Calzones are excellent – crispy on the outside, soft and gooey in the centre… And they’re typically best when fresh. So, is it possible to store them for the long term at home? Is the freezer a viable option?
Can You Freeze Calzones?
Yes, you can freeze calzones for up to 3 months. When cool, wrap it in cling film before transferring it to a plastic freezer bag. Label the calzone in the bag, and transfer it to the freezer, allowing it to freeze for up to 3 months.
Do Do Calzones freeze well? Yes
Can you refreeze Calzones? Yes
How to Freeze Calzones
The best way to freeze calzones is to start with a completely cooked calzone – crispy on the outside and gooey in the centre. Once baked, you can move on to freezing it:
- Cool: Allow the calzone to become completely cool, losing its heat to the room over time. Wrapping a warm calzone will lead to condensation and, in turn, a soggy crust.
- Wrap: When cool, wrap the calzone in cling film, ensuring that the plastic wrap goes all the way around the calzone with no gaps or similar holes in the wrapping.
- Bag Up: Transfer the wrapped calzone to a freezer bag, pressing out excess air and sealing shut.
- Label and Freeze: Label the freezer bag at this point before transferring it to the freezer and allowing the calzone to freeze over time. When frozen, it should be kept in the freezer for three months.
3 Tips for Freezing Calzones
Now you know how to freeze them, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing calzones to have the best results:
Avoid Holes in the Wrapping
Holes in the plastic wrap allow moisture to get into the package you’re creating. This will, almost certainly, lead to the calzone becoming soggy in the freezer and not reheating pleasantly.
Toss in Flour or Cornmeal
This will soak up any stray odds and ends of moisture that make it into the package, ensuring that the remaining calzone is still delicious and crispy when shaken off.
Remove Excess Air
This might seem a little unnecessary since you’ve wrapped the calzone in plastic wrap, but excess air can condense and, eventually, freeze in the freezer bag. This will lead to freezer burn, leading to the crust’s texture being utterly ruined.
How Long Can You Freeze Calzones?
You can freeze calzones for a maximum of 3 months. We’re so specific on this time limit because, after 3 months, it becomes exceedingly likely that freezer burn will set in.
When freezer burn begins on and around the calzones, excess moisture will gather on the crust’s surface.
At this point, the moisture will freeze, forming an ice crystal that will disrupt the structure of the crust. The damage will still be present when this thaws, leading to a damaged and fundamentally less pleasant calzone.
What we’re saying here is that even though the calzone will still technically be safe to eat after more than three months in the freezer, it will not be anywhere near as pleasant to eat – the structure of the dough will be damaged, leading to a poorer meal.
How Do You Defrost Calzones?
The best way to defrost calzones is to place each one into the fridge overnight to thaw over time, ensuring that you completely unwrap them and place them on a flat surface.
Placing them on a flat surface will prevent them from conforming to a curved bowl during thawing, which could be frustrating and messy.
When defrosted, reheat calzones in a microwave in one-minute bursts at the highest power level. This will typically be enough to heat the calzone in two to three minutes.
To ensure that the calzone is crispy, you might consider reheating it in the oven or toaster oven – this will defrost from the outside in, creating a crispy crust before cooking the inside.
Can You Refreeze Calzones?
Technically, yes, you can refreeze calzones. Because repeated and long-term freezing will damage the dough’s integrity, we suggest not resetting the ‘timer’ of three months maximum when you place them back into the freezer.
Take the first date that they were frozen as the start of those three months, and start from there – you’ll be able to ensure the calzones have slightly better quality this way.
Do Calzones Freeze Well?
Yes, when frozen with the proper precautions in mind, calzones do freeze well.
This is because when the moisture level is accounted for and protected against, freezing is little more than the process of entirely halting bacterial growth and staleness.
These are two things that calzones could suffer from if they were left out or stored differently, so freezing is one of the ideal ways to store them. Remember, though, that moisture is the enemy of bread when freezing is involved.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing calzones or calzones in general, then these may help:
Yes, like pizza dough, calzone dough can be frozen. Portion it out into balls, wrap it in a sheet of cling film and then bag the balls up in a freezer bag.
Yes, you can buy frozen calzones from most major supermarkets that d o not need to be defrosted to be cooked.
