Originally posted on October 30, 2005.

Being a huge fan of Italian food and pizza, I decided to make homemade calzones with Italian sausage, mozzarella cheese, and some herbs and veggies.

I used the pizza dough recipe I used in my “Tim’s Bitchin’ Pizza” recipe. And I also used organic ingredients where available, and things like fresh mozzarella and oregano.

Basic Instructions:

1. Make some pizza dough. (click here for my pizza dough recipe)
2. Divide ½ of pizza dough recipe into 4 equal pieces, then knead and form each chunk into a ball and let “rest” for 30 – 60 minutes.
3. Cut up and cook the Italian sausage until browned.
4. Chop the mince the other ingredients and produce.
5. Flatten out the dough balls and form into flat and thin pizzas.
6. Add some sauce and mozzarella, and add the ingredients, to the dough.
7. Close and crimp the edges well, and place onto a pizza stone in a preheated 475° – 500° oven.
8. Bake for 7 – 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Our basic ingredients are pizza dough, Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella cheese, garlic, green pepper, mushrooms, fresh oregano, olive oil and some pizza or spaghetti sauce.

I had made a batch of my pizza dough the night before and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight for 18 hours or so..

After punching it down I cut the dough in half, then cut one half into 4 individual pieces. I kneaded each and formed them into balls. I then put a dish towel over them and let them rest for 30 minutes or so.

While the dough balls were resting I cut up the sausage and got it ready for cooking..

Note: Don’t forget to remove the skin off the sausage if you bought whole like I did. You can also buy ground Italian sausage too if you want..

The sausage needs to be cooked before using it. I cooked the sausage in some olive oil in a pan, then set it aside in a bowl to drain on some paper towels. It should also be cooled down some before using it in the filling.

Then while the cooked sausage was cooling off I chopped up the pepper and mushrooms, minced a couple of cloves of fresh garlic, and chopped the fresh oregano.

By now the dough had rested enough, so I formed each ball like a tiny flat pizza. I also lightly brushed on some olive oil, leaving a ½ inch dry around the edges so we can crimp it closed later..

Add some sauce to ½ of the dough, then some slices of the mozzarella cheese, and a little of each of the rest of your ingredients.. I added a little more sauce on top (not pictured, so you can see the ingredients) along with some more slices of the mozzarella before closing.

Then pull the other ½ of the dough over the top. Fold over the edges a little and crimp them closed good.

I had preheated the oven to around 475° – 500° and gave it a good 30 minutes to an hour to get the pizza stone good and hot. Then, using a pizza peel, slid the calzone off onto the hot pizza stone. I baked them 2 at a time for about 7 – 10 minutes until they were golden brown.

Note: Dusting your pizza peel lightly with some semolina flour (semolina is the kind of flour used in ravioli pasta) will help the calzone slide off easily onto the hot pizza stone.. Sticking is bad, mm’k.

And here are the finished calzones! The only thing I think I would have done differently would be to use about double the amount of mozzarella cheese, and a little more sauce.

Originally posted on October 22, 2005.

As as easy as it is to make homemade apple pie I still wonder why people buy a can of filling off the shelf.. It’s easy to make, and the ingredients are pretty simple. The pie crust (click here for pie crust recipe) is the only real work.

This recipe cost a little more to make since I used mostly organic ingredients and apples. It can probably be made quite a bit cheaper if you buy your ingredients at your local major chain supermarket.

Basic Apple Pie Filling Instructions:

1. Peel and cut apples into ¼ inch slices.
2. Drizzle 1 – 2 ounces of lemon juice over apple slices in a bowl and toss to mix.
3. Combine granulated sugar, light brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.
4. Pour mixture over the apple slices and toss to mix.
5. Dump apple mixture into pie crust in a 9 inch pie pan.
6. Cut 2 ounces of butter (¼ of a stick) into small chunks and add to pie filling.
7. Cover the pie with the top crust and crimp or flute edges, then make some small cuts in top.
8. Bake at 425° for 40 minutes, until golden brown and filling bubbles out a little.

Now onto the pictures for the rest!

Our basic ingredients are apples, white and light brown sugar, a small amount of flour, a lemon, butter, and some ground cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.

I also added several drops (not too much) of vanilla over the filling before covering with the top crust.

Peel the skin off the apples, quarter, cut out the core and stems, and slice into ¼ inch slices.

Combine the 2/3 cup granulated sugar, ½ cup light brown sugar, 3 tbsp flour, 1 tsp cinnamon, dash of nutmeg and allspice in a bowl. Stir it up well, then put it in the mixing cup for use shortly.

Put the apple slices into a mixing bowl and drizzle the 1 – 2 tbsp of lemon juice over them. Then toss to coat the slices.

Note: I used a fresh lemon for this (watch the seeds!), but you could use lemon juice you can buy in those little lemon shaped bottles the stock in the produce department too..

Now add the sugar, flour, spice mixture to the apple slices. Sprinkle it over them and toss a bit again so all of the apple slices are coated well.

You can see here that all of the apple slices are coated with the sugar mixture.. mMmm.

Add the sugared up apple slices to the pie crust in a 9 inch pie pan.

Cut 2 tbsp of butter (¼ of a stick) into chunks and place them around on the top of the filling.

Finally cover the pie with the top crust and crimp or flute the edges so it’s closed up nice. Also remember to cut some small slices in the top for venting (Don’t forget this step!).

Place the pie in the center of your preheated oven and bake at 425° for 40 minutes. Peek in on it 5 or 10 minutes before the end, it should be golden brown when done.

Note 1: It’s a good idea to place a cookie sheet or sheet pan on another rack below the pie to catch any sugar mixture/syrup that may drip down. This is a common thing, so use a sheet pan if you have one so you won’t have to clean the bottom of your oven tomorrow.

Note 2: My oven is gas, but if yours is an electric oven (with a big hot heating element up top) you might want to cover the edges of the crust with some aluminum foil for all but the last 10 minutes of cooking so the edges don’t burn..

And finally it’s done! Place on a cooling rack and cover with a dish towel for 30 minutes or an hour to cool before cutting into it, and it’s ready to eat!