2009-03-14

Thyme for Pi

Happy Pi(e) Day! The creative tarts at You Want Pies With That? issued a challenge for March 14th with the theme "Herbs and Spices" chosen by previous winner Elizabeth of Red KitchenAid. [Correction: Elizabeth of Cake or Death? Sorry!] I've been itching to try to make a crust with olive oil instead of with substitutes for butter and lard, so this seemed a perfect opportunity to bake a savory pastry filled with roasted vegetables. Never being one to let common sense ruin a good idea, I also decided it was time to try my hand at making a galette.
The idea was good, the execution, well... let's just say I learned a lot. I'm definitely going to want to play with the proportions of flour, olive oil, and water in the dough. Next time, I'll probably lightly steam or roast the veggies before using as a filling, so that they finish baking at the same time as the crust. Breaking out the soy milk to wash the crust and help it brown will probably improve the visual appeal, too. I also made the dubious decision to bake my free form wonder on a pizza stone. Getting it on was tough, removing it in one piece was impossible.
Since the pizza stone wasn't going anywhere, I placed my thyme plant behind the galette on my range top and tried to get a picture as my husband wandered into the kitchen.

"What's that?" he asked. "A bunch of vegetables wrapped in dough?"

"It's Roasted Vegetables with Fresh Thyme Galette in a Garlic and Rosemary Olive Oil Crust for Pi(e) Day," I replied, thinking I should have worked the word "rustic" in there somewhere.

"It sounds much nicer when you say it," he said diplomatically.
Maybe I've got a future in marketing if this cooking thing doesn't work out.

9 comments:

suz said...

Well it certainly looks very delicious even if it was a bit of a pain in the, you know. I always like an experiment and it does sound quite tasty!

The Food Librarian said...

I love roasted veggies! This looks wonderful (whatever name you give it!) Hope you had a great Pi Day!

Sara said...

Neat experiment--an olive oil-based crust sounds like a really cool idea! The roasted veggies and thyme sound yummy!

Nichicakes said...

It looks tasty sorry it got stuck on the pizza stone!

Anonymous said...

I think your "bunch of vegetables wrapped in dough" looks fantastic. I will be serving mine in this way soon.

Heather S-G said...

This is gorgeous...I definitely want to try this :)

Jacque said...

Oooh, that's a great idea! I'll bet veg's roasted on the grill would be nice too.

It looks so healthy.

NKP said...

The roasted veggie rustic gallette sounds wonderful! I would like to have some for breakfast.

Kate said...

This looks really yummy. I love all of the roasted veggies!