Pepperoni Calzones

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A hot oven and the right dough are our secrets to making pizzeria-perfect pepperoni calzones. Stuff your calzone with all of your favorite pizza toppings or stick with classic pepperoni.

The secrets to making a pizzaria-perfect peperoni calzone.

Pepperoni Calzones

What do you think when pizza comes to mind? The first thing that comes to my mind is pretty obvious: steaming, round crust with hot pizza sauce, gooey cheese, and crispy pepperoni on top. It brings me back to every Friday at school when we had pizza and pop to celebrate the weekend. And then we would come home and have an even better tasting pizza for dinner.

The secrets to making a pizzaria-perfect peperoni calzone.

Today’s post is a little twist on the usual Friday-pizza tradition. Pepperoni Calzones, probably the most pizza I could possibly eat stuffed into one crust, are different from normal pizza in shape, but are no different in taste. Just like a pizza without the sauce. I like to load my calzone with as much cheese as possible without it exploding in the oven. And never forget to sprinkle some cheese on top, because browned cheese is soooooo GOOD!  You probably already knew I was obsessed with mozzerella cheese, but when you taste this calzone, you will be, too.

The secrets to making a pizzaria-perfect peperoni calzone.

If you haven’t made our pizza dough yet, you have to try it.  It bakes up the most deliciously flavored, crispy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside crust ever. Yes, it has yeast in it so it takes a bit of advance planning. Only about an hour total from mixing to rising. If you are serious about your homemade pizza like we are, you’ll want to take the time to make a good pizza crust.

Making this calzone is pretty simple, there are just a few key steps that you can’t afford to miss for the perfect calzone. To get the size that we have, divide 1 recipe of our pizza dough into 6 balls. The dough will be a little sticky, but that’s OK. Be careful not to add a lot of flour for handling the dough. You want that dough to be sticky so your calzone seals when you pinch it together.

Roll each dough ball out and put pepperoni and cheese on half of the semi-circle, depending on how much you want. Don’t be afraid to put a good amount of cheese on. If you are crazy like my dad, you can throw in peppers, onions, mushrooms…whatever makes you happy that day!

Now, here’s the important part. When you go to close up your calzone, pinch the sides really good so that nothing can escape when you bake it. We pinched, folded, and pinched again to make sure that no cheese seeped out. We’ve had our precious cheese escape our calzones in the past all because we didn’t fold it correctly or had too much flour to make the seal stick. But no worries, even if your calzone does let go of some cheese it’ll still taste good.

Lastly, brush the tops of your calzones with a little splash of olive oil. Then sprinkle some garlic salt and mozzarella (or Parmesan) cheese on top. You can never have too much cheese.

The secrets to making a pizzaria-perfect peperoni calzone.

The key thing about making this calzone is to heat up the oven really, really hot. It will bake better and faster, too, giving you that nice crispy, yet chewy crust. Our oven’s hottest temperature is 550 degrees, so that’s what we cook our calzones at. It will only take about eight minutes to bake. Watch carefully so they don’t burn. If your oven doesn’t go to 550 degrees, set it for as high as it will go and add a minute or two to the baking time.

The secrets to making a pizzaria-perfect peperoni calzone.

Have fun playing around with this recipe. We made six calzones.  Hungrier appetite? Make your calzones bigger! Just increase the baking time.  Need smaller snacks for school lunches?  Make your calzones smaller and reduce the baking time.  And don’t forget the side of pizza sauce for dipping. You can find our favorite recipe here. Adults and kids alike will love them!

Need an appetizer? Try our pizza pinwheels!

pepperoni calzone broken in half
pepperoni calzone broken in half

Pepperoni Calzones

4.88 from 8 votes
A hot oven and the right dough are our secrets to making pizzeria-perfect pepperoni calzones. Stuff your calzone with all of your favorite pizza toppings or stick with classic pepperoni.
Servings 6
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Total Time 33 minutes

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Ingredients
 

  • 1 1/3 cups warm water
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons cornmeal
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
  • 2 teaspoons Red Star yeast
  • 4 ounces sliced pepperoni
  • 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • olive oil for topping

