A Pithivier

This flaky, filled French frivolity is named after the town of Pithiviers in the Orléans section of France, south of Paris. It is said to have originated there in the 17^th century and was traditionally made with a sweet filling, specifically frangipane, mounded atop a circle of rough puff pastry and covered with another circle to create a dome-shaped pie, decorated with curved lines radiating out from the center and rimmed by a scalloped edge.

For this signature challenge, Paul and Mary specified a savory filling. The trick, of course, is to make sure the filling is not too runny in order to avoid, you guessed it, a soggy bottom. James ended up with that problem with his chorizo, chicken and red pepper Spanish pithivier in this, the final episode of the Great British Bake Off, series 3 (The Beginnings on Netflix). But both John’s and Brendan’s bottoms were nicely browned and well-baked, thank-you-very-much.

For my pithivier, I looked to my own pantry for inspiration. It being the end of summer, I had plenty of tomatoes, a few sweet peppers and a freshly made batch of pesto from the basil in my garden. In order to make sure my vegetables weren’t too wet, I decided to roast them. I love how roasting brings out the sweetness in tomatoes and onions by caramelizing their naturally occurring sugars. It does the same to garlic, mellowing its flavor. I found this recipe, which I used as a guide, but basically made it my own, incorporating the produce I had on hand and the late-summer flavors I love.

I had a bit of trouble with my pastry dough, which seemed too wet and mooshy when I first made it, but I popped it in the fridge to chill overnight, and it seemed fine the next day. I used my go-to recipe, which I’ve made twice before, once for my tarte tatin and once for my turkey wellington, so I’m not sure why it didn’t turn out the same. Maybe my butter was too soft. Next time, I’d like to try the kind of rough puff recipe where you grate frozen butter and fold the dough around it. I was just running short of time and needed something tried and true.

With my dough in the fridge, I roasted my veggies. I used thin-sliced potatoes (These would go on the bottom to protect my pastry from the juices.), sweet peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic. I spread them all out on two roasting pans, drizzled them with olive oil and roasted them at 425°F for about 20 minutes, till they were browned around the edges and smelled heavenly!

While they were cooling, I pulled my rough puff out of the fridge. I divided it in half and rolled half of it out to about 1/8 inch thick. I cut it into a 9-inch circle, using a tart pan base for my template. I placed that on a parchment-lined baking sheet and rolled the other half out, cutting it into a larger circle using a larger tin as a guide. I put the larger circle of dough back in the fridge while I layered my veggies on top of the smaller one.

Starting with the roasted potato slices, I lay them on the smaller circle of dough, overlapping them slightly to protect the pastry from the vegetable juices. I topped that with a layer of pesto, then piled on the peppers and onions, followed by the tomatoes and garlic. On top, I sprinkled some feta cheese, tucking crumbles into nooks and crannies all around the pile of vegetables. 

Making an egg wash with egg yolk and water, I brushed the edges of the bottom circle of dough with the egg wash. Then I carefully placed the larger circle of dough over the entire mound of vegetables, pressing the edges together with the base to seal the dough. I brushed the entire thing with egg wash and then decorated it by scoring the mound of dough with a semicircular pattern all the way around, cutting a hole in the top to let steam escape. 

To create the scalloped edges that Mary was looking for, I tried using a small biscuit cutter to score the dough and then cutting it out by hand, but in hindsight, I think it would be easier just to cut triangles out of the edges at regular intervals and form the scallops with your fingers. The dough is very pliable at this point and will pretty much hold its shape, but remember that it will lose definition as it rises in the oven anyway, so we’re not striving for perfection here.

Once I was happy with my decoration, I popped my pithivier in the oven at 400°F for about half an hour. It should be nice and golden brown when it’s done. I would err on the side of darker brown to make sure your pastry is cooked all the way through.

My pithivier came out looking beautiful (no soggy bottom!) and tasting wonderful! I think my pastry could have used more layers, so I’m still puzzling about what went wrong. If any of you have insight into rough puff pastry, I’d love to hear your theories! Overall, though, I loved the flavor combination of roasted veggies, pesto and feta cheese. I’m calling this my End of Summer Pithivier. It’s a fairly easy recipe and a great way to celebrate the late season harvest, easily adapted to whatever you gather from your garden or pick up at the local farmer’s market.

Next week: Fondant Fancies