Bratwurst Mini Calzone
Feeling peckish? Hungry but not really hungry? Do you just want something delicious as a snack?
Try these homemade fried mini calzone using The Sausage Man Bratwurst! It’s got everything: tomato sauce, delicious sausage, cheese and the best part: it’s just the right size for a snack. The filling can be easily varied with extra vegetables or different cheese.
You can also use cheese-filled sausages, the Vienna Beef Frankfurter or Vienna Pork Frankfurters or switch everything with the vegan option. They can be packed for lunch, taken on a road trip and eaten for breakfast. We believe that Bratwursts are the perfect choice for breakfasts! The flavour of these sausages does not overpower the other ingredients, giving you the perfect bite, every bite!
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 3 ½ cups flour
- 1 ½ tsp active dry yeast
- 1 ½ cups warm water
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- ¼ cups grated parmesan
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground pepper
For the filling:
- 2 Bratwurst sausages from The Sausage Man™
- 200 g tomato paste
- ¼ sprig of rosemary
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 ½ tsp dried basil
- salt and pepper
- 100 g parmesan
- 100 g cheddar cheese
- 1 L oil for frying
- 1 tbsp suet
Instructions
- Start with the dough. Pour the warm water in a cup or bowl. Add the 2 tsp of sugar and the active dry yeast. Stir them together and then let the mixture sit for approx. 15 min to bloom. Make sure that the water is not boiling hot.
- Meanwhile in a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and garlic powder. Stir them to combine. Add the grated parmesan and ground pepper.
- Once the yeast is ready, add it to the dry ingredients, along with the olive oil.
- Mix the ingredients together to form the dough. Once you can pick up the dough from the bowl, add flour to the work surface and start kneading the dough for about 10 minutes. At first, it will stick to your hands and you will need to add more flour as you knead it. After the 10 minutes, it will become a smooth and tight dough.
- In the bowl in which you made the dough, pour 1 tsp of olive oil and coat the sides of the bowl with it. Place the dough back in the bowl and cover it with a clean towel. Let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until double in size.
- Meanwhile, defrost the sausages in a bowl of lukewarm water.
- In a separate bowl, mix the tomato paste with finely chopped rosemary, basil and oregano. Season with salt and pepper. If the tomato paste is too acidic, add ½ tsp of sugar.
- Cut the sausages in slices and then each slice in quarters. The sausages are pre-cooked and 100% safe to eat just like that so they can be used as soon as the dough has proofed.
- Grate parmesan and cheddar cheese.
- When the dough is ready, flour the work surface again and take the dough out of the bowl. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is 0.5 cm in thickness. Try to obtain a clean geometric shape (square, rectangle) so that cutting it in equal pieces will be easier. We cut the dough into 16 squares.
- Roll the dough squares into balls using your hands. Then, take each dough ball and using the rolling pin roll them out into 0.5 cm thick circles. Do flour the surface on which you will lay out all the dough circles.
- Place approximately 1 tsp of tomato and herbs sauce in the middle of each dough circle. Try to avoid getting tomato sauce on the edges of them.
- Place some of the sausage pieces and grated cheese on each circle and then season them with extra ground pepper.
- Pour the oil and the suet in a pot and heat it up on high heat.
- Fold one half of the dough over the filling. You can pull on the edges of the circles to make them thinner and to give you more dough to work with. Grab the bottom layer of dough and bring it over the top one starting in one corner and going all the way across. It should now look like a half moon. You can pinch the dough to make ruffles or leave the edges straight. Either way, try not to leave any openings in the dough or stretch the dough too hard and tear it.
- To test if the oil is hot enough, drop a speck of flour into the oil and if it bubbles up, you can add in the mini calzone two at a time.
- Let them fry on one side, and then flip them over carefully. They will take very little time to fry and as soon as they are golden brown they can be removed from the pot. Fry all the mini calzone and serve them immediately.
- Sprinkles some grated Parmesan or cheddar on top of them while they are still hot. They can be dipped in the remaining tomato sauce and served with one responsible glass of white wine or with a soft drink of your choice.