Rustic Apple Galette

The monsoon season is well and truly underway here in my cosy corner of the world, and on a particularly wet Sunday afternoon last week, I popped in the LOTR: The Two Towers DVD and got to work with my hands. There's something immensely comforting about the smell of baking on a lazy day in while watching your favourite epic fantasy film; especially the smells of butter, cinnamon and the wonderful vanilla bean pods the boyfriend brought back from a recent work trip to the African continent. 

A galette is basically the lazy person's go-to pie or tart, and is so easy to remember that it's the perfect recipe to have in your repertoire for those occasions when you want to bake but have no access to your cookbook or the internet (you know... like a short weekend visit to your grandmother's place). You can use any fruit you have on hand, the riper the better, and I just happened to have a bushel of green apples that are starting to get a little bruised looking. 

Rustic Apple Galette

• Basic pie crust recipe (I used roughly a tennis ball sized amount of leftovers from a standard batch)
• 3 green apples, cored, peeled and sliced
• Juice of 1/4 lemon
• 1-2 tbsp raw honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• Seeds from 1 vanilla pod (or 1 tsp vanilla bean paste) 

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2. Roll out your pie crust dough to the size of your baking sheet (so long as it fits the width) and place on the baking sheet, then set aside
3. Core, peel and slice the apples then toss in a large bowl with the lemon juice to keep them from browning. Mix in the honey, cinnamon and vanilla seeds to coat the apples
4. Arrange the apples around the centre of the prepared crust, leaving around 2 inches of crust around the edges. Fold over and pinch the dough to seal the mixture in, then brush the crust with milk and sprinkle on some sugar 
5. Bake the galette for 40 minutes, then serve as soon as it has cooled enough to eat

Persimmon, Plum & Blueberry Pie

Little Jack Horner,
Sat in the corner, 
Eating a Christmas pie;
He put in his thumb,
and pulled out a plum,
and said, "What a good boy am I!" 

I love nursery rhymes, and I especially love finding out the stories (or rather, theories) behind them. Apparently this particular nursery rhyme is about opportunism. Here's an excerpt from the ever trusty wealth of general, and oftentimes doubtful, information - Wikipedia:

"In the nineteenth century the story began to gain currency that the rhyme is actually about Thomas Horner, who was steward to Richard Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury before the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII of England. The story is reported that, prior to the abbey's destruction, the abbot sent Horner to London with a huge Christmas pie which had the deeds to a dozen manors hidden within it as a gift to try to convince the King not to nationalize Church lands. During the journey Horner opened the pie and extracted the deeds of the manor of Mells in Somerset, which he kept for himself. It is further suggested that, since the manor properties included lead mines in the Mendip Hills, the plum is a pun on the Latin plumbum, for lead. While records do indicate that Thomas Horner became the owner of the manor, paying for the title, both his descendants and subsequent owners of Mells Manor have asserted that the legend is untrue and that Wells purchased the deed from the abbey."

Now before I get started on other nursery rhyme origins, or - God forbid - the Tudor era random trivia that nobody but my closest (and weirdest) friends seems to care about (you know who you are)... I'm gonna slap the recipe down. This was my first time making a double crust pie, so I kept it simple and patchworked together 3 or 4 recipes for the filling (cos I didn't have enough plums). It turned out pretty darn well, and I will definitely improvise the filling for next time (too sweet), but the crust is a winner.

Persimmon, plum & blueberry pie 

• 1 double crust pie dough (recipe below)
• 6 medium sized plums
• 3 persimmons 
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1/4 cup cornflour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp milk
• Extra caster sugar for sprinkling on top of the crust

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C 
2. Dice the plums and persimmons and mix with the blueberries, sugar, cornflour, vanilla, and milk in a large bowl
3. Roll out the prepared pie crust: turn each disc onto a lightly floured surface, roll out to a circle slightly larger than the size of the pie dish so you have a bit of overhang.
4. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and roll out the second disc of dough over the top, prick the crust to create air vents, then brush with milk and sprinkle the extra sugar
5. Bake the pie for 60 - 75 minutes 

Double crust pie dough 

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 180g chilled butter, cut into cubes
• 6 - 8 tbsp cold water

1. If you don't suffer from having too warm hands like I do: whisk the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl, rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture is very coarse and stir in cold water with a fork until the dough almost comes together into a bowl. Don't dump all the water in at one go cos you may not need all of it
2. But for less mess and ease, use a food processor: Pulse the flour, sugar and salt for a few seconds then pulse in all the butter at once until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly trickle in the water, a tablespoon at a time until it begins to form a ball then remove the dough
3. Divide the dough in two, form into discs with your hands and wrap each disc in cling wrap. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight and pull it out to thaw for a bit before rolling out

Orangey Passionfruit tarts

Do what you love and love what you do. That hackneyed mantra of my fellow Gen Ys rings in my head as I bake up my little treats, force feed my family and friends, and type up these blog posts. Sometimes I wonder just how selfish I can be when I do this, as most of the time the desserts are foisted upon my unsuspecting friends whether or not they want it. And all for what? Just for my personal pleasure of seeing them enjoying something I laboured over with love. I'm a brute. A narcissistic, selfish member of the Gen Y.

