This week really confirmed for me that I'm going to have to become creative with these Technical Challenges in order to actually make the best version of them I possibly can. The previous episode called for Gluten Free-Pitta, but even after searching in multiple health-food shops and enormous supermarkets several crucial ingredients either eluded me (Nigella seeds were a mystery despite now being readily available in both my local Tesco and Waitrose) or were way too expensive (Psyllium powder in Holland & Barrett cost around £15 and I only needed to use a tenth of the pouch). As a result I decided not to make them, instead going for normal pitta. A work trip meant that I didn't have time to blog my results last Thursday but needless to say they were a success. However, they weren't exactly within the specific remits of the challenge.
Thus from now on I've decided to definitely alter the recipes so that I can feasibly complete them and simultaneously not use up all my savings in the process. This will mean finding alternative ingredients when others are too expensive/impossible to locate and essentially making do. Hopefully this will work out well!
The original recipe can be found on the BBC Food website here, but as ever it's also below with my notes and photographs.
Ingredients:
For the filling:
75g/2½oz plain flour
90g/3¼oz fine semolina
7g instant yeast
2 tsp dried mint
100g/3½oz sultanas
4 large free-range eggs
4 tbsp milk
1 tsp baking powder
500g/1lb 2oz pecorino romano cheese
250g/9oz halloumi cheese
I don't eat cheese, and even I could tell that this was an insane amount to be buying! Unfortunately, this also makes it extremely expensive - particularly for a one off bake - so I spent ages talking to three lovely women on the cheese counter in Waitrose (in my defence, my local Aldi and Tesco were useless when it came to any cheese other than cheddar...) and they came up with this combination instead. The pecorino romano was insanely expensive so I listened to the experts and they said I'd be fine using a combination of these Grana Padanos as an alternative. They assured me that as I was baking with the cheese, and because I wasn't serving my Flaounes to anyone with a particularly refined cheese palette, then no-one would be able to tell the difference and my bank balance would be much better off for it!
For the pastry:
750g/1lb 10oz strong plain flour, plus extra for flouring
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp salt
7g instant yeast
60g/2¼oz unsalted butter, softened
450ml/16fl oz full-fat milk
1 tsp mastic powder (a plant resin used in baking, available from specialist stores online)
2 tsp ground mahlepi, also known as mahleb (a Greek spice made from the ground stone of the St Lucie cherry)
Again, I just couldn't get hold of these specific spices this week in time to make the Flaounes. I don't have the time to go on a wild goose chase around Cheshire hunting for Greek spices, and even then I simply couldn't justify the expense of buying them online to only use them once! I did my research, and found a website that said 2 tsp mahlepi can be replaced with 1 tsp allspice, 1/2 tsp ground caraway seeds and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (all of which are useful, store cupboard spices and worthwhile investments!) and as mastic powder could apparently be used as a substitute for vanilla (or gives an almond flavouring) I opted to add 1 tsp vanilla paste instead. It may not have been perfect, but I figured it was better than leaving out the spices altogether or needlessly buying something I'd never use again.
For the glaze:
200g/7oz sesame seeds
Dash of white wine vinegar
3 free-range egg yolks, lightly beaten
Method:
For the filling, grate the pecorino romana and halloumi into a large bowl. Be warned: this takes forever. I'd suggest either forgetting about being frugal and buying it all pre-grated or enlist the help of a sous chef. As I discovered, watching paint dry is a million times more fun than grating a never-ending mountain of cheese.
In a separate bowl, mix the plain flour, semolina, yeast, dried mint and sultanas together.
Beat the eggs and milk together in a jug.
Tip the flour mixture over the cheese and pour over the egg mixture.
Mix together with your hands. Cover and leave to stand while you make the pastry.
For the pastry, tip the flour, mastic powder and mahlepi into a mixing bowl or a free-standing electric mixer with a dough hook. Add the sugar and salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Add the butter into the centre of the flour along with 350ml/12fl oz of the milk.
Combine the ingredients to form a soft dough and gradually add the remaining milk - you may not need it all. Place onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover and leave to rest for 1 hour.
For the glaze, place the sesame seeds, vinegar and enough water to cover in a small saucepan and bring to boil.
Drain well and spread the seeds over a clean tea towel to dry. I lined a tray with the tea towel - that way you can move the seeds around the kitchen without fear of spilling them everywhere...
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Line 3 baking trays with non-stick baking parchment. Divide the pastry into 12 large pieces using a dough scraper or really sharp knife.
Roll them out on a lightly floured work surface until about 3mm/⅛in thick. Using a saucer/bowl as a template, cut into 12 x 15cm/6in rounds. Using the leftover pastry I managed to make another 3 15cm rounds and a dodgy offcut - I have no idea why there was so much pastry!
Firmly press one side of the pastry rounds into the sesame seeds to coat.
To finish the filling, add the baking powder to the filling mixture and divide the filling into 12 pieces (I went for 15 slightly smaller ones so that I'd have 15 complete Flaounes). Place one portion of filling into the centre of each dough circle.
Squash the filling out with your fingers into a rough triangle, and fold in 3 sides to make a rounded triangle shape, leaving a gap in centre with the filling exposed. Place the Flaounes on the baking trays.
Brush the tops with the beaten egg yolk and bake for 15 minutes.
Reduce the oven temperature to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and bake for a further 15 minutes, or until golden-brown and puffed up.
Serve hot or cold.
Well they worked well! The pressure was on due to my limited ingredients (no way on earth was I buying that amount of cheese again if it all went wrong!) but maybe I needed that sort of mildly stressful environment in order to perform well with the challenge?! My only criticism has to be with the presentation: I think I should have pinched the 3 corners more firmly before putting them in the oven as when they puffed up and out they lost their sharp triangular definition which is a shame.
For pastry week, these seemed utterly bizarre as they're so doughy. Even the filling is more bread than cheese, and given how massive they turned out they're not for the faint hearted! If I ever brave making them again then I think I'll half the size for a more manageable portion.
What did you think of these Flaounes? Will you be giving them a go or avoiding these cheesy-doughy pastries like the plague? Do let me know in the comments below!
[N.B. This post contains affiliate links to Lakeland products.]
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