Sourdough Calzones Recipe

Did you know that sourdough is the healthiest bread you can eat? The fermentation process and longer rise helps it to pre-digest, so your body doesn't have to work as hard, and there are more nutrients as well as healthy bacteria for gut health. (Read more here about why it's so much better for us.)

You can adapt this sourdough calzones recipe to anything you have on-hand. Got ground beef, chicken, or ham, then use those. Want to satisfy a Mexican craving? That works too. Love pizza? Yep. Need a meatless meal for Lent? No problem.

Here's a video that shows how I make them (after the ad), and further below is the full sourdough calzones recipe…

If you want subtitles for the video, go here and put it to full-size so you can see them easily–click “CC” for closed captioning.

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Sourdough Calzones

Anyone can make this easy sourdough calzones recipe, just plan ahead because you'll need to feed your starter the night before and it also needs time to rise the next day. This is a family favorite and we rarely have leftovers!

Servings: 8 people

Ingredients

Dough ingredients:

2 2/3 cup of your well-fed and stirred-down starter (see instructions)
1 cup warm water (not hot)
1/4 cup soft butter
1/4 cup molasses
1/3 cup raw honey
6 2/3 cup flour (I used 2 cups whole wheat Einkorn flour and organic unbleached bread flour for the rest.)
1.5 teaspoon sea salt
1 egg, beaten (optional for brushing on top before baking)
4 Tablespoons butter, optional for brushing on top after baking

Filling options (there are so many!):

Meatless: mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce, and you could add any veggies like peppers, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, artichokes, olives, jalepenos, banana peppers, pineapple--anything you like!
Already cooked chicken pieces, taco or enchilada sauce, cheddar cheese
Ham or canadian bacon, or browned ground beef, pizza sauce (or pasta sauce + Italian seasoning), mozzarella cheese
Mix and match, use what you have!

Instructions

For the dough:

The night before you make these, give your starters a good feeding, as explained in this sourdough post.
The next morning stir everything together (add salt last) or put in your mixer and knead for 3-4 minutes. I use my Bosch. (That thing is 18 years old and still going strong, I love how I can do big batches all at once!) You may need to add a little more flour--feel the dough after it kneads a bit to see if it's cleaning off the sides--it should not be sticky, but a little wet still is okay.
You can let it set for a few minutes up to a couple of hours if you have something you need to do before rolling it out (just cover it with a plate or something so it doesn't dry out), or you can prepare them right away.
Prepare 3-4 baking pans with parchment paper.
There are 2 options now:
The 1st option takes longer but it's more the traditional calzone method:
If your dough is still a bit wet, use buttered or floured hands and prepare the calzones individually by grabbing a ball of dough, between baseball and softball size, and roll out to flatten well into a circle, about 5-6" wide. Add desired fillings. Fold into a half-moon shape, pinch the edges closed well to seal in the ingredients so they don't fall out. Place on the baking pan. Let rise for a few hours.
The 2nd option is much faster and my preferred method now:
Flour your countertop well, roll dough out as shown below in a long rectangle. Add desired fillings, and roll up the long-way. Slice off approximately 1-1.5" pieces and place on the baking pan. Let rise for a few hours. (Makes about 26 of the 1.5" size, and 43 of the 1" size.)
Baking:
When risen enough to your liking (they'll puff up a bit more in the oven), brush on the beaten egg if you'd like a more golden color when they're done. Bake at 375* for 15-18 minutes or so, until golden brown on the tops and bottoms (rotate half-way through baking), making sure the bottoms don't burn. Brush with melted butter before serving, if desired.
If you're making a pizza version, you could serve with extra pizza sauce for dipping. If you're making a Mexican version, you could serve with extra taco or enchilada sauce and some sour cream.

Notes

Note that this makes a lot for our family of 6 big eaters, you can easily cut it down if needed. But leftovers always go fast! You could also freeze some either before baking (later let rise and bake), or after baking for a quick snack later.

For more flavor/filling variations, check out an older pinwheel post here:

https://kellythekitchenkop.com/crescent-roll-pizza/

Here are a few photos (there are more in the video):