Fresh Figs, Blue Cheese, and Honey Pizza Dolce; Almond Blueberry Dessert Pizza

     I've always been intrigued by figs.  I have never had fresh ones before.  I have tried finding them several times, but have never been successful.  One produce manager at Lund's told me that they get them in once a year and sell out the same day.  Amazingly, when I wasn't looking for them, I found them at Costco, of all places.  Jeff talked me out of buying them at the time, because I didn't have an immediate use for them in mind.  Of course, it wasn't long after that shopping trip that this pizza came up on the schedule, and the figs were no longer at Costco.  My devoted husband did end up finding them at Lund's though (amazingly enough), and it was the last package they had!  I love the combination of earthy, creamy, rich blue cheese with tangy fruit, so I couldn't wait to try this recipe.

FRESH FIGS, BLUE CHEESE, AND HONEY PIZZA DOLCE

Adapted from James McNair's Vegetarian Pizza

Dough:

1 tablespoon + ¼ cup granulated sugar, divided

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon active, dry yeast

3¼ cups bread flour

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup olive oil

Toppings:

1 tablespoon walnut oil

6½ ounces Cambozola cheese

9 fresh figs, sliced

2 tablespoons high-quality honey
½ cup candied almonds

Make the dough:  Combine one tablespoon of sugar, the water, and the yeast in a small bowl.  Set aside for at least five minutes.  In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the ¼ cup of sugar, the flour, and the salt.  Add the yeast mixture and the olive oil and mix at medium speed until the dough comes together and starts to cling to the dough hook.  Divide the dough in half.  Reserve half for another use.  Set the other half in a greased bowl, cover with a damp, lint-free towel, and set aside to rise for an hour or until doubled in size.

Assemble and bake:  Preheat the oven to 500º F with a pizza stone inside, if using.  Roll or stretch the dough out to a 15 inch circle on a cornmeal dusted pizza peel or board.  Brush the dough all over with the walnut oil.  Place dollops of Cambozola over the prepared dough.  Arrange the figs over the cheese.  Drizzle with honey.  Bake on preheated stone for 10-15 minutes or until  the crust is crisp, and the cheese has melted.  Remove the pizza from the oven and top with the candied almonds.

     Jeff and I had fallen in love with Cambozola cheese while we were visiting my parents once in Palm Springs.  My dad had bought a wedge of it at Costco (see where I get it?), and we ate it on toast for breakfast every morning we were out there.  At that time, we were Sam's Club members, and we found it there a couple of times since, but we have not been able to find it at either club for quite some time.  I was killing time at Byerly's on my lunch break one day and discovered that they carry this cheese all the time.  I had immediately bought a wedge and decided that was going to be my blue cheese for this pizza.  It is creamy and rich and delicious!  It has the flavor of Gorgonzola, only richer, and the texture of a double cream brie.

     Although it is very creamy, it is just slightly too stiff for spreading, and I ended up just dolloping pieces onto the dough.  I was afraid if I tried to spread it, it would damage the dough.  I knew that it would melt quite easily, and spread, though, so I wasn't worried about total coverage.  I was more worried that I wouldn't be able to resist trying a little piece of it and robbing the pizza of a dollop of goodness.
     The figs were a bit of a mystery to me.  As I mentioned before, I have never had fresh figs before and was totally clueless on how to prepare them.  I did a little Internet research and found that I just needed to run them under cool water to clean them, remove the stems, slice, and eat (or put on a pizza, as it were).  I tried a piece while preparing them and was a little disappointed.  They were somewhat firm and not very flavorful.  I wonder if our fresh figs weren't exactly ripe?  I will have to do more research on that at a later date.  They sure were pretty, though - purple and green on the outside and a lovely geode-like pink center...

