Mini Caprese Calzones

Intro: Mini Caprese Calzones

These super yummy mini calzones are sure to be a success as a party food, snack, or addition to any meal. They're fairly simple to make, and are very easy to enjoy. :)

STEP 1: Ingredients

Things you need are:

- 1 cup flour (plus extra for flouring surfaces)
- 1/2 cup warm water
- 1/2 packet active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1-2 stalks of basil
- 4-8 cherry tomatoes
- shredded mozzarella cheese (as much as needed)

STEP 2: Mixing Ingredients

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes or so, or until it's very creamy.

In a larger bowl, add flour, olive oil, salt, sugar, and the yeast mixture. Stir well with a spoon.

Cover with a dishcloth for 30 minutes. It should have risen and almost doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

STEP 3: Preparing Other Ingredients

Wash your tomatoes well and cut off the tops. Then slice the tomatoes into rounds.

Remove the seeds (the goopy stuff in the center :)) and chop them.

Also chop 1-2 leaves of basil fairly fine. Then cut a few more leaves into larger pieces.



NOTE: It's easier to get the seeds out of the tomatoes when they're riper.

STEP 4: Making Calzones

Now here's the fun part! :)

Flour your hands and the surface you're working on. (I used aluminum foil because I could easily transfer it onto a baking sheet.) 

Take a piece of dough small enough to fit in your palm. Spread it out a bit on the surface and place one or two finely sliced basil leaves in the middle. Layer tomatoes and cheese on top, but leave room to fold the dough up!

Fold the dough into a round, dumpling like shape. See my pictures for help.

We're ready to bake!


NOTE: Don't put too much basil IN the calzone, because when basil bakes for a long time, it becomes brown and not as pleasant to eat. We will put the rest on later.

STEP 5: Baking!

Your oven should probably be done preheating by now. Place the calzones on a baking sheet and let them cook for 20 minutes.

After this, don't turn the oven off!  Quickly (but carefully!) take the pan out of the oven and put a piece of basil on top of each calzone. Sprinkle cheese on them and put back in the oven for 2 minutes.

Done!

STEP 6: Plate Them

I suggest plating them like in the picture below. That way, with the cut calzone people can add any fillings if they want. (Obviously you would have to put them on the table. :) )


Enjoy your culinary creation!

Comments

[yosusie]

Anything that's caprese is amazing! I wonder, would it be possible to just cut the cherry tomatoes in half? I guess they'd make the calzones bigger, but I'd love to use the mozzarella balls and just shove 'em inside the tomatoes. The more cheese the better!

[Mumu545]

I completely agree with your statement about cheese. You could definitely just cut the tomatoes in half, (it is pretty tedious to cut and cut and cut tomatoes :) ) but it would just make the calzones a little bigger. You should try it!

[yosusie]

on my way to buy some cherry tomatoes now! Hope it turns out as well as yours did =)

[Mumu545]

I'm sure they will! ;)

[Goodhart]

Oooo those look good

[Mumu545]

Thank you! Let me know if you try it.

[Goodhart]

I most certainly will :-)