Today would have been my parents 51 Wedding Anniversary. Sadly they are both gone now, but I needed to remember.
Autumn is definitely here and winter is following closely on her heels. Our grand old maple in the front yard finally released the last of her stubborn leaves this week and the temperatures have plummeted to the minus side most nights. We’re still very fortunate not to hit the minus (Celsius) temperatures during the day, yet. We’ve had wood fires burning every night this weekend to take the chill off; ok, I’m exaggerating, the house is toasty warm, and the fire is just for coziness and ambiance. 🙂
Work has been crazy busy since I’ve returned, but I’m not complaining – it’s better too busy than not enough. Even working late nights and on the weekend, which is why I have been unable to post and for that I do apologize, dear reader.
We’ve been cooking really healthy all week, no fat, small portions and low sodium trying to rid ourselves the few extra pounds the fine cooks and chefs in Morocco gifted us. But on Friday night we felt like a bit of a treat and decided on pizza! Pizza, of course is JTs domain; he makes his deliciously thin and crispy dough from Jim Lahey (of the New York Times). We cannot take credit for the toppings either! There is a very nice restaurant in BWV called Villa, and they serve this pizza (and it’s delicious, but of course, our’s is better!)
Ingredients for the dough
Makes one very thin 12″-15″ inch pizza
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface ( about 1/2 cup more!)
- 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 warm water
- 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
- Fine corn meal
- Coarse salt
- 4-5 dried figs (or if in season, please use fresh)
- 100 grams goats cheese
- 3 slices prosciutto, roughly torn into smaller pieces (remove excess fat)
- 1-2 tbsp honey
Directions:
- Soak the figs in warm water for 2-3 hours; you just want to take the chewiness out of them, you don’t want them pulpy. When done, remove from water, dry and slice into bite-sized pieces.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/8 teaspoon salt, yeast, and water, stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and rough. Let dough rest in a warm place (about 72 degrees) until doubled in volume, about 3 hours.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and cover with a clean, damp kitchen towel. Let stand until doubled in size, 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Place a pizza stone (we use our trusty Chicago-land cast iron pizza pan) on the lowest rack of oven and preheat to 550°F for 25 minutes (you want your stone really hot)
- Roll out the dough into a 12″-15″ round or to fit your particular pizza pan. We prefer our pizza crust to be wafer thin.
- Carefully transfer dough to hot pizza stone. Working quickly, top dough with Goats Cheese, Prosciutto, and Figs. Drizzle lightly with honey.
- Bake pizza until until dough is cooked through and golden brown, about 10 minutes.
- We topped our pizza with a little arugula and spinach because we just love the peppery taste – I didn’t shoot it because you would not have been able to see the gorgeous toppings!
[…] the onion confit as your base on any pizza, but this Fig and Goats Cheese Pizza would be […]
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Hi Eva, nice combination of sweet and savory all in one bite. Sounds like a winner!
– Michael
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Thanks Michael, the pizza was very tasty. I do love the savoury and sweet and the tanginess of the goats cheese all together.
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Eva, this pizza looks incredible, and such a wonderful combination of ingredients. Figs and goat cheese are brilliant together. Work has been insanely busy for me as well, but I’m right there with ya–I’d much rather be busy than bored!
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Too true, Caroline. It’s a little overwhelming right now, but in a day or so, it should calm down once we achieve a few of the ridiculous deadlines. But it’s fun, so I cannot complain. Thanks for the comments about our pizza.
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A wonderful combination of favors for a pizza! I’m not always too big on figs, but I know my wife would thoroughly enjoy this.
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Thanks Jed, the dried figs when reconstituted are a lot milder and not as chewy. I can hardly wait to try it with fresh figs!
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lovely picture of your parents Eva 🙂
I love that pizza and the crust looks crisp just the way I like it
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Thanks Sawsan, I also love that picture. They look like movie stars! Thin crispy crust means you can eat two slices instead of just one! 🙂
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Yum! This pizzza would have such a good contrast of flavours and textures Eva! 😀
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Hi Lorraine, The pizza was a real winner, and is now in our repertoire. I may even make it as an hors d’oeuvres at some point.
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i love a little sweet somethings in pizzas – figs or grape, honey makes it even better 🙂 Missed seeing you around here, but I know how it is to manage a fulltime job, house, husband and the blog! And that is such a gorgeous picture of your parents 🙂
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Thanks Manju, I love the contrast in flavours. How nice of you to say you missed seeing me around! I anticipate less blogging in the next month or so, as I am totally swamped with work, having to work late a lot! Thanks for sticking around and commenting on my blog.
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My favorite things…prosciutto, goat cheese, figs and arugula. And on a pizza, you just can’t go wrong! It looks so yummy. Love the picture of your parents.
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Thanks Betsy. It was a tasty one, that’s for certain.
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What a wonderful photo of your parents – you share a lot of similarities with your mother I think! It’s important to treasure memories like these!
The pizza looks amazing – I’m a massive fan of super thin pizza bases, and the best pizzas definitely always follow the rules of “less is more”. Some pizzas are really piled high sometimes which really isn’t a good experience!
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Eva, what a terrific flavor combination! I love thin, crispy crusts…..I’m a fan of this one from start to finish! I’m glad work is going well, but we’ve missed you! Stay warm!
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Thanks Ann, work has been crazy busy, but I’m hoping to get in a few hours of commenting this week. I think, I hope, the jet lag has subsided!
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Beautiful portrait of your parents, Eva. This pizza sounds delicious. It’s that combo of salty & sweet that I love so much and, well, anything with prosciutto has to be good!
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No kidding John. I too love the salty sweet combo.
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We’ve been eating healthier in the wake of NOLA! This pizza is wonderful. I love dishes that are light by design, not forced. The photo of your parents is sweet.
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Thanks Greg. The pizza worked out well for a slice each for lunch the very next day. To reheat pizza, do the crust doesn’t get soggy, re heat one side in a cast iron frying pan! Nice and crispy crust.
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This looks delicious. Alas, fresh figs have disappeared with the turning of the year. Are you putting on your toppings with the oven open and on? I have never heard of doing this.
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Hi Sharyn, no we took the hot pan out of the oven, draped the pizza dough on and then added toppings quickly, and retuned it to the oven. Worked like a charm.
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I love the pizza, esp. that thin crust! Beautiful!
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Thanks Angie, it’s a winner combo of flavours!
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Eva there is not a thing I don’t love about this pizza. What a treat! I’m going to have to keep my eyes open for figs again. 🙂 This looks downright delicious! And JT certainly does a bang-up job on that crust! It looks incredible. Hope your first week home went smoothly and the mountain of laundry has eroded. 😉
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Thanks Kristy. Glad you liked the pizza. First week back is brutal, so busy at work! This weeks not looking better!
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