Sometimes I feel that our loving and doting parents might have done us wrong in constantly telling us to reach for the stars, that nothing is beyond our abilities (latent they may be), and that they will suffer through the rat race so that we may want for nothing and so that we may have the dreams they never dared to have. I won't generalise, but personally, all of that just made me impatient, discontent, and selfish. Some may call it ambitious and driven, but we are just two sides of the same coin.

I honestly don't know why I started talking about this. Must be the word "Passion" in the recipe I'm about to share with you now. So many people talk about doing what we're passionate about, to chase the thing that we would love to do, and not waste our time sitting in a 4x4 cubicle with no direct sunlight on our skin. Yet, to do that, we'd HAVE to be financially dependent on another. Do our parents then have to suffer more to ensure we get to do what we love? Do we continue to leech on their goodwill? I'm being weird, my apologies. I usually save these mad rantings to my personal journal, but there seems to be a spillover tonight. I'll spare you all the lecture and just hand you the recipe.

Passionfruit Tart
(Makes 12 mini tarts, or 1 8" tart)
For the crust:

• 185g all purpose flour
• 55g icing sugar
• 30g ground almonds
• 125g butter, cold and cubed
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Combine the flour, icing sugar, and almonds in the food processor and whizz to mix. Pop in the cubed butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add in the egg and vanilla and pulse a few more times until it comes together. Tip the batter onto a well floured surface and knead a few times until it comes together. I like to just then roll the crust out and put it into my prepared mold (either 8" tart tray, or a mini tart pan) then freeze for 30 minutes. Freezing the crust means I can skip the pie weights when baking the crust as it holds the shape longer. Anyway, preheat the oven to 180°C and then bake the crust for 20 minutes then remove to cool.

For the filling:

• 160ml passionfruit pulp (I used 3 regular sized passionfruits)
• 300ml cream
• 110g caster sugar
• 4 eggs

I like to prepare the passionfruit filling in advance as I find it allows the flavours to steep and it sets a lot better when you bake. Strain the passionfruit pulp and discard the seeds, then whisk the juice together with the cream, sugar and eggs in a medium sized bowl. When ready to bake, pour the filling into the baked tart crust and bake for 35 - 40 minutes (for a big tart) or 25 - 30 minutes for mini tarts. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely, then refrigerate overnight or up to 2 hours so it sets beautifully. Remove from the pans when ready to serve. 

For the topping:

• 150ml double cream
• 1 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice
• Orange zest

Whisk the double cream until soft peaks form, add the orange juice and continue to whisk until stiff peaks have formed. Then transfer the cream into a piping bag with a tip of your choice and pipe the cream out over the top of the tarts. Finish by grating the oranges (make sure you wash those babies) over the cream. You can also just dollop the cream on top of the tarts if you don't feel like piping; what matters here is flavour, not aesthetics. 

Garlic Tomato Pizza Sauce

I am not one of those homecooked, organic food snobs, however I do enjoy taking the time to whip up fresh food from scratch when I have the time. Nigella calls it her Italian Mamma mode, which I would love to adopt, but have no Italian blood in my my heritage... so I'll need to come up with something while I knead my bread dough next. 

As I have recently finally found a choice recipe for making my own pizza crust, I needed to experiment on making my own pizza sauce! I prefer heavily tomatoey sauces, have always leaned towards marinara sauce as my favourite, and thought... if it works on my pasta, it should definitely work on my pizza. 

This is a ridiculously easy pizza sauce to whip up, you should have all the ingredients stocked in your pantry already, but even if you don't it's no trouble adapting it to what you do have... or just running into the store for 5 minutes to grab the stuff. You don't even need a basket to carry the ingredients! 