           The original recipe suggested making some sort of "Sweet Crunchy Nut" concoction that they did not provide the recipe for (it was in some other cookbook that the author had published).  I had just been to the Farmer's Market the weekend before and bought some spiced candied almonds.  I liked that idea better.  I didn't have to do anything additional, and I thought that they would go fantastically with the Cambozola. They were crunchy and sweet with a slight kick to them.
     When the pizza came out of the oven, I was a little disappointed to see that the the figs had lost some of their attractiveness.  Their pink centers had dulled a bit, and they weren't nearly as vibrant as they were before their journey into the oven.
     The flavor of the pizza was fantastic, however.  The creaminess of the blue cheese was fantastic against the tartness of the figs and the spice of the almonds.  The almonds added a little crunch to the rest of the soft ingredients.  This would be a fantastic appetizer pizza.  Despite the honey and the figs, it really wasn't sweet enough for a dessert, but I would eat it for any part of a meal!

ALMOND BLUEBERRY DESSERT PIZZA

Adapted from The Everything Pizza Cookbook by Belinda Hulin

4 egg whites

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup unsweetened almond butter

1/3 cup skim milk

1 cup blueberry jam

4 ounces fresh blueberries

4 ounces dark chocolate curls

Make the crust:  Preheat the oven to 300º F.  In the bowl of a large stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, and almond extract.  Beat at a high speed until foamy.  Add the sugar and continue whisking until glossy peaks form.  Line a 15 inch deep dish pan with parchment paper.  Spread the egg white mixture over the parchment paper.  Bake in preheated oven for an hour, then turn the oven off, but leave the pan in the closed oven for another hour.  Remove pan from oven, place it on a wire rack and allow it to cool completely.

Assemble:  Combine the almond butter and milk together in a medium sized bowl, and stir until smooth and "pourable".  Very carefully spread the almond mixture over the meringue crust.  Warm the blueberry jam in the microwave until slightly thinned.  Drizzle it over the almond butter, and lightly spread with the back of a spoon.  Sprinkle fresh blueberries on top and cover with the chocolate curls.  Cut into wedges and serve.

   
     I have very little experience with meringues, and I was thankful that I started the crust for the dessert pizza on Wednesday.  There was quite a bit of prep time.  It seemed like it took forever to get the whites to stiffen into peaks.  Just as I was about to give up on them they started to fluff up.  Once the soft peaks had formed, it needed to bake for an hour, then rest in the oven for an hour.  There would have been no way for me to get that done on Thursday in time for us to eat it before everyone went home.
     The meringue seemed to come out okay, but it was so fragile!  The recipe suggested taking it out of the pan and putting it on a platter before adding the remaining ingredients, but when I started to lift it out of the pan, it started cracking, and I was afraid it would shatter.  I decided it was staying in the pan.

     My parents had made a rare appearance, so I decided to put my mother to work grating the chocolate.  I think she enjoyed it... She was smiling, after all.

     While she did that, I worked on the rest of the toppings.  I mixed up the almond butter and the milk, and it didn't exactly become "pourable".  I suppose I could have added more milk, but I was afraid of losing the richness of the almond butter.  The trick, then, was to get the almond mixture onto the meringue without crushing it.

     I did what I could one dollop at a time and gently spread it over the fragile, fragile crust.  There was a little cracking, and I'm sure more of the meringue broke than I could see, but I kept on going.  It was going to be what it was going to be, and I wasn't stopping now.

     The blueberry preserves did become more liquid-like in the microwave for a few seconds, and I was mostly able to just pour it like a sauce over the almond butter.

   

The rest of the assembly was, well, as easy as pie!  I threw on the blueberries, scattered mom's grated chocolate, and viola!  We had a dessert.



     It was gorgeous in the pan, but as I had suspected, the crust all but shattered.  When we served it up, it was more like a glob of dessert than a piece or a slice...  The taste was great, though.  It was almost like a ramped up peanut butter cup.  The almond and the chocolate would have been great by itself, but the blueberry added in gave it pop and an extra jump of sweetness.