spring recipes Archives - The White Ramekins

No matter how many breads I’ve baked so far, I’m still scared of the yeast monster. The dough sitting on the kitchen counter for hours with no signs of rising makes me all the more nervous and I feel pity on myself for not being able to bake a bread. And given the weather these days, which is so fickle, that one moment it is windy, the other moment it is rainy and the very next moment it is bright and sunny, it becomes all the more daunting. But the baker spirits can’t be tamed that easily and that is the good thing at least. For every appalling thought there lies an equally strong and encouraging feeling.

Too much of the melodrama I have created here, you must be thinking! But that is true. I might not be able to put together my thoughts so brilliantly, but I hope that you would have got what I am trying to express. And especially, if you’ve baked a bread you would definitely be able to relate to all the gibberish I’m talking. Okay, so when I first saw this beauties, which Ottolenghi calls in his book as brioche pizzas, I was simply smitten by the cuteness factor they bring along with their small size.

To me they aren’t pizzas, and so as to the author. But would there be any better name for them? I called them Pizzettes to make them sound slightly more glamorous! Some more melodrama…huh? Whatever you like them to name, they still remain an ultimate comfort snack. The buttery, slightly sweet brioche dough makes an interestingly flavorful pairing with the salty feta and sweet and sour tomatoes. A perfect snack to put together on your Sunday brunch table!

Ingredients

Brioche Dough

2 tbsp lukewarm water
1 tsp active dry yeast
190 gm all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
1/2 tsp salt
5 tsp superfine sugar
2 eggs, at room temprature
75 gm cold unsalted butter

Pizzettes

1 recipe brioche dough

Oven dried tomatoes
300 gm tomatoes
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly gound black pepper
1/2 tsp dried mint

Caramelized onion
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, crushed

1 egg, lightly beaten
75 gm feta cheese, crumbled
40 gm black olives
olive oil, for drizzling
parsley leaves
coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

For the brioche dough, place the lukewarm water and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer. Leave for 10 minutes for the yeast to activate. Add all the rest ingredients for brioche dough except butter and start working them together with a spatula until the flour is incorporated.
Attach the dough hook of the mixer and work on a low speed for about 3 minutes. The dough will become smooth but will stick to the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium-high and start adding the butter. Do this gradually, ensuring the butter gets incorporated well before adding more. Once all the butter is in, keep the machine working until the dough is shiny, has no lumps of butter and comes away from the sides of the bowl. Once or twice during the mixing process, you would need to stop the machine, to avoid getting the dough become hot. This would take around 10 minutes.
Remove the dough from the machine and place in a lightly greased bowl that is twice as high as the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for one hour, until it gets almost doubled in size. Place in fridge covered with plastic wrap for 14 to 24 hours before using. During this time, dough will not rise significantly.
When ready to bake, take the dough out of fridge and place it on lightly floured work surface. Roll into a sheet of about 1 cm thickness. Using a pastry cutter, cut into 6 circles, 3 1/2 to 4 inches in diameter. Place on a nonstick baking sheet and leave to rise for 1 to 2 hours or until doubles in height.
While the brioche is rising, prepare the tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes into quarters lengthwise and each quarter into 2 long wedges. Place the wedges on a baking sheet with skin side down. Drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle salt, pepper and mint on top. Put the sheet in 150 degree C preheated oven for up to an hour, until the tomatoes have fairly dried up but still have some moisture. Leave to cool.
To make the caramelized onions, put all the ingredients into a large pan and cook for around 7 minutes on high heat, stirring occasionally, until golden. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 170 degree C. To assemble the pizzettes, brush the dough disks lightly with beaten egg. Place generous amount to caramelized onion in the center, followed by tomatoes, feta and olives. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until thoroughly cooked at the bottom.
Remove from oven and leave to cool. Lightly brush with more olive oil and garnish with parsley leaves.

Spring is so wonderful. It’s light, airy and refreshing and brings in a magical change from the cold and dull winters. And the whole body welcomes this change so whole-heartedly.

During those foggy and mauve days of winters, when I would sit at home and slurp into hot and comforting bowls of hearty stews and soups, I’d rather get up early and start my day from a brisk morning walk on a cool spring morning.

Such is the magic it does to you, that you would want to go out more often, have more lighter food. And while you go out for a walk or jog, the cool breeze caressing through the body makes you all rejuvenated inside out.

Flowerbeds in the garden are all bloomed up, as if singing the song of pure joy and a new life. Wonderful vibrant colors every where you see! Leaves which got fallen off the trees all throughout the winters have now dried up and they are all set to catch up the rhythm of cool flowing breeze and dance along.

And the merriment continues to cheer up the food scene too. Red luscious strawberries and tart crisp apples ready to go in a light and perfect-for-the-weather dessert. Be it a crumble, crisp, tart or a rustic looking galette!

Or for that matter, a few drops of lemon squeezed into a bowl of sugared berries with a bunch of hand torn mint leaves makes for a pucker-y and refreshing dessert….so harmonious! Encasing them within a buttery and crispy crust, takes the flavor to a new high. And if the tartness is too much to handle, slather the inside of the pastry with a sweet mulberry jam.

Recipe minimally adapted from Baking with Julia

Ingredients

3 tbsp yogurt or sour cream
1/3 cup ice water
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
110 gm unsalted butter
1 cup stawberries, huled and diced
1 cup apples, chored and diced
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp suagr
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp mulberry jam {or any fruit jam of your choice}
milk for brushing the pastry

Instructions

Stir the yogurt and ice water together and keep aside.
Put the flour, cornmeal, 1 tsp of sugar, salt in the food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse to mix them together.
Drop the butter pieces into the flour mixture and pulse them 8 to 10 times or until mixture resemble coarse grained bread crumb. If you don’t have food processor, you could rub the butter into flour with the help of your fingertips.
Add the sour cream mixture and process just until the dough forms soft and moist curds.
Remove the dough from the food processor. Divide it in half and press each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 2 hours.
Once the dough is ready, preheat the oven at 200 degree Celsius and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Mix the strawberries, apples, 2 tbsp sugar, honey and the cornflour in a bowl and keep them aside.
Taking a dough half one at a time, roll into an 11 inch circle that is about 1/8 inch thick. To avoid using flour while rolling, roll the pastry within two layers of plastic wrap.
Spread 1 tbsp of jam over the rolled pastry, leaving a 2 inch border. Spread half of the fruit mixture over the jam.
Fold the uncovered border of dough up over the filling, allowing the dough to pleat, as you lift it up and work your way around the galette.
Dip a pastry brush in milk and give the edge of the crust a light coating and then sprinkle the crust with 1 tsp of sugar. Repeat from step 8 with the other half.
Place the galettes on the prepared baking tray and bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden and crisp.
Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the galettes rest on the sheet for 10 minutes and then on the wire rack to cool completely. Serve at room temperature.

Brioche Pizettes With Feta Olive & Tomatoes

Strawberry & Apple Galette