Dear friends of the Light and Tasty column, welcome back. Today I have for you a recipe I hadn’t planned, a mellow dough with oily seeds that I tried for the first time a few days ago and then repeated three times in a row. To prove how participating in this Monday’s appointment is often a source of inspiration for me. 🙂 Or how, from another perspective… sometimes it ‘forces’ me to put aside concerns, melancholy, discouragements, that the current sad historical moment is bringing into our homes and us (certainly to me).
This is how it went: I haven’t been in the mood for cooking lately, I confess. I am very busy with work and with our difficult daily life due to having an Alzheimer patient at home, but above all, I am a bit down, a little for everything. I had decided to skip today’s appointment. Today’s ingredient to transform into a recipe is “oily seeds,” a perfect topic for me because I always have them at home, because I use them regularly, but unfortunately, I didn’t have any recipes already photographed, and I didn’t have time, or the mindset, to create, photograph, and write a new recipe.
Then it happened that one afternoon I had problems with my computer and had to pause a job. While I was doing antivirus, backup, and various checks, I decided to anticipate something for dinner, and I thought of preparing a pepper puff pastry taking inspiration from the red pepper galette recipe, which Milena had presented when we had the red ingredient (I’m sure all you Light and Tasty friends remember it well, in case the recipe is here).
Very successful, liked by everyone a lot, made with a packaged puff pastry that I had in the fridge for a while and it was time to use.
As happens every time I buy puff pastry, rarely to be honest, I always tell myself that I have to stop buying it because, although much appreciated by the children, for me it is always too greasy and the grease it leaves on my hands annoys me every time. But this time what sparked the idea was the seed puff pastry that Milena had used for her recipe, a dough I have never bought, because I never noticed it was on sale!
Well… then… then maybe I’ll make it!! 😃
Obviously not the puff pastry, which is still missing from my repertoire of homemade recipes, but I decided on the mellow dough, which since I learned how to make it I promised myself to try making with the addition of vinegar, and finally, now the opportunity has arrived!
The result was that I made it three times: for the pepper galette (yellow) directly inspired by Milena, and for a sweet recipe repeated twice (which I will not name for now because I keep it in store for next Monday, it fits perfectly with next week’s topic 😉).
In short, today participating in the column with this basic recipe that we liked both with sweet and savory, was a must!
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- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 3.5 tbsp seed oil (I used sunflower, but corn oil is also fine)
- 0.55 cups water (at room temperature)
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 1 tsp flax seeds
Tools
- Bowl
- Work surface
- Rolling pin
Procedure
Note: I used flax seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds. I also had pumpkin seeds at home but they are too large for this use, the size of the sunflower seeds is already at the limit, because too large seeds do not allow you to roll the dough too thin without breaking. I didn’t have chia seeds otherwise I would have used them, so I recommend them.
Pour the flour into a bowl, or on the work surface in a fountain shape.
Combine the oil and vinegar.
Add the water little by little.
👉 The total amount of water depends on the type of flour used. In the three times I made this mellow dough with seeds, I never used the same amount: this time I used 0.55 cups but the two previous times 0.6 cups and 0.61 cups, having used a different brand of flour each time. Therefore, I repeat the advice to add the water little by little and not all at once.
Mix briefly with a spoon, then add the seeds.
Even for the amount of seeds, there is no precise rule, you can go by feel. I tried sesame both toasted and not, in the final result it doesn’t make much difference.
Proceed by kneading quickly until you obtain an elastic dough. It will be ready in a few minutes.
Before using the dough, a rest of about half an hour is recommended because it makes the dough more elastic. At room temperature, wrapped in plastic wrap or covered with a non-contact container.
But you can use it immediately as well, it is a dough that works very well, does not stick, is not greasy, and rolls out well with the rolling pin.
I just added this versatile recipe to my collection of basic recipes. A useful collection that I recommend consulting if you are looking for an idea for your next meal! 😊
I look forward to seeing you at the next appointment with Light and Tasty, where I will show you the first of the recipes I made with this excellent mellow dough with seeds.
In the meantime, enjoy the recipes of my colleagues! Who knows what oily seeds they used… we just have to find out! 🙂
Carla: Savory pie with carrots, ricotta and seeds
Daniela: Savory granola
Elena: Quinoa salad with zucchini, broad beans, and cashews
Flavia: Cauliflower salad with mixed seeds
Franca: Russello bread with 4 seeds
Milena: Pumpkin cutlets with seeds and buffalo ricotta
Serena: DIY Gomasio
Salt-free Tips
It is not necessary to add salt to the mellow dough because the absence of salt enhances its elasticity. 😉
If you are interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
Reduce salt gradually, the palate needs to get used to it slowly and should not notice the progressive reduction.
Use spices. Chili pepper, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
Use aromatic herbs. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
Use seeds. Sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
Use spicy vegetables or fruit. Garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
Use my salt-free vegetable granule
Prefer fresh foods.
Avoid cooking in water, prefer cooking methods that do not disperse flavors (grill, foil, steam, microwave)
Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
Indulge in breaking the rule sometimes. It’s good for morale and helps to persevere.
If you do not want, or cannot, give up salt:
You can still try my recipes by salting according to your habits.
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