Okay, technically the pizza roll was really a Southern Italian specialty called the n’figgiulata or as my friend and former coworker Maria affectionately called “n’figgy”–a Vivande Porta Via catering menu staple. In trying to describe what the n’figg was to bake sale customers, I invariably resorted to calling it a big pinwheel pizza roll stuffed with cheese, sausage, spinach/kale, onion, peppers, olives, and capers–like a calzone only cooler. Even though Maria and I probably sold hundreds of n’figgs during both our tenures at Vivande, neither of us had actually eaten the “original” in over a decade so my version was more of an homage, recreated from memory–minus the veal and cauliflower. To make mine more user-friendly for bake sale customers, I offered individual n’figgs, generously-size to feed 2-3 people.

No matter how intriguing a bake sale item may sound, you never know for sure how well it will sell, so in my mind I thought “no biggy, I’ll probably get a dozen n’figg orders, 18 max.” Boy, was I wrong. I racked up 30! This meant I had to make enough pizza dough balls (at 280 grams each) to make 30 n’figgs, no small feat considering I only had a 6 qt. Kitchenaid stand mixer and an 8-cup food processor–necessitating multiple batches of dough. How the heck was I going to accomplish this? You know that saying “necessity is the mother of invention?” Well, I figured out after the first batch of dough, which I made completely in the stand mixer, that if I started a large batch in the mixer, then divided it up into manageable thirds, I could finish kneading the dough quickly in the food processor, cutting down the prep time by 60%.

Once I had the dough balls scaled and shaped, all I had to do was keep them refrigerated and form the n’figgs as I needed them–assembling 6 at a time.

Would I have preferred to have formed the n’figgs way in advance and kept them in the freezer? You bet ya! But I had more important items in need of precious freezer space–among other things, all the pate brisee pastry rounds for the pot pies, not to mention 60 pop tarts. Besides, when bake time is an issue, spending an additional 30 mins. to bake the n’figgs from a frozen state seemed a poor use of oven space.

What did work surprisingly well was that everything I needed to bake the day of were baked at the same temperature, 400F degrees convection, so each item moved in and out of the oven seamlessly with no breaks in production. I would love to say I totally planned it that way, and maybe in the back of my mind I did. Though to be honest there was a fair amount of serendipity at play as well–pick up times changed, some people were early, others ran late. The best course of action was to prep as many things ahead as I could.

Two of the most popular items were also two of the easiest to assemble ahead–Spiced Apple Salted Caramel Pop Tart and Chicken Pot Pie–both showcasing a flaky, buttery pastry crust made with pate brisee . While the n’figg was a bit of a wild card, I knew pop tarts and pot pies would be very popular. The question was how much pate brisee would I have to make? The answer was 4 large batches. I’d made 2 1/2 batches for 60 Taiwanese Spicy Beef Hand Pies last time so I employed the same method of processing the dry ingredients with cold butter chunks in batches, mixing in the wet ingredients by hand. The advantage of using pate brisee is that, handled properly, you can re-roll the dough a few times without negatively impacting the texture of the baked pastry, resulting in a higher yield.

• 

• 

Gauging how much filling to make is always a tricky task. This time I overshot on diced roast chicken for the pot pies by about 2 quarts, though I made exactly the right amount of all the other components, such as the sautéed vegetables, par-boiled diced potatoes, and chicken cream sauce.

• 

• 

• 

To ensure well-seasoned chicken, I dry-brined boneless, skinless chicken breast and thighs for about a day before oven-roasting them until just done, then cut the meat up into small chunks and froze them along with the roasting juices until I was ready to assemble the filing. Similarly, I sautéed the carrots, onions, leeks, celery and garlic in butter and olive oil until just tender ahead of time and froze them. Pouring hot chicken cream sauce over the partially frozen components, frozen peas, and fresh chopped herbs brought the completed filling down to the perfect temperature when it came time to assemble the pot pies.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

To make quick work of assembling 60 pop tarts, the trick was to prep all the components in stages. First, I rolled and cut out the pastry squares, layering each piece between parchment and popping the stacks in the freezer days ahead. Second, I sautéed in batches finely diced apples (Pink Lady, Granny Smith, and Fuji), about a dozen in total, in brown butter, sugar, and spices, thickening the juices with a little cornstarch and lemon juice, then chilled the apple filling overnight. I also made the salted caramel paste a days ahead and kept it at room temperature so that it would be just the right spoonable consistency. On assembly day, I pulled the pastry stacks to thaw for a few hours in the fridge. Once filled the pop tarts went back into the freezer until I was ready to bake them off.

• 

• 

• 

For those those of you who are thinking this is a WHOLE LOTTA WORK, I would agree…yes it is. But I’m one of those strange kitchen creatures who, despite exhaustion, gets a thrill successfully orchestrating multi-level production. I love the hum the mixer, the beep of the timer, and the blast of heat from opening an oven door. No, not everything always goes according to plan…and it doesn’t have to. Sometimes it’s the unexpected things that happen which present opportunities to come up with a new method of doing things or to try out a new idea. If I hadn’t sold 30 n’figgs, for example, I wouldn’t have had to come up with a different way of quickly making big batches of pizza dough.

So I say bring on more bake sales and more baking challenges!

Given the copious quantities of pate brisee, apple filling, salted caramel, chicken pot pie filling I made for the bake sale, I’ve had to scale down the recipes for “normal” portions (6-8 servings). As for the n’figg, click on the link for the recipe I used in a previous post. The only difference is the version I made for the bake sale contained sautéed red bell peppers and sliced dry salami instead of the ground turkey.

