The Savory Baking Topic

Anna N · March 8, 2018

Cheese and onion tartlet. From my continuing effort to master pastry. Obviously still needs work but I have found Joe Pastry and I am looking forward to some more trials.

Anna N · March 11, 2018

First attempt at a “pizza” tartlet. Homemade pizza sauce, sautéed mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. Hoping to stock my freezer and my bachelor son’s freezer with quick and tasty snacks and/or meal components.

caroled · March 12, 2018

@Anna N, did you prebake the shell first? , how did it turn out?

Anna N · March 12, 2018

2 minutes ago, caroled said:

@Anna N, did you prebake the shell first? , how did it turn out?

No I did not pre-bake the shell. I did a single one to test out the idea of not only not prebaking but of not adding the cheese until well into the baking cycle. I chilled the shells, docked them and sprinkled a layer of grated mozzarella into the bottom of the shells before putting in a thin layer of pizza sauce and then adding mushrooms. I baked them at 400°F in my BSO (Breville smart oven) for 15 minutes then added sliced mozzarella to almost cover the surface and baked them for further 8 minutes. I was very pleased with the results.

caroled · March 12, 2018

@Anna N, that perfectly answered my ? I wasn't sure if I was seeing melted cheese in the bottom or an under baked crust, and I know you are all about a beautifully baked crust , so the latter seemed unlikely. Glad you enjoyed the results and thanks for the inspiration.

Edited March 12, 2018 by caroled
not sure what the 1 and 2 are about, couldnt get them to erase. (log)

Anna N · March 12, 2018

Sometimes I amaze even myself. Sausage rolls. No cheese.

I have often thought about making rough-puff pastry. Before I have always chickened out believing that I couldn’t possibly succeed. This time I bit the bullet.

I used this recipe for the pastry and it has been in the fridge, well wrapped, for about 48 hours. Even after I made it I was chicken to use it thinking I would just face another failure!

This is just under half of the batch I made. I believe it is at least as good as any puff pastry you can buy. It still falls way short of @Alleguedes though.

**ElsieD** · March 12, 2018

4 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Sometimes I amaze even myself. Sausage rolls. No cheese.

I have often thought about making rough-puff pastry. Before I have always chickened out believing that I couldn’t possibly succeed. This time I bit the bullet.

I used this recipe for the pastry and it has been in the fridge, well wrapped, for about 48 hours. Even after I made it I was chicken to use it thinking I would just face another failure!

This is just under half of the batch I made. I believe it is at least as good as any puff pastry you can buy. It still falls way short of @Alleguedes though.

Wow! That is beautiful looking dough.

rustwood · March 13, 2018

9 hours ago, Anna N said:

I used this recipe for the pastry

What flour did you use? I might have to try it. A food truck near my work sells wonderful byrek and I have tried making them myself, but the dough is completely different. I suspect this dough isn't exactly right either, but it looks like it would be a lot closer than my previous attempt.

Anna N · March 13, 2018

17 minutes ago, rustwood said:

What flour did you use? I might have to try it. A food truck near my work sells wonderful byrek and I have tried making them myself, but the dough is completely different. I suspect this dough isn't exactly right either, but it looks like it would be a lot closer than my previous attempt.

I used Robin Hood Best for Bread flour. It has a protein content of 13.3% I believe.

I suspect that if byrek is anything like borek then you probably need something much closer to phyllo.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Anna N
Edited to add a comment about Phyllo (log)

rustwood · March 13, 2018

9 hours ago, Anna N said:

I suspect that if byrek is anything like borek then you probably need something much closer to phyllo.

Yes, there are many "easy" recipes that use frozen phyllo and recipes that use a very lean dough; however, some recipes call for rolling pieces dough very thin, brushing it with butter (or oil), stacking them, then rolling it again. That seems to at least start to approach the realm of puff pastry.

blue_dolphin · May 17, 2018

I had some phyllo left from my recent asparagus experiment so I made these little Leek, Feta and Greens Spiral Pies from Smitten Kitchen Every Day to use it up.

That sorry looking one in the top right of the photo was the first one so it did take me a minute to figure things out. Tasted fine though.

blue_dolphin · May 29, 2018

The recent Cake Memories topic got me to thinking of the "fruit tortes" that my mom was locally famous for. Not a cake exactly, but a cake base, filled with some sort of custard or pudding and topped with fruit. I've mentioned them previously over in the Family Recipes topic . The recent thread got to me wondering if I could come up with a savory variation so I decided to make Nopalito's take on Mexican street corn, Esquite Tostado con Crema y Queso Fresco (Toasted Corn with Crema, Ground Chile and Queso Fresco) and put it on a corn bread/corn muffin base.

Here's the "cake" made from a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix. I was dismayed that the box in my pantry said, "best by 9/25/12" so I invested 47 cents in a new box!

