Learning to Make Calzones
For my task I chose to make Calzones. A calzone is basically a stuffed pizza, but the toppings are in the inside and the pizza dough or crust is on the outside. I was trying to learn to make Calzones from scratch. This included making my own pizza crust dough, my own sauce, and then preparing and cutting the toppings I was going to put in it.
In my family we all love eating Calzones. I had never made them before, but saw my mom make them. Since I loved them so much I decided it was time I learned. I first called my mom and got the recipe from her. She explained it to me in detail and gave me some tips on how to roll out the dough and how the sauce should be made more to my individual taste than following the recipe. I then went shopping for all the ingredients I would need. I decided to make my first calzones Sunday for myself and a few friends. I thought I would be able to make them from following the recipe and then calling my mom if I needed additional help.
I spent most of Sunday afternoon making the dough and letting it rise. Once the dough had risen enough, I made the sauce and started cooking it. I then prepared the pineapple, ham, sausage, cheese, and olives that would go inside the calzone. Now I started rolling out the dough. I called my mom to get advice on this and she said this would be the tricky part. You didn’t want to use too much flour, and you had to roll the dough pretty thin, but not to thin that it would rip when you folded them. I struggled with rolling out the dough and had to practice it a few times before I got a calzone that I thought would work.
Basically my first attempt at making calzones failed. I didn’t make the dough right or didn’t roll it out enough because the calzones were really puffy and were not able to cook fully. Since there was so much dough, the tops and bottoms were burnt, but the insides were still doughy. My friends said the sauce and ingredients inside tasted well. I needed to work on the dough though. I was glad that the sauce turned out well, but very disappointed that the dough or crust hadn’t turned out. Since the crust wasn’t good it kind of ruined the whole calzone. I felt like I had wasted my time and money on this dinner because it was ruined in the end. I was about to give up here when I decided to try making them one more time.
After one failed attempt, I called my great aunt who lives nearby and asked her to show me how to make them. She is the one who taught my mom to make them. I knew that I needed someone to walk me through how to make them if I was going to learn to make them successfully. On Tuesday night she came over to my apartment and helped me make the dough this time and roll out the dough. This time the calzones turned out really well. Not only did I learn that I was using too much flour and I needed to roll my dough thinner, but that my oven cooks things to fast and needed to be turned down.
I discovered that I learn best when I have someone there to show me first and then I can practice with them before doing it on my own. I was so confident at first that I could make them from simply reading the recipe and then was proven wrong. I think I had become to overconfident in myself and that I wouldn’t need help. Finally when I realized that I have always learned best by being shown first, I called my aunt to show me how to make them. Once I was shown how to do it, I was able to do it on my own.
I think it would have been most helpful to my style of learning to have had someone demonstrate first and then let me try. I should have at least had someone there to help me in case I did mess up or make sure I was doing it correctly.
For my task I chose to make Calzones. A calzone is basically a stuffed pizza, but the toppings are in the inside and the pizza dough or crust is on the outside. I was trying to learn to make Calzones from scratch. This included making my own pizza crust dough, my own sauce, and then preparing and cutting the toppings I was going to put in it.
In my family we all love eating Calzones. I had never made them before, but saw my mom make them. Since I loved them so much I decided it was time I learned. I first called my mom and got the recipe from her. She explained it to me in detail and gave me some tips on how to roll out the dough and how the sauce should be made more to my individual taste than following the recipe. I then went shopping for all the ingredients I would need. I decided to make my first calzones Sunday for myself and a few friends. I thought I would be able to make them from following the recipe and then calling my mom if I needed additional help.
I spent most of Sunday afternoon making the dough and letting it rise. Once the dough had risen enough, I made the sauce and started cooking it. I then prepared the pineapple, ham, sausage, cheese, and olives that would go inside the calzone. Now I started rolling out the dough. I called my mom to get advice on this and she said this would be the tricky part. You didn’t want to use too much flour, and you had to roll the dough pretty thin, but not to thin that it would rip when you folded them. I struggled with rolling out the dough and had to practice it a few times before I got a calzone that I thought would work.
Basically my first attempt at making calzones failed. I didn’t make the dough right or didn’t roll it out enough because the calzones were really puffy and were not able to cook fully. Since there was so much dough, the tops and bottoms were burnt, but the insides were still doughy. My friends said the sauce and ingredients inside tasted well. I needed to work on the dough though. I was glad that the sauce turned out well, but very disappointed that the dough or crust hadn’t turned out. Since the crust wasn’t good it kind of ruined the whole calzone. I felt like I had wasted my time and money on this dinner because it was ruined in the end. I was about to give up here when I decided to try making them one more time.
After one failed attempt, I called my great aunt who lives nearby and asked her to show me how to make them. She is the one who taught my mom to make them. I knew that I needed someone to walk me through how to make them if I was going to learn to make them successfully. On Tuesday night she came over to my apartment and helped me make the dough this time and roll out the dough. This time the calzones turned out really well. Not only did I learn that I was using too much flour and I needed to roll my dough thinner, but that my oven cooks things to fast and needed to be turned down.
I discovered that I learn best when I have someone there to show me first and then I can practice with them before doing it on my own. I was so confident at first that I could make them from simply reading the recipe and then was proven wrong. I think I had become to overconfident in myself and that I wouldn’t need help. Finally when I realized that I have always learned best by being shown first, I called my aunt to show me how to make them. Once I was shown how to do it, I was able to do it on my own.
I think it would have been most helpful to my style of learning to have had someone demonstrate first and then let me try. I should have at least had someone there to help me in case I did mess up or make sure I was doing it correctly.
No comments:
Post a Comment