Fig and Rosemary Chicken Pizza
My second bake from last weekend had more to do with some fresh figs that I had found than it did with bread. Although I grew up on a farm and had plenty of first hand experience with many kinds of fruit, figs weren't part of the local scene. I don't recall seeing a fig outside of a Fig Newton cookie any time prior to my high school graduation. When I did eventually encounter figs in their whole form, they were dried instead of fresh. The farm, by the way, is located in northern lower Michigan, which explains the dearth of figs. At a guess, I must have been in my 40s before I ever laid eyes, or hand, on a fresh fig.
Imagine my surprise and delight on finding a tray of fresh figs at a store recently! (They aren't that common here in NE Kansas, either.) They followed me home and we considered all sorts of options before settling on this Fig and Rosemary Chicken from the Foodie Fresh blog. How do I love it? Let me count the ways. 1) Figs. 2) Fig and balsamic reduction (that's the 'sauce' for the pizza). 3) Fresh rosemary. 4) Goat cheese. 5) Grilled chicken. 6) Caramelized onions 7) All of that in one place at the same time! 8) Pizza!
Oh. My.
All I did was throw together a simple dough, maybe 70% hydration plus a drizzle of olive oil. My wife did the rest of the work. And when she got done, boy, did it all work together!
Here's a ready-for-the-oven pic:
Isn't that a thing of beauty?
But wait, there's more:
That's right, fresh from the oven and ready to eat! This, people, is some seriously good food. There were no leftovers.
Energized by the fabulous pizza, I managed to put together some kolaches for the third bake of the weekend, using dough from the previous weekend's class. Those turned out pretty well, too. Sorry, no pictures of those. Having sized them at 80g each, I think I'll try shrinking them to 50 or 60g each the next time that I make them. That will allow for a higher ratio of filling to bread.
That's more baking than I tend to do most days but I'm happy with all three outcomes. (The first was Hamelman's Whole Rye and Whole Wheat bread, covered in an earlier post.)
Paul
Comments
The pizza is truly inspired. It reminds me of an appetizer that I make occasionally. Fresh figs stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction (or honey) and a handful of toasted nuts sprinkled around it. I cannot imagine life without fresh figs, but luckily we have tons of figs grown in California so that I never have to.
And I'm really, really grateful that someone thought it up and made the recipe available for the rest of us to use.
Stuffed figs sound very good, too.
Paul
I grew up in your neck of the woods, at least where you live now, in grocery family and I never saw any fresh figs till I went overseas to work in Saudi Arabia in 1983. Now I get 2 crops a year of them off the trees in other peoples yards here in in AZ :-) Nothing like a good fig to bring out the best in bread. Love your crust and your wife's topping. It is tough to beat pizza of any kind, even with the best bread that has figs in it - Well Done and
Happy Pizza Baking to you adn your apprentice :-) That should get you in some kind of trouble - not that you need it !
Happy baking Paul
So I won't call her one and get myself in trouble as a result.
Nice to have things like fresh citrus and figs in your back yard or neighborhood. Kind of offsets the misery of an AZ summer, doesn't it?
Paul
Beautiful pizza Paul. Never had fig pizza but your description and photos sure make me want to try. How did you make the fig reduction sauce? That looks very interesting.
Regards,
Ian
Click on that and it will take you to the recipe for the pizza, including the fig/balsamic reduction.
If you can source the figs, you owe it to yourself to try it.
Paul
David
Thank you.
Paul
What a delicious mouth watering set of pizza's you have posted. I especially love them with goat cheese and balsamic glaze. I can't think of a better way to enjoy them, than on top of a pizza crust.
I've been picking figs daily off my Black Mission fig tree. I haven't had much time other than to enjoy them fresh 'blossomed, topped with goat cheese and a drizzle of balsamic glaze. The rest are being sun dried and frozen for enjoying later.
To see them blossom, just cut a cross on the fat bottom and give it a squeeze from underneath.
Sylvia
ps. Figs have a very short shelf life. Only a few days at most. Enjoy those NON-GMO figs while they are in season.
What a treasure! Not even the hardiest variety would survive a winter with temperatures like our last one.
A hearty "Yes!" to figs with balsamic vinegar and goat cheese. What a super combination.
Paul
I had a look at the recipe and it's definitely a keeper, thanks so much for posting this! We do something similar with fresh figs, using Vincotto instead of balsamic. If you can find it, worth getting to brush on figs, peaches, apples etc. and cooking - vincotto is essentially cooked wine, a reduction of not quite ripe grapes. Tangy but sweet, great for cooking! Thanks for your great post!