I used store-bought pizza dough to create these festive Calzone Christmas Trees using MorningStar Farms® Grillers® Crumbles™ as part of a shop that has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #VeryVeggieHoliday #CollectiveBias
Your family will love having these Calzone Christmas Trees for dinner any time over the holiday season. I plan to bring them to the Christmas Eve party at my parent's house.
Each year on December 24th my parents host the most amazing celebration for our family as well as those friends who don't have any family in the area. We've been together on Christmas Eve for so many years that all those friends feel like part of our family.
I always bring some fun Christmas food for everyone to enjoy. I'm sure they are going to love these Christmas tree-shaped calzones.
We always try to have some meatless options for our guests to enjoy being we often have a few vegetarians in the group. I love incorporating MorningStar Farms® products into some of the recipes.
Whenever I bring a dish that I have not made previously, I have to experiment ahead of time and I love when it's a dish I can share here with you.
I had so much fun making these Christmas Tree Calzones and even more fun eating them. They are so good. You've got to taste it to believe it!
To make the calzones I stuffed tree shaped pizza dough with MorningStar Farms® Grillers® Crumbles™ along with a blend of ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese. Then I add roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes, and tomatoes along with some pizza sauce.
You definitely do not need to be vegetarian to enjoy this fun holiday meal.
Video
Watch the video to see how quickly these festive Calzone Christmas Trees come together.
NOTES:
- You can use homemade or store-bought pizza dough. If you can't find round dough, roll out the rectangle of dough and cut a large circle in the center. Cut out the triangles as shown in the video, then use the edges of the dough to make the trunks for the trees.
- Bake the trees with the points facing toward the oven door. The back of the oven is usually hotter and the tips of the trees will darken the quickest so it's better to have them near the cooler front of the oven.
- You can mix all your toppings together and then spoon them on if you like.
- I used two different brands of dough when developing the recipe for these Calzone Christmas Trees and they both baked at different rates. One was browned within 10 minutes while the other took 14 minutes. Watch them as they get close to the 10-minute mark.
Related Recipes
Enjoy making these Calzone Christmas Trees for your family this holiday. Be sure to check out all of my savory and sweet Christmas Recipes.
Recipe
- ½ cup ricotta cheese
- ⅓ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 3 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese
- pinch of salt
- 1 egg beaten and divided
- 2 rounds of pizza dough
- ½ teaspoon flour for dusting cutting board
- ½ cup MorningStar Farms® Grillers® Crumbles™
- 2 tablespoons pizza sauce plus more for serving
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped roasted red peppers
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped marinated artichokes
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped tomatoes
- Italian seasoning
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
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In a small mixing bowl, blend together ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese, along with a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of egg.
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Spoon into a disposable pastry bag or zip top bag.
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Unroll dough onto a flour dusted cutting board.
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Cut each round of dough into 8 wedges.
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Cut a 1 inch trunk out of the curved edge of each wedge of dough, removing excess.
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Set one of the trees on your work surface and brush egg over top.
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Pipe or spread a thin layer of the cheese mixture onto the tree, leaving about ⅜ inch of dough uncovered around the border.
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Top with ⅛th of the MorningStar Farms® Grillers® Crumbles™, pizza sauce, roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes and tomatoes.
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Top with another tree.
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Seal the edges then use a fork to crimp the edges together.
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Repeat creating a total of 8 calzone trees.
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Set trees on a baking sheet.
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Brush egg over top then sprinkle on Italian seasoning.
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Bake for 10-14 minutes until golden brown.
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Serve hot with more pizza sauce.
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Kayla
Could I prepare these a few hours ahead of time and keep them in the fridge until I’m ready to bake them?
Beth
Hi Kayla, I have not tried that before, but if you do, be sure to wrap up the tray of calzones really well before you refrigerate it. I would hold off on adding the egg wash to the outside of the dough until just before you bake them. Let me know how it turns out.