Fluffy, crisp pizza crust with a sweet delicious filling! Our vegan dessert calzone are fun to make and super tasty to eat.
Maybe you've had a savoury calzone before? Basically it's a folded over pizza, and what’s normally the toppings end up as filling.
We usually use a homemade soy mince bolognese, or our vegan lentil ragu and a vegan cheese sauce. But dessert calzone are on another level!
I first got the idea for making these vegan dessert calzones from my niece and nephew, who used the leftover dough from making pizza, to make mini calzones filled with chocolate.
Why we love calzone so much...
- Fluffy and crisp crust
- Filled with deliciousness!
- Infinitely customisable
- Portable
- No plate needed
- No oven required
For us the best thing about these vegan dessert calzone is that you can make them so easily without an oven. This makes them the perfect food for when we are travelling in our campervan or out cooking on a campfire.
If you encounter us around a campfire, you can pretty much guarantee that we are making calzone... Unless it's our vegan skillet brownie instead.
How to make a calzone
It's pretty simple really. Make a batch of our easy pizza dough (So easy you don't even need to knead it!) Then stretch the dough out into ovals. Fill with tasty stuff, seal the edges and then cook!
The dough
Our no-knead dough recipe for the dessert calzone is really easy to follow and doesn’t require any special skills or fancy flour. It’s all about straight forward fun! Easy peasy.
Our calzone dough uses these simple ingredients:
- Flour (all-purpose, plain flour)
- Water
- Dried yeast
- Sugar
- Salt
- Olive oil
Simply mix all ingredients into a dough in a mixing bowl. Cover and leave it to rise in a warm or sunny spot.
No need to knead! The rising time takes care of that all by itself. After an hour, the dough will be smooth and easy to stretch.
When the dough has risen to twice its size, tip it out onto a well floured surface. Dust it with more flour, cut it into pieces and you’re ready to go.
You can use exactly the same procedure to make dough for normal pizza.
The filling
This is where it gets exciting! What will you put into your dessert calzone?
We really enjoy combinations of something fruity with something sweet or creamy. Scroll down a bit to read about our favourite sweet calzone fillings!
Gently stretch a piece of dough into an oval of about 8 x 6 inches (20 x 15 cm). This of course is if you follow our instructions for portioning.
If you plan to make larger or smaller calzones, just don’t stretch the dough too thin. It still needs to stretch a bit without tearing when you close it on the filling later.
Next, load one half of the dough with the toppings of your choice. It’s tempting to overfill it, but remember that you will have to close the calzone and seal it around the edges!
To seal the edges, work your way round with a fork, pressing down gently but firmly.
A final tip, make sure the surface you’re working on is well floured. Getting a filled calzone off when it got stuck can quickly turn into a mess!
Cooking tips
Sweet calzone is one of our favourite things to cook on a campfire. But you can also do it on a hob or simply bake them in the oven.
Campfire: Definitely the most fun way to cook calzone! Use a cast iron skillet or a griddle pan. Cook on a grill placed over the fire, or directly on top of hot embers.
Build up a nice campfire, heat up the pan and drop in a filled calzone. Check the bottom regularly to make sure it’s not burning. Turn over when it's golden brown and cook the other side as well. Cooking time varies with the heat of the fire.
On the hob: This is a great fall back for us in the campervan when the fire just doesn’t want to light up properly. Also good when it’s raining or there’s simply no place to light a fire.
Allow your cast iron pan, baking stone or griddle pan to heat up first. Drop in the calzone and cook for about 5 minutes until golden brown on each side. Simple as that!
In the oven: If you have the luxury of an oven, this is probably the easiest way to cook calzone. They also puff up beautifully, but might not get as crunchy brown on the top.
Cooking dessert calzone in the oven, we get the best results at 250˚C (480˚F) top/bottom heat. Preheat the oven and cook the calzone for 10 minutes.
Filling ideas...
Here's three of our favourite vegan sweet calzone fillings:
- Peaches n Cream Calzone, made with coconut cream from the top of a can of full fat coconut milk. You can use fresh or tinned peaches.
- Apple Strudel Calzone - inspired by the classic dessert of Paul's Austrian homeland. Apples, brown sugar and a bit of cinnamon.
- Chocolate and Raspberry Calzone - my personal favourite!
We encourage you to experiment with different fillings. Just don't forget to tell us in the comments, or tag @veganonboard on instagram in a pic, so we can try it too!
If you enjoy this recipe, you might like these too:
Campfire Bread On A Stick
Easy Vegan Tiramisu
Peanut Butter Jelly Oat Bars
📖 Recipe
Vegan Dessert Calzone
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 ½ cups (300 g) plain flour or all-purpose
- 1 tsp dried yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- ¾ cup (180 ml) water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Peaches and Cream (for each calzone)
- 1 peach or nectarine sliced
- 1 tbsp coconut cream from the top of a can of coconut milk
Apple Strudel (for each calzone)
- ½ apple finely chopped
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Chocolate and Raspberry (for each calzone)
- 2 tbsp vegan dark chocolate chopped
- ¼ cup (30 g) raspberries
Instructions
Dough
- In a mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients into a uniform, moist dough. No need to knead!
- Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place or in a sunny spot for 1 – 2 hours. It should rise to about twice its volume.
- Tip out onto a floured surface (ideally a wooden board). Fold the edges inwards, gently pat the dough to get some excess air out. Let it relax for 5 minutes.
- Divide the dough into individual portions. A whole batch of our basic recipe is enough for 4 calzone. For the two of us we often use half the dough for a pizza or 2 savoury calzones, and then each have a sweet calzone for dessert.
Shaping the calzone
- Take one portion of dough and gently stretch it out with your hands until you have an oval. (See tips in notes)
- Place on a well floured board. Cover half of the dough with your chosen fillings, leaving space around the edges. Then fold the other half of the dough on top, and use a fork to press the dough together at the edges and seal it.
- Continue until all your calzones are filled.
Cooking the calzone
- In the oven: Preheat oven and baking sheet on top/bottom heat 250°C (480°F). Gently slide the calzone from the board onto the preheated baking sheet. Cook for 10 minutes until the crust is cooked and golden brown.
- On the hob: Heat a heavy bottomed or cast iron pan on high heat for a minute, then slide the calzone into it. Cook on medium/high heat until the underside is crisp and brown, approximately 5 minutes. Then turn over the calzone and cook on the other side for another 5 minutes until crisp and fully cooked.
- On the campfire: Use a cast iron pan or skillet. You can either cook directly on hot coals or on a grill above flames or embers. Turn over when the base is crusty and brown but not burnt, and cook until both sides are fully cooked.
Notes
- If the dough doesn’t want to stretch easily, let it relax for 5 minutes.
- Don’t stretch too thin to begin with. Very thin dough easily tears when folding over the filling.
- If you do get any holes while still stretching the unfilled dough, it might be better to start over than try and mend it. Once there is a weak spot, the dough easily tears in the filling process.
- Make sure your surfaces are well floured. Especially when you are filling or a calzone is waiting in queue to be cooked. If the dough sticks to the surface it is tricky to get it off without tearing, which can get messy.
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
We hope you enjoy our vegan dessert calzone as much as we do! As I write this, there is a batch of dough rising just next to me. We will be cooking our calzone tonight on a little island in the middle of the Danube river! Perfection.
WIth love from Austria!
Sophie and Paul
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