All that glitters is gold

Today's wedding inspirations come from earthy metal tones with a touch of mint.  Surprising, sassy, and gorgeous.

 Via Pocket Full of Dreams

Photos via Brumley and Wells
Recipe:  Italian Sausage, Bacon, Roasted Tomato and Egg pizza

Italian Sausage, Bacon, Roasted Tomato and Egg Pizza (Makes 2)

2 x balls pre-made pizza dough or base

Olive oil

12-14 baby vine tomatoes

500g Italian pork sausage

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

300g free-range (organic if poss.) lean bacon, very finely diced

2 standard balls fresh mozzarella cheese

2 eggs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Extra fresh basil leaves

For the pizza sauce:

1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

2 teaspoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

½ cup water

Small handful (10-12 leaves) fresh basil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

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Pre heat oven to 180˚ fan-forced.

Place tomatoes on a small baking sheet, drizzle with a little olive oil and roast in the pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes until soft.

Whilst tomatoes are roasting, to make the pizza sauce, add all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-15 minutes until reduced by half. Remove from heat and set aside until required.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan, squeeze the inner sausage meat out of the casings and discard the latter. Break up the sausage meat in the frying pan using the edge of a wooden spatula.

In a separate, smaller frying pan, dry-fry the fennel seeds over low-medium heat until they start to release their aromas then transfer to a mortar and pestle and grind to a powder, add to the sausage meat and combine thoroughly. Add the bacon and cook everything for 12-15 minutes of until bacon and sausage meat are golden brown. Remove from heat and spread out on kitchen paper.

To assemble the pizzas, roll out dough to your desired thickness and place on pizza stone or pizza maker paddles. Divide tomato sauce evenly over both pizza bases and spread out leaving a 2cm border around the edge. Top pizzas with half the sausage and bacon crumble each then tear mozzarella into strips and dot over meat. Add the roasted tomatoes then finally crack an egg into the centre of the pizza. Scatter pizza with a few fresh basil leaves and season generously with freshly ground black pepper. Cook pizza in oven or in pizza maker for 10-15 minutes or until base is cooked through. If you are using a regular oven and pizza stone, turn oven temperature up to 200˚C to cook pizza.

 

Chocolate Frangipane Plum Tart

 

 

 

For the chocolate pastry:

225g pastry flour

20g cocoa

75g caster sugar

75g cold butter, cubed

1 tablespoons light sour cream

50g dark chocolate, melted over a double boiler and cooled

1 egg

For the chocolate frangipane:

150g unsalted Butter

130g caster sugar
165g almond meal
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

100g dark chocolate, melted over a double boiler, cooled

9-10 plums, halved and stones removed.

Pre-heat oven to 200˚C fan-forced

To make the chocolate pastry, add flour, cocoa, caster sugar and butter into the bowl of a food processor and whizz until breadcrumbs form. Add the sour cream and egg and cooled milted chocolate and whizz again until combined and a dough forms in the bowl. Add a little more flour if you feel the dough is too sticky. Remove from bowl, form into a smooth ball, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 30-40 minutes.

While pastry is chilling, make the chocolate frangipane. To do this, add all ingredients into a stand mixer bowl and beat until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and cover with cling film, chill in the fridge for 20-30 mins along with the pastry.

Remove pastry from fridge and roll out in-between 2 pieces of non-stick baking parchment until approx. .5cm thick – note this pastry will still be a little soft so you may need to piece it together in some parts in the pie tin, to aid in the rolling stage, roll in between the paper as opposed to rolling on a floured surface as when you go to transfer it to the pie tin it’ll probably break apart if you skip the paper rolling method.

Line a greased spring form tin (mine measured a rather whopping 28cm x 5cm!) with the pastry patching any parts you have to. Don’t worry too much about patching pastry, I don’t, no one notices anything once it’s cooked and at the end of the day it’s all about the actual taste and texture of the pastry.

Prick the base of the pastry all over with a fork, then line the case with a flattened piece of baking paper (I find if you crumple it up then spread it back out flat again, it makes for easier lining), fill with pie weights or – like I use – rice, and press down firmly to spread rice into the full pie cavity, then blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the paper and rice/weights and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

Spread the frangipane all over the partially cooked base, and then push the pre-cut plum halves cut side up into the mixture. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the frangipane has risen and is cooked through.

Serve hot with good quality vanilla bean ice-cream and a sprinkling of Amaretto liqueur (latter optional).


Recipes via What Katie Ate