Hands down this is the most unusual pizza I've ever eaten or made. As strange as it was, the flavor was fantastic! This was also my first time eating a fresh fig. I had to search all over the north side of Indy to get them. I almost gave up on having a fig-topped pizza, but my search ended after the fourth grocery store. My adventurous aunt and uncle shared the pizza with me.
It definitely looks like something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. Green fruit and ham....sounds about right.
I didn't know how to make it look pretty, so pretty weird is how it turned out. This recipe is less cooking and more assembling. Get a ball of pizza dough, some figs, prosciutto, feta, and balsamic vinegar. So simple, so quick, so awesome!
I found the recipe in the August issue of Bon Appetit. Bon Appetit's pizza called for Gorgonzola cheese, but I swapped that for feta. I prefer my cheese with less mold, thankyouverymuch. Their recipe also suggested to top the pizza with arugula, lightly tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I just skipped that part, but I'm sure it would be delicious.
Get the recipe
here and make some fancy pizza soon!
The yolks get tossed in after the beer. Three quarters of a cup of beer! Two thirds a cup of coffee! What intense flavors! The stout I used was Old Rasputin. It was purely a packaging impulse buy. I know absolutely nothing about beer, never touch the stuff. I do love the label on this bottle, so it came home with me.
Whipping up egg whites is always an adventure for me - a guessing game. Am I whipping to the correct "peak"? This recipe called for the whites to be beaten to stiff peaks, but not whipped too dry. (I didn't know that you could whip them dry. I'll have to do it sometime to see - on purpose. I would never over whip eggs. Pfft!)
And now to fold the eggs into the batter. This requires patience. Don't get too antsy or you will crush the precious whites that you spent the time to fluff up.
The beauties just out of the oven. Cool off time begins.
This ugly mess turned into the absolutely delectable icing. Ingredients: chocolate, heavy cream, a pinch or two of instant coffee. Heat. Stir. Chill. Done. Easy.
First layer down. Notice the slips of wax paper below the cake. A trick I picked up from my Food Network watching days. No other channel existed. It's pretty much the same now, too.
Second layer down, mounded with icing. Be generous so that the icing flows and clings to the sides. My icing turned out a bit lumpy because I was impatient. I was supposed to heat the cream in a sauce pan then pour the hot cream over the chocolate, but I just dumped the two in a microwave safe bowl and went with it. Not the best visual results.
Finished lumpily-iced cake.
Ahhh. Look at it. It doesn't look as good as Bon Appetit's photo, but I'm not a food stylist. I'm a food maker and eater. To the left of this fancy cake is some fancy gelato. An exotic gelato found on another wonderful blog: The Traveler's Lunchbox - Strawberry Balsamic Gelato. If you ever think about making your own frozen confection, make this. You will NOT be disappointed. The recipe gives you the option of using 2 or 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Use three. Trust me on this. Three. The next time I make it, I think I will toss in some fresh basil. Interesting, intriguing. We shall see!
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