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I have tried making meat stuffed Calzones from pizza dough. It came out really crispy, but after 10 minutes or so the bread was kind of rubbery. It was weird because I made pizza the other day using the same recipe and it came out fantastic.

The dough was made from a simple mixture of 500g white flour, 400ml water, 21 gram fresh yeast cube and a tbsp of salt. I kneaded it until it was elastic and let it rise for two hours before taking it out of a warm oven and into the cold room, where it sat for three hours or so before getting into the oven.

Do you think pizza dough itself isn't fit for calzones, or was it the recipe?

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    Are you putting sauce (or other liquidy stuff) inside your calzone? Are you leaving vent holes in the top?
    – Catija ♦
    Jan 29, 2016 at 17:03
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    Do you bake on a rack or on a baking sheet and do you cool on a rack? I read that sprinkling cornmeal on the baking sheet helps keep the calzone just enough off of the surface of the sheet to allow the heat to flow around the calzone. answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110904055739AAfQ4Sh
    – Kristina Lopez
    Jan 29, 2016 at 18:07
  • No vent holes. There was some cooked ground beef with a drizzle of olive oil inside, though the bread was rubbery even in one flatbread I made from the same dough with no toppings. @catija I sprinkled semolina below and above the calzone.
    – Bar Akiva
    Jan 29, 2016 at 18:13
  • Did your method differ between this batch and the batch you used for pizza? For example, did you also leave it sitting out for three hours?
    – Catija ♦
    Jan 29, 2016 at 18:18
  • What temp did you bake at?
    – Escoce
    Jan 29, 2016 at 19:55

1 Answer 1

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The lack of vent holes would have been a problem.

Vent holes allow steam to escape, reducing the amount of internal moisture. This moisture will both prevent the crust from cooking fully through, and will cause the crust to soften as after it comes out of the oven.

That's not to say that there wasn't also some other problem, just this is one thing that you should correct.

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  • Does that rule hold for other types of flatbread (but not folded) as well? If I want a cripsy flat bread should I pierce it with a toothpick so the moisture will escape? Also, how big should the vent holes be and at what shape?
    – Bar Akiva
    Jan 30, 2016 at 7:18
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    @BarAkiva : No, it's an issue with things that have been sealed in a crust (so it applies to pies also). For flatbreads in general, you can dock them to prevent them from puffing up. I've seen some recipes call for making pitas that puff up, but you then pierce it to let the internal steam escape. As for shape and size of the cut, it can just be a straight cut, but size depends on number of vents and size of the item being vented. For smaller hand pies, I'll go with 2 or 3 cuts about 1/2" (1.25cm). For meal-sized ones, I might do 3 to 5, each about 3/4" (~2cm).
    – Joe
    Jan 30, 2016 at 14:41

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