Pepperoni & Cheese Calzone and Pizza Dough Recipe

One of my all time favorite food to eat is Pizza ! Making your own dough is fun and the options for toppings is unlimited ! In this recipe I took my favorite New York Style Pizza Dough recipe, and used it to create a beautiful Calzone, which is basically a huge "Pizza Pocket". When Cooking Pizza's or Calzone's at home, I always suggest using a Pizza stone. This will assure for a professional, tasty and beautiful crust! 

New York Style Pizza Dough 

Ingredients:
2 1/4 teaspoon (1 package) instant dry active yeast
1 cup warm water (not hot!)
1/2 tablespoon sugar
3 cups bread flour, or as needed
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
Preparation:

Add the water, yeast, sugar, and a 1/2 cup of the flour into a mixing bowl. Stir well and let sit for 20 minutes. It will get bubbly.

Add olive oil, salt, and 2 cups of the flour, and mix with a wooden spoon until it's together enough to turn out on to a lightly floured work surface to knead.

Knead for about 10 minutes, while adding more flour a little at a time, to produce a soft, elastic and slightly sticky dough. Do not add too much flour, just enough to keep it from sticking to the work surface as you knead.

Form the dough into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl. Drizzle a few drops of oil and coat the top of dough to prevent the surface from becoming dry.

Cover with a kitchen towel and place in a warm spot for 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Punch down the dough and divide into 2 balls and place in large zip lock plastic bags and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to use, remove from fridge, and let the dough come up to room temperature before using.


Making the Calzone..

Use 1 half of the dough to make this recipe. Leave the other half in the fridge for up to a week. 

Ingredients
-Fresh Pizza Dough
-Pepperroni slices
-2 cups Mozzerella Cheese
-1 cup Marina Sauce
-Cold water

Directions
Roll and stretch out dough into a large round circle. The thickness should be about 1/2 inch. Be careful not to roll dough out too thin. Place (in this order) sauce, pepperoni, & cheese on half of the pizza dough, leaving about 1 1/2 inches of space at the edges. Then carefully lift the empty half of the dough over and on top of the toppings, be sure to make it as even as possible. Lightly press edges down, then pinch edges from bottom and twist up into top of edge then press to seal, continue to pinch, twist and press edges to create a pretty crust. Brush cold water onto dough to create a shiny crust. Place in a pre heated 475 degree oven onto a hot pizza stone, for 10 mins. Then brush with cold water a second time and bake for an additional 10 mins. Crust should be a golden brown.