Sweet Pizza Dough Twist with Blueberries, Cinnamon & Almonds
Yes, indeed, I made another of those twisty Sicilian breads with the left-over pizza dough this evening... but decided to do something a little crazy and made a sweet version rather than savory- just as an experiment! I am indeed a risk-taker and quite the daredevil in the kitchen!
Filled with blueberries and almonds, spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with just the smallest amount of sugar, this was such a nice change and definitely much better and healthier eating than those sickly-sweet and fatty cinnamon buns for example. I am definitely a "less-is-more" kind of guy and I always prefer for foods natural flavors to come out, rather than to overpower them with butter or sugar. If you try this out I am sure you will understand where I am coming from and I am sure you will agree!
Filled with blueberries and almonds, spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with just the smallest amount of sugar, this was such a nice change and definitely much better and healthier eating than those sickly-sweet and fatty cinnamon buns for example. I am definitely a "less-is-more" kind of guy and I always prefer for foods natural flavors to come out, rather than to overpower them with butter or sugar. If you try this out I am sure you will understand where I am coming from and I am sure you will agree!
I made this from just a 5-6" strip of pizza dough and the resulting little "loaf" or pastry, was big enough for 2 decent breakfast servings- it was about the size of a large Danish pastry, but of course had all that yummy berry and almond filling going on inside too- yum!
The filling itself was simply 1 good handful of blueberries, the same amount of slivered almonds and a teaspoon each of sugar and cinnamon. I sprinkled each of these ingredients evenly over the dough and gently rolled it together. I kept rolling the dough, but twisted it as I went along- which resulted in the dough stretching and becoming longer and longer- which meant that I needed to be careful too!
I began laying the roll of dough out in a spiral shape, directly onto a non-stick pan, which I placed onto the stove top at a high temperature in order to get the base baking and crisping up relatively quickly- this took just 2-3 minutes.
After this time, I wrapped some foil around the handle of my frying pan to protect it from the extreme heat and popped it into the oven. After just 3-4 minutes at the highest setting, the dough had already puffed up nicely and at that point, I fetched it out briefly to give it a very light sprinkle of sugar- then back in it went for 2 minutes at the regular top setting and a further 2 minutes under the broiler until it became golden brown... and you cant get any quicker or easier than that, can you?!?
After this time, I wrapped some foil around the handle of my frying pan to protect it from the extreme heat and popped it into the oven. After just 3-4 minutes at the highest setting, the dough had already puffed up nicely and at that point, I fetched it out briefly to give it a very light sprinkle of sugar- then back in it went for 2 minutes at the regular top setting and a further 2 minutes under the broiler until it became golden brown... and you cant get any quicker or easier than that, can you?!?
The few sprinkles of sugar on the outside melted to a slight glaze- just enough to lift the flavor, and the sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon with the berries and the juice they gave off during baking, made the inside soft and juicy and moist- just look at those pictures! There is no need for heaps of butter or sugar- absolutely not! This is my kind of treat- just enough sweetness to make you feel good not enough to do you any harm or to give you a guilty conscience. Do you think I can convince you to do the same? Give one of these a go- and let me know! Especially if you try it whilst it is still warm from the oven... mmmm!
No comments:
Post a Comment