Instructions
 

  • Put warm water and yeast together in a bowl. Let it sit for 5 minutes or until the yeast has activated. Add in the sugar, salt, olive oil, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, garlic powder, and onion powder. In your stand mixer, mix them with the paddle attachment just until combined. Then put on the dough hook and knead for about 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until doubled.
  • Preheat the oven to 550 degrees. Divide the pizza dough into 6 balls. Dough should be a bit sticky. Press each ball out into a circle. Place 5 pepperoni slices on half of the circle. Then put about ⅓ to ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese over the pepperoni. Place another 5 pepperoni slices on top of the cheese. Fold the circle in half. Turn the edges in and press to seal the calzone.
  • Brush the tops of the calzones with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt. Put a bit of shredded mozzarella on top, if desired. Place the calzones on a baking sheet.
  • Bake the calzones at 550 degrees for 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Notes

*If you'd like, you can use your breadmaker on the dough setting to make this dough. *If your oven doesn't go up to 550 degrees, set it to as high as it will go. You will need to add a few minutes to the baking time.

Nutrition

Calories: 549kcal | Carbohydrates: 53g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 64mg | Sodium: 1558mg | Potassium: 240mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 380IU | Calcium: 325mg | Iron: 3.6mg
Course Main Dish
Cuisine American
Calories 549
Keyword easy calzones, pizza turnovers, school lunch
About JulieJulie Clark

About Julie Clark

I'm Julie Clark, CEO and recipe developer of Tastes of Lizzy T. With my B.A. in Education and over 30 years of cooking and baking, I want to teach YOU the best of our family recipes.

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Carol Neagle
9 years ago

4 stars
I found the dough extremely sticky (which it was supposed to be..) Do you have some suggestions for getting this wet sticky dough cut into pieces and flattened without adding more flour? I watched one video on working with sticky dough, but they were using some flour, and then there was one where they used oil sprayed on the counter and hands… Which do you use?

Laura
3 years ago

5 stars
Calzones came out very puffy, very interesting. I’ve never added baking powder to a yeast bead before. After baking all, I froze half and reheated later at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. They came out fine! I might add note filling if I made these again- bread to filling ratio was a bit off.

Vicki J.
5 years ago

5 stars
Made these last night. They are delicious! Will definitely be making these again and again. My only suggestion would be to change the prep/total time listed for them. I read that and thought I could have them made in 33 minutes. Not possible. 5 minutes for yeast to stand, 10 minutes kneading with dough hook, 30 minutes to rise, plus a little time for mixing ingredients and pressing them out and putting them together. That’s 45 minutes plus. And then bake 8 minutes. So probably took more like an hour to make them.

Debria
5 years ago

5 stars
I usually never comment on recipes I replicate but.. These were simply delicious!!! I stuffed them with pepperoni (a little more then the recipe called for ????) green and red peppers, strips of chicken and plenty of mozzarella! It was tasty! I have no bread machine so I kneaded the dough myself, but it turned out absolutely amazing! Great recipe! Will definitely recommend and make again! Thank you so much!

Jenifer Barnes
6 years ago

5 stars
These look great. I’m a vegetarian so I will put maybe olives and mushrooms instead of pepperoni. Thanks

Megan
9 years ago

Thank you for putting up a calzone recipe! The spices were just perfect and we really enjoyed it. There’re were a couple of things that might need to be looked at. With three cups of flour, the dough was like soup. I probably ended up adding at least two more cups. Not a big deal, but adding the sauce to the calzone was omitted from the instruction. I know, duh! but you never know! Thank yu for the recipe and your pictures are beautiful!

Lizzy T
9 years ago

School calzones were the best! I ate two a day sometimes. Yikes! I’ve tried to find those frozen turnovers in the store but haven’t had success. There’s probably a reason for that. 🙂

Jill
9 years ago

We do make your own pizza a lot, but haven’t tried calzones yet. These look so yummy, so we obviously have been missing out 🙂 Pinned!

Maryanne @ the little epicurean
9 years ago

YUM! These look great! It’s hard to turn down a homemade calzone 🙂

Nicola - Pink Recipe Box
9 years ago

These are definitely the best homemade calzones I’ve ever seen – the dough looks incredible! Pinning and think I’ll make these instead of pizza for dinner on Friday night 🙂

Cathy@LemonTreeDwelling
9 years ago

These look awesome! I’ve never made homemade calzones…..saving this recipe to try!!

Deb @ Cooking on the Front Burner
9 years ago

I know my husband would love these! They are the perfect snack size!!

Jamie @ Love Bakes Good Cakes
9 years ago

My husband is a huge fan of homemade calzones – maybe I should make them for him the week he’s off on vacation! Thanks for sharing!

Matt Robinson
9 years ago

these look so crazy good, my boys would go crazy for them!