapple

6 - Butter

7- Pizza Sauce

Making and cooking

1 -Rolling Pin

2 - Flour

3 - BBQ or oven (Preheat to 500 degrees)

4 - Pizza Stone (Optional)

5 - Pizza Peel (Or something large and flat that can move the pizza to the stone and off again)

Clean well and wipe dry then flour your workspace generously.

I am using homemade dough that I had made 2 days earlier. With a Heavy duty rolling pin begin rolling the dough out on the well floured work space to ensure it wont stick. add more flour as needed and get the dough as flat as you can as this will make a better Calzone

Note the size of the piece of dough I started with and how flat I got it.

This is always the fun part!!

But remember we are making a Calzone NOT a Pizza so once you have your dough rolled out when you begin to add the toppings KEEP EVERY CENTRALIZED as this will allow us to do the braided technique in the next step

Gather your favorite toppings and start to build you Calzone.

General Order would be;

1 - Sauce

2 - Pepperoni

3 - Cheese

4 - Pineapple

Okay at this point you have a piece or dough all flattened out full of toppings in the middle and now its time to get your braid on!!

Steps

1 - Cut off un-usable areas from the tops and side but do not get rid of them we will use them later. Timing the edges allows for less overlap in the braided top.

2- with a sharp knife cute slits perpendicular to the toppings to the outside edge of the dough. Make the slits about 1/2" - 3/4" thick

3 - Begin at one end and fold a corner or end piece over then repeat on the opposite side.

4 - To get the braided look repeat this process for the entire Calzone " Flip left side then Flip right side" dont worry if the strands of dough dont reach all the water over to the other side just have them laying flat and everything will work out.

5 - As you get to the end of the other side if there is extra you can cut it off or just start braiding the other way which is what I did and it turned out great.

*** additional flour around the edges can be tucked under to help with moving the Calzone with out ripping the thin dough!! use a pizza peel or other flat object and tuck it under to coat the bottom of the Calzone in flour***

Now that you have braided the top and it transferred over to something that can get it on the BBQ or oven you can now top the Calzone with a small amount of melted butter to let the crust get a beautiful golden brown colour as well as help some Parmesan cheese garnish stick to the top.

Left Over Pieces

With the cut offs from the big piece of dough I like to grab a few pieces of pepperoni and made a little turnover type things or what I like to call a "Pepperoni Pocket" they cook really quickly and can be a delicious little snack midway through cooking the Calzone.

Before we can cook make sure your BBQ and Pizza Stone are at 500 degrees or your oven around 400 as the oven will cook the top faster then the BBQ.

On a preheated BBQ of 500 degrees

Place the Calzone on a Pizza Stone which has been preheating in the BBQ as well.

Cook for 20 minutes or until the top braids are just beginning to turn brown

*** be sure to rotate the Calzone throughout the cooking process to ensure even cooking***

Remove from grill and allow to stand or "set" for about 8-10 minutes depending on how long you can hold off from eating this wonderful creation.

Cooking times are the same if using an oven just set your oven temperature to 400 degrees and keep and eye on the dough colour and a indication of doneness

Once you have let the Calzone sit for a little bit its time to slice and serve !!

I hope everyone Enjoyed this instructable and Good Luck making this simple and easy take of a Calzone.