Homemade whole wheat calzones with spinach, roasted garlic, artichoke hearts, olives and sun-dried tomatos
Homemade wholewheat calzones with fresh spinach, roasted garlic, artichoke hearts, olives and sundried tomatos
Wholewheat calzones with spinach, artichokes, roasted garlic and sun-dried tomato
Cook Time
Prep time: 3 hours 40 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ready in: 4 hours 10 min
Yields: 4 large calzones serving 8
Whole wheat calzones with spinach, artichokes, roasted garlic,olives and sundried tomatoes
- For the dough: 4 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 2 tablespoons potato flour
- 2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup King Arthur's 12 grain mix, optional
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1&1/2 teaspoons salt
- For the filling: one 15 ounce carton ricotta cheese, low-fat
- 1 bunch fresh spinach, washed and chopped into very thin ribbons
- 1/2 cup sundried tomatos, chopped
- 1/2 cup roasted garlic
- 1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
- 7-8 artichoke hearts, marinated
- 1 cup Fontina cheese, grated
- 1 cup Bella Vitano Merlot cheese, or parmesean cheese grated
- For the sauce: marinara sauce, store-bought low sodium
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano, crushed
- 1 tablespoon dried basil, crushed
- 1 teaspoon ground pepper, fresh
Whole wheat calzones
- Start your dough first. You can do the recipe in one day but I like to break it up into two. It allows the dough to rise overnight creating more flavor, but you can do it the same day without any problems. Mix all your dry ingredients for the dough into a large bowl and stir. Heat the water and oil to 100 degrees.
- Make a well in the flour and pour in the yeast water. Mix with a big spoon or spatula until all the ingredients are incorporated. Turn dough out on to a lightly floured surface.
- Knead the dough for eight to ten minutes. Only add small amounts of flour to you hands to keep the dough from sticking. It will start out tacky but as you knead you will feel it get smoother.
- Lightly oil a large bowl. Place your dough ball in the large bowl and cover with plastic wrap. I allow the dough to sit in a warm place in my kitchen until it doubles in size then I place it in the refrigerator overnight. You can let it sit for at least 12 hours and as long as 72 hours. If in a hurry you can send it straight to the refrigerator. It won't develop the flavor as well but it won't affect the dough. In my photos you will see I have cut the dough in half before the first rise. I made a double batch and froze the other half. I will use for a future dinner. I may turn it into bread sticks for another meal.
- If doing the overnight method, take the dough out of the refrigerator about 5-6 hours before you are going to use it. Punch the dough down for it will have risen overnight and let it rise to double it size again in a warm area of the kitchen.
- When ready to start calzones, start by mincing your raw garlic and placing that in a saucepan with the marinara sauce, basil and oregano (crushed in your hands) and let it sit on low heat for at least an hour. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
- You will now want to start on the filling. Drop all the ricotta in a large bowl and add the chopped spinach, sundried tomatos, roasted garlic, artichoke hearts, olives and shredded cheeses along with the fresh ground pepper. Mix well and set aside.
- Its time to roll out the dough. Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface. You will want some extra flour on the side of your surface to keep the dough from sticking. Cut the dough into 4 pieces.
- Taking one piece at a time, roll the dough out with a rolling pin or your hands into a circle. Take the filling and run a knife down and across to get a feeling for how much filling goes into each calzone.
- Load up this half of the calzone with 1/4 of the filling. Make sure you leave enough around the edge so you can crimp the closed withour the filling getting in the way. Take the other half of dough without the filling and pull it up and over the filling to meet the other edge and crimp or roll the edges shut. Do this for the other 3 pieces of dough and the rest of the filling. Placing each calzone as you finish on a cookie sheet. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Serve with marinara sauce.
Whole wheat calzones with spinach, roasted garlic, sundried tomato and olives
I can just hear you as you are reading this recipe, "are you kidding me?" Yes, I admit it does look like a ton of work but it really isn't. If you start your dough day the day before, buy store-bought sauce and get the majority of your fillings from a good olive bar at the grocer, you will have cut out a ton of time. You could even make it faster by buying your dough already made. I have seen whole wheat dough for sale at Trader Joe's and you could skip doctoring the sauce. You also could put the spinach in the food processor and give it a few quick pulses. Your filling could be done that way too. The only danger is going too far and ending up with, well, something that looks like baby food, which on a weird side note, is getting popular with some adults. That is just too lazy for me--can you say "overprocessed"?
The recipe for the dough was worked out by me for my friends. I bake a lot of my own breads and rolls. Frankly, I can't find anything I make that gives me more joy to serve. Everyone loves bread and it's been around for around 4,000 years in one form or another. Don't dismiss bread because you think it's bad for you. Yes, white flour bread is not so good, but here, we are working with an excellent flour that contains a high protein content along with adding all the extra grain goodness. It makes you full faster and digests slower. Don't be afraid to try the recipe, it was designed for ease. When I make bread I measure everything out by weight and I knew no one wanted to do that. With that in mind, this dough recipe can be used for breadsticks, pizza dough and baguette's. Try making bread from scratch once and you will be hooked. Its fun and easy. Your family will think you are a god/goddess!!
