Skip to main content

Fig Pastry

In the mood for something different for breakfast, I decided to use some figs I canned last fall to make a fig pastry. I started the night before by making some brioche dough in the bread mixer. This is a wet dough that is at the limits of my bread maker, so I stirred the dough with a rubber scraper for the first couple of minutes.

I saved half the dough for another pastry. I rolled out the other half into a rectangular piece.

I filled the right side of the dough with the fig preserves, some almonds, and a little bit of mace. I then rolled it up and carefully moved it onto the pizza pan I use for making these sorts of large-diameter pastries.

After I turned the pastry into a ring, I used my kitchen shears to cut the edge of the ring. Each cut was a little less than half way through the diameter.

I painted the pastry with egg white, covered it with clear wrap, and put it in the refrigerator for a final rise.

The next morning, I turned on the oven and popped in the pastry (taking off the plastic wrap, of course). The result was beautiful to look at and a very nice breakfast. Brioche is a tender, soft bread that goes down very easily in the morning. I love figs and I enjoy the opportunity to eat them outside of their relatively narrow season.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eating Around Georgia Tech: Ecco

Our Texas Instruments colleague Cathy Wicks was gracious enough to host several of us at Ecco tonight. This is one of those restaurants that has been on my list for a long time. Even though it is within easy walking distance of Georgia Tech, I hadn't made it there until tonight. The menu is a combination of Italian, Spanish, and French that make use of some local Georgia ingredients. The combination of those three countries is sometimes a little forced, although the georgia ingredients (fruit, cheese) were all great and perfectly appropriate. We started out with a meat and cheese board. This actually reverses the French tradition, where cheese usually follows the main course. Everything was excellent. The Georgia cheese was a big hit, as was the French cow/goat cheese. I thought the sauscisson was very subtle and very good. The waitress said that the roast pork pasta was their signature dish, so I had to try it. It had traditional broad pasta (fresh, of course)

Pressure Cooker Candied Ginger

I made candied ginger a few years ago. It's not something I would do every day but I had a lot of fun doing it. I recently acquired a pressure cooker and it inspired an interesting idea to me: why not make candied ginger in the pressure cooker? It should be very soft and flavorful. Here is the result. I peeled two large ginger roots, cut them into small cubes, and put them in the pressure cooker with heavily sugared water. The traditional method first boils the ginger in plain water to soften it and then again in sugar water to candy it. The resulting candy was very tender but still with the characteristic ginger texture. It was also sweet without being overpowering. The traditional method leaves a lot of sugar crystallized around the ginger. The pressure cooker gives a much more subtle result. The ginger stays moist even after it cools but you can dry it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. That inspired me to dip it in chocolate. While I was in the b

DCA: Cava Mezze Grill

Cava is a DC area chain with light Mediterranean food. Saibal encouraged me to try lunch at their airport location and I was very happy with the experience. I ordered falafel on SuperSalad with assorted other toppings. The falafel was tasty. The SuperSalad was light, flavorful, and very easy to eat. Overall, a healthy and enjoyable lunch, something you can't always say about airport eating.