Fresh corn cut from the cob gets toasted to get some color and mixed with lime juice and salt and is to be served topped with crema, queso fresco, ground chile and pico de gallo. I spread the crema over the corn bread then topped it with the corn/lime juice mix and queso fresco, spooned the pico de gallo in the middle and sprinkled the ground chile over everything.

Here, with more pico de gallo on the side:

To get something easier to serve, it would probably be best to mix some of the crema and toppings into corn to sort of glom it all together.

Still, kinda fun

Edited May 29, 2018 by blue_dolphin (log)

blue_dolphin · May 30, 2018

BTW, I got some excellent ideas I can use to expand on my above experiment in this 1995 article from the SF Chronicle: SAVORY SHORTCAKES / The perfect shortcut for summer entertaining

I think they are all for individual shortcakes but no reason I can't adapt them to the format I used above.

blue_dolphin · October 2, 2018

I had a bit of a fail with this Cacio e Pepe Shortbread. I found the recipe on Food52. It's from Charlotte Druckman's book Stir, Sizzle, Bake: Recipes for Your Cast Iron Skillet.

The shortbread dough is quickly spread in a pre-heated cast iron skillet, reportedly to get a crisper outer texture.

My failure was only cosmetic, the flavor is delicious and uniquely addictive - sweet and savory all at once - so I will surely try again.
The edges of the shortcake rose a bit more than the center so when I flipped it out and then flipped it over again, the edges broke off. Next time, I think I'll just let it cool in the pan. And because it's so rich, I'll cut it into smaller pieces.
I'm now off to the library to pick up that book to see what else I should be doing with my cast iron skillet.

Edited October 2, 2018 by blue_dolphin (log)

Anna N · October 2, 2018

Sounds very tasty. I wonder how well it will store. Will you attempt to freeze any leftovers? My thought is that it should freeze just fine.

blue_dolphin · October 2, 2018

8 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Sounds very tasty. I wonder how well it will store. Will you attempt to freeze any leftovers? My thought is that it should freeze just fine.

Good point. My original intent was to give it away but it's kind of ugly so I should at least do a freezer test. There's a nice crispy texture on the top - it was brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with cheese & pepper before going into the oven. That texture might suffer, but we'll see.

kayb · October 2, 2018

A question. I made pizza dough yesterday, and used only half of it. The rest is in the refrigerator. I was contemplating a calzone, and then I hit on the notion of some apple, onion and blue cheese turnovers, with the apples and onions sauteed together with a bit of balsamic vinegar. My next through was in the realm of whether I could laminate the dough -- roll it out, top with a thin layer of filling, fold over, roll again, and repeat, three or four times. I envision then rolling it up and slicing and baking as if it were cinammon rolls.

Any thoughts on how this might work out? Or should I just take a flyer at it and see?

heidih · October 3, 2018

I think with laination there is lso the issue of gluten developementt (that stretch thing) so I'd push thatbto avoid heavy/chwy

PassionateAmateur · October 8, 2018

Tiny pork pies! Kept it simple -- shoulder, bacon, shallots, granny smith apple, cognac & cream.

blue_dolphin · June 14, 2019

I wasn't sure where to put these two shortbread cookies but decided they lean sufficiently in the savory direction to make this the most appropriate place. Both are from Sister Pie.

On the left are Juniper Olive Shortbread which the header notes say are an homage to the classic gin martini. On the right are Salted Rosemary Shortbread. Both were formed into logs, sliced and baked. The book specifies a pre-bake sprinkle of flaky sea salt on the rosemary verision. I liked it on both.

I found the recipe for the rosemary version online at this link. The juniper olive version is almost the same. It calls for an additional 1/4 cup of powdered sugar, omits the rosemary and adds 1T crushed juniper berries and 5T finely chopped Castelvetrano olives, squeezed gently to remove excess liquid.

Per the book, the rosemary version should have been rolled and cut with a square cookie cutter and the juniper olive version was to have been formed into the triangle-shaped log. I decided to use a square log for the rosemary version and fussed with getting the two shapes before I realized that I'd mixed up the doughs.

I like the rosemary better than the juniper and olive but they're both good cocktail cookies.

blue_dolphin · October 10, 2019

Funghi Rotolo from Marc Vetri's Mastering Pizza, made with the Naples Dough at 60% hydration and way more photos than necessary 🙃

The photo that accompanies this recipe in the book is of the most marvelous looking oven-roasted mushroom slices and it's what drew me in. I made a half batch, ~ 325g dough shaped into a 9 x 13" rectangle, rolled and sliced into 6 pieces. The recipe called for shredded mozzarella and I thought I bought a ball to shred up but couldn't find it so I tore up some fresh mozz and that worked fine. Next time, I'd like to try the mini-rotolos as I think they'd be great appetizers for a party.

~ 1 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced tossed with rosemary and a bit of olive oil and ready to roast on a half sheet pan: