Apple Brie Flatbread

Earlier this year I had the good fortune to attend a drug rep dinner being hosted at a local up-scale restaurant that I had never been to. The food was amazing! But the item that I came away thinking, "I have got to figure out how to make THAT" was the Apple Brie Flatbread. It was a crispy, almost cracker flatbread topped with apples, brie, nuts, carmelized onion/shallot, and balsamic vinegar reduction. YUMMY!!!

It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part was figuring out a bread recipe. I have a fantastic bread machine book that I got from Borders (a very dangerous place for me!). If you love bread, get this book! The recipes will work great as hand-mades too. I often just make the dough with the machine and bake the bread in my oven. That is the case with the flatbread I made for these appetizers.

There are a lot of flat breads in the book, but I chose Carta di Musica as it seemed the closest to that nearly-cracker flatbread.

• 1-1/4 cups water
• 4 cups flour
• 1-1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar (I actually used 1 TBS C&H dark brown sugar, cuz that's what I like!)
• 1 tsp yeast

Put it in the bread machine in this order and run it through the dough cycle. Take the dough out and cover with a piece of plastic wrap while you work. Break off a small piece, about the size of a walnut. Roll out the piece to as thin as you can get it. It helps to keep the dough from sticking if you ocassionally oil the rolling pin. As you finish rolling each piece, place it in a stack under a piece of plastic wrap to keep them from drying out.

Once you have enough rolled to fill a cookie sheet, place them on the pre-heated sheet and bake them in the oven at 450F for 10-15 minutes. For this recipe, you will want to take them out while they are still light as they will go back into the oven for a second baking.

The topping is fairly self explanatory: apples, brie, nuts, carmelized onion/shallot, and balsamic vinegar reduction.

• The apples can be any kind. I like to use sweet, crisp apples like my current fav -- Honeygold.
• I love Joan of Arc brie, unfortunately my grocer has been having trouble getting it so I picked up some Delice de France. I liked this very much as well. It is different in that it is stronger, but it is delicious!
• The nuts could be walnuts, pecans, hazelnut, almost any nut -- I LOVE pecans, so that's what I used.
• My son does not like onions, so I skipped the carmelized onion/shallot part. It is very good though, so you might want to try it yourself. I recommend using either shallots or very sweet, mild onions like Vidalia. Slice them thinly and cook over medium low heat until carmelized.
• I used about 6oz of balsamic vinegar. It needs to be reduced to something resembling molasses by heating it over low heat for about half hour. DO NOT LET IT BURN!

Thinly slice or dice the apples and brie and place desired amounts of each on the flatbread pieces. Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar reduction over the topped flatbreads (if you accidentally reduced it too much to drizzle, just add a little water or more balsamic vinegar). Place in the oven until the brie is melted.

OMG!! THESE ARE DELICIUOS!! They were so great, I didn't even get a chance to take a picture before half of them were devoured by onlookers at our New Year Eve party! These are best fresh from the oven, but can be re-heated in the microwave or eaten cold as well.

Pan Pizza

I love Pizza Hut Pan Pizza. I have been trying to replicate the crust for years. It has been slow going even with my awesome baking ability and my ace-in-the-hole - my husband was a Pizza Hut deliverer for four years.

The other day I stumbled upon a combination of ingredients that I think come pretty damn close.

I used a bread machine to make the dough - why not if you have one, right?

• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1-1/2 TBS sugar
• 1-1/2 cup flour
• 1-1/2 tsp dry yeast

Place the ingredients in the machine in this order (for most machines - check your machine for specifics). Set your machine to "pizza dough", if it has that setting; otherwise "dough", or you could just be sure to take the dough out after the first rise if it is a really basic machine without any extra settings. You will want to push the ingredients from the corners of the pan as the dough mixes to be sure that every thing mixes in.

This is a really loose, sticky dough; but, it could still be made by hand. You will have problems trying to knead this, so I would recommend just mixing it well.

When taking the dough out of the bread pan, carefully remove the mixing blade first without tearing apart the dough - once the dough is torn it is VERY DIFFICULT to get back together. Use a lightly oiled silicon spatula to pull the dough away from the edges of the pan to get at the blade below. Once the blade is removed, reform the dough into a solid mass before putting it into a well oiled pan. I used my cast iron skillet.
Very nice.

Carefully push the dough, without tearing it, to fill the bottom of the pan evenly. Let the dough "proof" (as they say in the pizza biz) for a half hour before putting any toppings on it. I turn on the oven about fifteen minutes into the proofing to be sure that the oven is good and hot before I put in the pizza - 350°F to 375°F.

The sauce goes on first. I usually make my own, but I used a jarred spaghetti sauce for this one, any one you like should do. Then cheese. I like to use a few different kinds of cheese for more intricate flavor. We used Hormel turkey pepperoni, YUM!!!

Bake for 20-30 minutes. The pan gets really hot so be careful taking it out. Use a spatula or knife to run around the edge of the pizza, then slide the pizza onto a cutting board. I used a chefs knife to cut this bad-boy.

Although it is not exactly like Pizza Hut Pan Pizza, it was excellent. Thumbs way up from the family. I made an extra one and brought it to work, where I got all very good reviews including a "I have to tell you, YOU are the absolutely BEST pizza maker I know!!! I am in love with your pizza!!"

Awe shucks!