A portable, low sodium snack or meal that can be customized to accommodate even the pickiest eaters. These calzones use my overnight no-knead pizza dough recipe and there is virtually no sodium in the dough, so you have a lot of room to add your choice of fillings and still keep each serving very low sodium.
Servings: 8 calzones, each about 7 inches long
Sodium: Less than 1 mg of sodium in the dough per calzone, so sodium content will depend on your fillings
Time: About 1 hour active, 12-18 hours inactive.
Dough Ingredients:
500 g bread flour (about 4 cups, all purpose flour works fine, too but bread flour gives you a slightly chewier crust)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
315 g water (about 1 1/3 cups)
Egg wash ingredients:
1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water
1) In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir to blend, then add the wet ingredients and using a wooden spoon or your hands, mix thoroughly. I usually start with a spoon, and need to finish mixing by hand to get it combined. The dough is shaggy and sticky. Cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel. Let the dough rest for 12-18 hours at room temperature until it has doubled.
2) Turn the dough out on a floured work surface and divide into 8 portions. Shape each into a small ball and let rest, lightly covered with a kitchen towel, for 30 minutes.
3) Stretch each ball into a circle about 7 inches in diameter. To do this, gently flatten the balls of dough between your fingers and then let the dough hang and stretch itself. Put your preferred toppings on half of the calzone, leaving about 1/2 inch space around the edges to seal.
Some things to keep in mind when you choose your fillings:
--Don't overfill the calzone, you should be able to fold the dough over the fillings and seal it easily without having to stretch out the dough too much to accommodate the fillings.
--Keep the fillings dry or you'll end up with a soggy calzone. I use 1 tablespoon of sauce, at most, and often don't use sauce at all because you can always serve the sauce on the side. If you're using watery vegetables like mushrooms or bell peppers, slice them thin and microwave them on a plate lined with a paper towel so they dry out a bit.
--One of our favorite combinations is pictured here. It's minced garlic, flavored olive oil, caramelized shallots, 1 ounce of Swiss cheese, mushrooms, zucchini, onions, sun dried tomatoes, and fresh basil and/or oregano. I microwave the sliced mushrooms, zucchini, and onions for about 1 minute on a paper towel lined plate to dry them out a bit before adding them to the filling. That's less than 65 mg of sodium and it's so flavorful.
4) Preheat your oven to 450°F.
5) Fold the dough over the fillings and seal the edges. Do this with a fork (faster and easier), or press with your fingers to seal and then roll the edges over. If you're using a fork, dip it in flour before sealing.
Make sure the edges are well sealed or else they'll open up like this when you bake them:
6) Place each completed calzone on a parchment-lined roasting pan and cover with a dry kitchen towel while you make the remaining calzones. Before they go in the oven, lightly brush with an egg wash (1 whole egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water), and cut two slits in each calzone using a very sharp knife. The egg wash gives the calzones that nice shiny, golden finish, and the slits are little vents that allow the steam to escape so the calzone doesn't burst in the hot oven.
7) Bake at 450°F for 15-20 minutes until crust is golden brown and allow to cool before eating because they'll be very hot inside.