Valentine's dinner

Baking, like frying, gives amazing satisfaction in the cooking department. 

Everything that prove and grows is a wonder. 

Recently for Valentine's day I have been preparing LOVE parcels, fried and baked. 


Making a basic fat read mixture is dead-easy and actually involves only a little patience. 
I have learned never to mix salt and yeast, never to mix too hot water, and also to work the dough once, then let it rest for 30 minutes, then punch the air out and shape it and let your creation rest for further 20 mins.

For two people I have used 350gr plain flour, about 180ml lukewarm water, 1 tsp dry yeast, 1 heaped tsp of honey, pinch of salt, 30 gr butter. The way to do it is to:

form a volcano of flour; 

in the centre pour the 1/2 amount of water already mixed with yeast and honey; 

incorporate SOME flour from the volcano;

scatter the chopped butter and a pinch of salt round the crater;

let it rest in a warmed oven (switched off) for about 20 mins.
add now little by little the remaining water

then beat all together for at least 5 mins.

let it rest 30 mins

work it again to let the air out and shape it/fill it etc.

In this case I have prepared heart shape parcels, without a cookie cutter....I had to shape my own hearts, hence the imperfections...because it was so complicated to perfectly form the filled shapes I have also fried some plain dough and baked some other balls (same filling) with an egg wash + sesame heart drawn on top. 

for the filling  i have put together fried aubergine, chopped ham and mozzarella.

This is the result. I was pleased!