I recently spent a lovely week touring Dorset. In Lyme Regis we chanced upon the splendid Town Mill Bakery where my eye fell immediately on their ‘Savoury Danish’. And they tasted as good as they looked! This is my interpretation. Be sure to drop by the Bakery if you happen to be in Lyme Regis yourself.
Enough to serve 6, but just increase quantities x 2, x 3, x 4 for larger numbers. Great for lunch or picnics, and when scaled up, for large gatherings.
Ingredients – Pastry
- 1 ¾ lbs flour
- 15g fine salt
- 38g fresh yeast or 15g ‘original’ dried yeast (don’t use fast action yeast)
- 100ml olive oil
- ½ litre lukewarm water
Method
If using mixer, put all ingredients together in bowl and mix on medium- to high-speed for 4 minutes until dough is smooth. Place in lightly oiled bowl, cover with Clingfilm and allow to prove for 1 hour. (The bread mix is a type of Focaccia). While it is proving, prepare the filling.
Preparation
Preheat oven to 180ᵒC
Ingredients – Filling
- ½ butternut squash or similar – peeled and diced – about the size of a sugar cube
- 2 red peppers – deseeded and thinly sliced
- 2 red onions, thinly sliced
- Packet wild rocket
- 250g packet of baby spinach
- 100g walnuts, chopped, but not too finely
- 200g feta cheese – crumbled
- 1 jar of pre-prepared green pesto
- Salt & pepper to taste
Method
Put diced squash onto an oven tray. Sprinkle with a light olive oil. Mix with hands to coat and bake in hot oven for 12 minutes. The cubes should still be slightly firm and not mushy. Do the same with the sliced peppers and onions both of which can be mixed and on the same tray. Bake at the same time as the squash. Set both trays aside to cool.
Degas dough and roll out to the rectangular size of your tray. I use a tray that measures 41cm x 30cm/16” x 12”. Lightly oil the tray. When you have the desired rectangle, brush all of the pesto across the dough surface. Now sprinkle the cooled vegetables across the pesto surface, next sprinkle the chopped walnuts over the vegetables. Crumble the feta over the lot, and finally spread the rocket and spinach on top of filling.
Starting with the long side, roll up the dough and filling fairly tightly like a Swiss roll. End with the seam side underneath. Divide the roll into 6 slices. Using a large palette knife or fish-slice, transfer each slice to the oiled tray and lay them next to each other. As the dough reproves, it will spread and join up with its neighbour. The look is that of a large Chelsea bun.
Let stand for 30 minutes. Bake in pre-heated oven for 18-20 minutes. Remove and immediately brush with olive oil. Use a fish-slice to transfer onto plates. Serve with a mixed salad.
Brendan, I really want to try this and the Soda Bread .. I have a huge favor. Would it be possible to do the recipes using American weights and measures? Since I came here I have adapted to Cups, Tbsp and Tsp and finally Pinch!!!I What can I use instead of “Rocket” I have eaten this wonderful Vegetable before when home on a visit but never have been able to find it in Oklahoma!!! Thanks so much for this wonderful website and I cannot wait to get started.
In America, Rocket = Arugula. Available anywhere (sort of)
Hi Brendan- the savoury danish sounds really lovely. Is the weight of yeast fresh or fast action? Thanks.
Hi Emma. the 38g is of fresh yeast. Or use dried instead but reduce weight to 15g. Do not use fast-acting yeast as the dough will be too billowy. Fast-acting yeast is fine for some recipes but it has accelerants added to it. for breads where you want more complex flavours to develop, it is best to use either fresh, or ‘original’ dry yeast, which are slower acting. but you raise a good point. I will amend the Danish recipe to point out that it is fresh yeast quoted. To use that amount of dried yeast would give you ‘the thing’ from outer space speading over your kitchen!
Good luck
Brendan
Thanks for clarifying- I look forward to trying these
From Lasse, Denmark
Lovely, thanks