Tuesday, March 20, 2012

'Half Moon Breads, stuffed with goats chees, prosciutto, basil and olives

So, as you know there are more ways to creating art than, just creating an image, whether its 2D or 3D, there is also cooking.
I have really started to enjoy cooking, even though I am someone who is very wary of what I eat and how much, est. but I am cooking for two,so nothing goes to waste.
So I have decided to add these cooking adventures to my blog, using recipes out of the back of the Sunday Telegraph Magazine, or where ever I may find them. They will not be frequent, if one is lucky maybe once a fortnight. Its something I had already started and I regret not documenting the results, but they were so good that I am sure I will be doing them again. The pictures of my food may not be great but I will try an include pictures from the actual magazine as well.

A picture from the magazine of the half moons being prepared.


This  recipe serves 4, The dough makes 4 half moon breads, but I would recommend making eight as they are quit big.

What you will need:

1 quantity of flat bread, allowed to rise for an hour
4 heaped tbsp of fresh goats cheese
4 slices of prosciutto
8 olives, pitted and sliced.
(the recipe calls for 8 olives, but I added a lot more cutting them into quarters, it depends on you.)
8 basil leaves

Flat bread Recipe:

What you will need:

1 egg
100ml Olive oil
15g (2 sachets) easy blend dry yeast
500g plain white flour or Italian '00' flour (I used the plain)
6 tbsp chopped coriander

1. Beat together the egg, olive oil, and 200ml of luke warm water

2. Put the yeast, a tsp of salt and the flour into a large bowl or mixer, and slowly add the liquid. (it really helps if you have a proper mixer, I have my mums old super chef, which only has one speed, super fast, it has a special claw for bread, it really makes life alot easier!)

3. Knead for up to 10 minutes until the dough is very smooth and elastic.

4. Place back in the bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave in a draught free place for one to two hours, until it is double in size.
                                                               *  *  *
5. Preheat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7.

6. Place the dough on a well floured surface and kneed the fresh coriander into the dough by folding, turning, and refolding until the herbs are well distributed.

**At this point you can starting rolling out the dough for the half moons, (see below) but I will give you the rest of the recipe in case you want to make actual flat bread!******

7. Divide into 12 pieces and stretch each into a slim oval.
8. Lay them on an oiled baking sheet and leave to rise for 20 minutes.
9. Bake for eight minutes until puffed and slightly coloured.


Half Moon Recipe:

1. For each half moon take a piece of dough the size of a squash ball and roll or stretch into a circle measuring 15cm in diameter.

2. Place on a floured board, and put a tablespoon of goats cheese, a slice of prosciutto, a few olive slices and a couple of basil leaves in one half of the disc.
(You don't have to be true to the recipe when adding the fillings, I always tend to add a bit more. Also I didn't have whole Basil leaves, but the chopped and bottled stuff works just as good, just sprinkle on as mush as you think, but don't be timid about it!)

3. Fold the other half over to make a semi-circle, and press down firmly to seal the sides together.
It is important that the parcel does not leak, so mend any tears by pinching the edges together.

4. Brush with oil and placed on an oiled baking sheet.

5 Bake for twelve minutes until and well browned.

6. For a richer and dough-nutty result, you can fry the half moon breads in a centimeter of cooking oil until golden, Either way eat warm. Although they are jolly good cold!
(I didn't fry mine, but I am pretty sure they did in the magazine, judging by the picture.)

I have to say I wasn't sure how these would taste, as I found the goats cheese quit rich, but I have to say they were excellent and very tasty. The bread really soaked up the flavour of the goats cheese.

You can see my pictures below, they are not very good quality and I will try and do better next time!


The half moon before it went into the oven. In case you didn't know that's prosciutto on the left there.


The half moon breads, straight out of the oven. As you can see they are rather big, so I would recommend making eight rather than four. Just make sure you have enough dough so when it cooks and expands the cheese can spill out!

The insides! yum!




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