Gluten-Free Calzones

Making pizza pockets with pasta dough was actually my sister’s idea. She loves gluten-free calzones, but they’re just full of bad stuff. So one day when she got the craving, she decided to try making them herself.

She was thrilled with them! So of course, I had to try them myself.

These would be great in brown bag lunches because, unlike most gluten-free stuff, they taste great cold!

A word about gluten-free pasta; it’s one of the easiest gluten-free doughs to work with. I even tried my last batch sans guar gum  and it turned out great! All the egg in it is a terrific binder.

The first time I did this, I made deep-fried (in coconut oil of course!) pizza rolls. Couldn’t get the ends to tuck in very pretty though. Hrmph. At least they tasted good!

The next time (meaning the next day ) I made them calzone style and baked them. That was much, much easier to do, and tasted just as good.

Gluten-Free Calzones

• Gluten-free pasta dough
• Shredded  cheese (I recommend mozzarella)
• Marinara sauce
• Various fillings such as cooked, crumbled sausage, bacon, pepperoni, mushrooms etc.

Roll out pasta dough and cut into squares (for pizza rolls), or circles (for calzones).

For pizza rolls: spoon filling onto center of dough square. Wrap dough around filling, and seal edges by brushing with just a smidgen of water and pressing lightly. Deep fry until golden. Since the fillings are already cooked, you don’t have to worry about how hot or for how long it cooks. You just want to cook the outside, and heat up the inside.

For calzones: turn oven on to 400. spoon filling onto one half of dough round steering clear of the edge. Brush edges with a tiny bit of water, and seal. You can use a fork to crimp the edges tight, or a dough press. If you make a lot of calzones, or half moon pies, a dough press is really awesome… But I digress.

Place calzones into a cookie sheet and bake until golden. Once again, since the fillings are pre-cooked, you don’t have to worry about exact times – and unfortunately, I forgot to time mine to see how long I took. Maybe ten minutes.

These things are seriously addictive.

Enjoy!

P.S. I totally stole these pictures from my sister because, let’s face it, she’s a much better photographer than I’ll ever be.