And we are back in Denmark. Back to a cool and very comfortable climate, a clean and familiar bed, my bike, all of our friends and my own kitchen and cooking, hurrah! It has been awesome not to cook for an entire month and I have enjoyed every single meal but now it is time to get cooking and creative again!
One thing I have missed a lot is eating whole grains. Moist and nutty favoured bread, rye bread, speltotto, nordic crisp bread and oat pancakes – just to mention a few things ;) The asian kitchen rocks – but when it comes to whole and fibre rich grains they are about a decade or two behind of us!
Before we left I did a few recipes for the guardian – and one of them was this olive bun bread. It is a lovely bread for any occasion, and you can vary it in a thousand ways. I have already made two sweet versions of this bread here and here, but this savoury bread is absolutely perfect for a bbq dinner or a summer tapas night in the garden. I have filled it with a homemade olive tapenade but next time I will try to use a homemade garlic oil or maybe a chilli tomato sauce. You could also try to fill it with a vegetarian nut paste or with chicken and spinach, which would be perfect for a picnic or in the lunchbox.
The online magazine Ets El Que Menges has been doing a Europe Blogging project ‘Bonissim Europa’ where to of their journalist; Pau and Clara have been visiting bloggers all around Europe. I was lucky to spend a few days with them, plus I am going to visit them in Barcelona during autumn/winter to experience their city and host a cooking/nutrition class- more information will follow. But so far they have made a very beautiful blog post about their visit in Århus – see the blogpost here!
Rolled pizza buns w. olive tapenade & rosemary – served with chunky tomato salad
Pizza buns are an easy to-go lunch. The kids love them and they are super easy to make. These ones go perfect with a tomato salad or on the side of a barbecue dinner. Homemade olive tapenade makes a great filling and the whole grain crust add a healthy twist to the recipe.
Pizza dough
175 ml lukewarm whole milk
25 g active yeast
250-300 g durum flour
250 g whole wheat flour (I prefer Kamut flour)
1 tsp sea salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 egg
1 (tsp honey)
1/2 medium zucchini (150 g) finely grated
Filling & olive tapenade
225 g back olives (preferable kalamata olives)
40 g olive oil
4-6 cloves of garlic
Freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp capers
To brush
1/2 Egg
Chopped rosemary – fresh or dried
Directions
1. In a bowl add yeast in lukewarm milk and let the yeast dissolve. The add egg, oil, honey, salt, zucchini and mix together. Add all of the whole wheat flour and mix it into the rest. Now add a little durum flour at the time until you reach a perfect elastic dough. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes. Place it back in the bowl, cover it with a cloth and let it sit for 1-1 ½ hour, preferable a warm place.
2. Make the olive tapenade while the dough is resting. Add all of the ingredients to a blender and pulse until a dark tapenade starts forming. You do not want to make a puree, so make sure to only pulse and stop as soon as it comes together. Season to taste
3. On a big flour covered surface, role out the dough into a rectangular shape about 1 cm thick. Spread all of olive tapenade onto the dough, in an even layer.
4. Starting at long side, tightly roll up the dough. Use a knife to cut it out into 13-15 pieces (3-4 cm thickness).
5. Line your baking pan with parchment paper and place all of the buns together, it is okay that they almost touch each other. Heat the oven to 375 F°/175 C°. In the mean while let the buns rise for 30 min.
6. Brush the buns with a beaten egg and drizzle with some chopped rosemary. Bake the buns in the oven for 15-17 min until golden.
This recipe was originally developed for The Guardian and was first printed in The Guardian/life and style – 10 best pizza recipes.