Baked Figs with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto


What are you going to do if one day you receive the most beautiful figs you’ve ever seen? You admire them for about half an hour, you take some photos, you dress them up (meaning you stuff them with goat cheese and you wrap them in prosciutto) and you indulge.

I’ve always loved sweet and salty dishes, and this recipe is the quintessence of this combination. The sweetness of the figs goes wonderfully with the saltiness of the prosciutto and the tartness of the goat cheeses quiets down the richness of the fruit. The result is a mouthwatering sweet and salty appetizer, simple yet elegant, rich yet fresh.

Ingredients (for 4 servings):

  • 4 large figs
  • 40g goat cheese
  • 2 slices of prosciutto
  • 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar reduction


Method:

  1. Preheat the oven at 180°C / 350°F (gas mark 4).
  2. Wash the figs and pat them dry. Cut off their stem and cut an X in the top of each fig, 1/3 way through.
  3. Crumble the goat cheese and stuff each cavity with about 1 tsp of cheese.
  4. Halve the prosciutto lengthwise and wrap each fig with half a slice of prosciutto.
  5. Secure the prosciutto with a toothpick.
  6. Place the stuffed figs in a parchment paper-lined tray and bake them in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
  7. Leave them to cool down for 10 minutes before serving. Remove the skewer. Drizzle them with about 1 tsp of balsamic vinegar reduction just before serving.

Dutch Baby with Strawberries and Mascarpone Cheese

Puffed Dutch BabySlice

Every time I crave pancakes and I’m not in the mood for staring at them while they cook, I bake a Dutch Baby. Dutch Baby is a huge and puffy German pancake served generally for breakfast. The batter made from eggs, milk, flour and sugar is baked in a buttered cast iron skillet and after baking, this lovely pancake is served with butter, lemon juice and powdered sugar. This is certainly the easiest dessert I’ve ever made. You blend a few ingredients and you pour the batter in a skillet. It’s that simple!

Being an egg-based baked dessert you’d certainly expect a fluffy, soufflé-like final product. Trust me, the volume and the shape of this pancake is quite stunning. Regarding the fact that you pour about 2 cups of batter in a hot skillet, you’d expect to get an adorable little pancake and not a baby hippo. Let me tell you something, this is a dramatic dessert with a unique kind of beauty. Continue reading Dutch Baby with Strawberries and Mascarpone Cheese