Let's get to it: 

Super Easy Garlic Tomato Pizza Sauce 

• 1 14oz can diced tomatoes, no salt added
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Handful fresh basil leaves (you can use dried basil)
• Handful oregano (I used dried, you may use fresh)
• 1 tsp (or less) dried chili flakes
• Pinch sea salt
• Crushed black pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a medium sized saucepan and bring to a boil, once it starts to bubble, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes. When the flavours have all blended (be sure to season to taste), transfer the mixture to a food processor and whiz for about 1 minute or less, just to get all the big chunks down. You want it smooth, but not too smooth, ya know?

This amount of sauce is good enough for a moderate layer on 4 medium sized pizzas (so double this pizza crust recipe), and will go with most savoury toppings. For Sunday lunch with the family, I made a vegetarian pizza and a pepperoni pizza. With a layer of sauce over olive oiled crust, shaved mozzarella, slices of pepperoni, zucchini, eggplant, and then more mozzarella... my brothers loved it! 

I'm actually quite surprised at how easy pizza is to make from scratch, and now that I know this... I can't wait to recreate some of my favourite salads as pizzas. 

Sweet & Savoury Pizza

The first time we attempted to make pizza dough was a bit of a mess... Al and I had neglected to read the whole recipe and used the wrong type of yeast. We just sorta... rolled with it (gettit?). Yikes. So, as I had a bit of free time this week, I thought I'd give it another shot. This time, I made sure I had all the ingredients needed and read it word for word, and all the comments, and various other recipes to cross check if it would work.

This recipe for the pizza dough is incredibly simple, it only takes an hour minimum to rise, but you can keep it overnight if you would prefer a lighter, softer crust. I usually like my pizza crust a little on the crispy side, but as it was far too late for pizza when I made the dough last night, I decided to let is rest and have it today instead.

My family's always been a bit torn when it comes to pizza topping, as my dad likes the spicy stuff, mum prefers the hawaiian, and my siblings are all over the topping chart. I do think that I'm the only one in the house who appreciates vegetarian pizzas, so today I was on a mission to civilize. I wanted to highlight the freshness of the ingredients, the mix and play of flavours, and just really... to let the fresh toppings speak for themselves. No sauce was prepared for these mini pizzas, and instead I just slathered on various cheeses.

Let's not waste anymore of your time, as you'll be knead-ing (heh) it while you wait for the dough to rise before dinner time.

Easy Peasy Crispy Pizza Crust
Courtesy of thekitchn.com

• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp sea salt

1. In a large heavy mixing bowl, pour the lukewarm water over the yeast and let it sit untouched for around 10 minutes. Then stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve the yeast
2. Add the flour and salt, then combine with the spoon until you get a messy-ish, but dry (as in doesn't stick to your fingers to create a webbed look) dough
3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it gently for around 5 minutes. Pop the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a clean, damp cloth to let it rest and rise for a minimum of 1 hour
4. If you're not using the dough immediately, then just put it into a ziploc bag, or wrap in clingwrap, then just leave it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Before using, be sure to take it out and let it sit on the counter for at least 30 minutes
5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 200C/fan, cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle a tsp or less of semolina onto the paper then with your lightly floured hands, spread the dough out using your fingertips into the desired shape and thickness
6. Drizzle with olive oil, and then pop your toppings on. Bake for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden

I'll also share the two toppings I prepared today with you here, but really I just don't wanna forget what I put on so I can recreate them soon.

Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza

• 1/2 golden pear, peeled and sliced thinly
• Gorgonzola cheese
• Light mozzarella, sliced
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh rocket leaves
• Balsamic glaze

Spread the Gorgonzola over the top of the crust, then place the mozzarella slices where you want them. Cover with the pear slices, season and bake for 15 minutes. When done, garnish with a handful of rocket and a drizzle of balsamic glaze.

Caprese Pizza

• Salt and pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Parmesan cheese
• Mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 1 fresh tomato, sliced
• Fresh basil
• Balsamic glaze

Drizzle olive oil over the crust, then season with salt and pepper, then rub the garlic over the entire crust. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese, then place the mozzarella slices where you want them, and top with the tomato slices. Go ahead and twist some more black pepper on there if you are so inclined. Bake for 15 minutes, then top with balsamic glaze and fresh basil. 

The pizza crust turned out great, though next time I'm not gonna make it so far ahead as I prefer a crispier base. The toppings were fresh, ingredients tasted beautiful, and it was just enough for an early dinner. I even got my brother to eat the pear pizza! Shocker!

Now that I know how easy it is to make my own pizza, I'm definitely going to have a lot of fun coming up with different toppings for my lunch and dinners. Who knows? Maybe I'll pack some dough and we can make fresh pizza over lunch?

Lots of love, Nabs