Pate Brisee Dough (adapted from the Flour cookbook)

• 3 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 T. sugar
• 1 t. sea salt
• 1 lb. unsalted butter, cut into 1/2″ pieces and chilled
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/3 c. whole milk
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract (optional)

1. Combine the dry ingredients in food processor, pulsing a few times blend. 
2. Add the butter pieces and pulse at 2-3 second intervals until the butter has been broken down into the size of popcorn kernels. 
3. Whisk together the wet ingredients then add it to the dry mixture. 
4. Continue pulsing until dough comes together in large clumps, then dump the entire mass onto a sheet of plastic wrap and shape it into a flat disk by folding the plastic wrap up over the dough and pushing down on it with the palm of your hands. 
5. Chill the dough for at least an hour before using.  To form the pop tarts, cut the dough in half and roll it out to 1/8″ thick rectangle. 
6. Cut the dough into 3″x 3.5″ pieces for pop tarts or 6″ rounds to top pot pies.

Spiced Apple Pop Tarts

Yield: enough for 8-10

• 1 small Granny Smith apple
• 1 small Pink Lady apple
• 1 small Fuji or Garden Delicious apple
• 2 T. unsalted butter
• pinch of sea salt
• 3 T. sugar
• 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 2 t. lemon juice
• 1 t. cornstarch
• 1 t. lemon zest
• 1/2 t. vanilla extract
• 1 T. apple brandy (optional)

1. Peel and core apples, then cut into 1/4″ dice.
2. Place the butter in sauté pan on medium heat. Cook to nutty golden brown then add the apples.
3. Sauté the apples for about a minute, then add the sugar, salt, and spices and continue cooking until apples are just barely tender.
4. Dissolve the cornstarch in lemon juice, then add to the apples along with zest, vanilla and brandy. Cook until juices have thickened.
5. Transfer the apple filling to a shallow dish to cool completely.
6. Chill thoroughly before using.

Salted Caramel Paste

Yield: about 1 cup

• 1 c. sugar
• 2 T. water
• 1 t. lemon juice
• 2 T. unsalted butter
• 1/3 c. heavy cream
• 1 t. sea salt
• 1 t. vanilla extract

1. Combine sugar, water, and lemon juice in medium sauce pan. Stir to dissolve sugar. Bring mixture to a boil and cook on medium heat to rich amber color.
2. Remove pan from heat and carefully whisk in butter, then cream and salt.
3. Return pan to heat and simmer for another minute, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.
4. Transfer caramel into a heat proof container (e.g. mason jar). Cool completely before use.

To Assemble Pop Tart:

1. Place a rounded teaspoon of caramel paste on a square of pate brisee dough, then top with a heaping tablespoon of apple filling..
2. Brush egg wash along 1/4″ border from the edge, then place another square of dough on top. Press to completely seal the edges, then use a fork dipped in flour to create a decorative border on all sides.
3. Brush the surface with egg wash, pierce the several small holes to vent steam, then sprinkle with coarse sugar.
4. Chill pop tarts in freezer while oven preheats.
5. Bake at 400F degrees for about 20-25 mins. or until golden brown.

If you don’t feel like dry-brining and roasting off chicken breasts and thighs to make the filling, you can easily substitute meat from a whole rotisserie chicken.

Chicken Pot Pie

Yield: 8-10 pot pies

• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 2 large boneless, skinless chicken thigh
• 1 t. garlic powder
• 1/2 t. sea salt
• 1/2 t. ground black pepper
• 1 t. smoked paprika
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 spring rosemary
• 1/2 t. onion salt
• 2 medium carrots, peeled & diced
• 3 celery stalks, diced
• 1 leek (white part only), thinly sliced
• 1 small yellow onion, peeled & chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 4 T. olive oil, divided
• 6 T. unsalted butter, divided
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 2 c. whole milk
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 2 T. chicken essence (e.g. Better than Bouillon)
• 2 T. dry vermouth
• 2 T. chopped parsley
• 1 T. chopped sage
• 1 T chopped thyme
• 2/3 c. frozen peas
• 1 medium gold potato, peeled, diced and par-cooked

1. Combine the first 9 ingredients in a shallow dish or ziploc bag. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight. Let the chicken sit out at room temperature for about 30 mins.
2. Place the brined chicken on a lined sheet pan and drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil, then roast in a 400F degree oven for about 30-35 mins. or until chicken is just done. Cool chicken to room temperature before cutting into 1/2′ chunks.
3. Sauté the carrots and celery in a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil until just tender, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper, then transfer into a bowl.
4. Sauté the onion, leek, and garlic with a tablespoon of olive oil until translucent, then transfer to the bowl with carrots and celery. to cool.
5. In a heavy bottom pot, melt the remaining butter, then whisk in the flour. Continue cooking and whisking for another 2-3 mins. on medium low heat, then gradually whisk in the milk, followed by the nutmeg and chicken essence.
6. Whisking constantly to prevent scorching, bring the mixture to a simmer and continue cooking for another 2-3 mins. Whisk in the vermouth and cook for another minute. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Remove pot from the heat.
7. In a large bowl, combine the chicken, sautéed vegetables, chopped fresh herbs, frozen peas, and potatoes. Thoroughly coat the mixture with the chicken cream sauce.
8. Scoop filling into individual pie tins (5″) or overproof dishes and top with pastry rounds. Press the dough against the edges and crimp to seal in the filling.
9. Brush the surface with egg wash and score with a paring knife to create vent holes.
10. Bake the pot pies at 400F degrees for 35-40 mins.. or until golden brown and bubbling.