BRIOCHE SWEET PIZZA

Simple, rustic and delicious, this is a kind of sweet pizza whose base is smeared with a fifty-fifty ratio of crème pâtissière and fresh ricotta, then topped with whatever fresh fruit is in season — raspberries and blackberries as you see here, or sliced fresh peaches in the photo overleaf, or pears in winte… it’s all about what’s available.

Like all the brioche recipes in this chapter, this one has an irresistible aroma when baked.

Serves 6

1 quantity Brioche or Sugar brioche dough, rested overnight

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) Crème pâtissière

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) ricotta cheese

250 g (9 oz) fresh raspberries

125 g (4½ oz) fresh blackberries

juice of ½ lemon

50 g (1¾ oz) caster (superfine) sugar

Put the rested dough on a clean work surface dusted with flour. Roll out to a circle 20 cm (8 inches) in diameter and about 1.5 cm (⁵/₈ inch) thick. Don’t worry too much about the shape, but the thickness should be even.

Leave on a tray in a damp, warm place for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Place a pizza stone or a baking tray in the oven to heat.

Put the crème pâtissière and ricotta in a bowl and mix to combine.

Spread the ricotta mixture over the dough, leaving a 1 cm (½ inch) border around the edge. Arrange the berries over the top.

Transfer to the hot pizza stone and bake for 30 minutes; if using a baking tray, bake for 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven, drizzle with the lemon juice and sprinkle with the sugar.

Enjoy warm, straightaway.

NOTE

You can try a few smaller options by rolling out 10 cm (4 inch) dough discs to a 1.5 cm (⁵/₈ inch) thickness; there’s no need to form perfect circles, as the idea is to keep them quite rustic. Spread the ricotta mixture over the discs, leaving a 1 cm (½ inch) border, and top each with 6–8 fresh raspberries and 3–4 fresh blackberries, or other fruit of your choice. Bake for 15–20 minutes at 160°C (315°F), until golden brown.