A pissaladière is a provençal tart that pairs caramelised onions with black olives and anchovies. In Anna Higham‘s recipe, the ingredients are wrapped in a rich brioche to make beautiful savoury scrolls that are so full of flavour. Anna Higham is a Scottish pastry chef, baker and writer and is soon to open Quince Bakery in Islington, after a career in London’s top kitchens. Her debut cookbook The Last Bite is a love letter to seasonal desserts and baking.
Anna says “I plan on taking these scrolls on many a picnic. Take your time cooking the onions; we want to coax out all that wonderful sweetness. Treat the long cook as a meditation on the beauty of the simplest ingredient.”
If you love a pissaladière, try Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s version that’s heart enough to enjoy in winter too.
Ingredients
- 100g unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to grease
- 1 bay leaf
- 700g mixed onions (a combination of banana shallots and red onions is my favourite), finely sliced
- 100g black pitted olives
- 100g jar anchovies, drained but reserving the oil
- ½ quantity brioche dough
- Plain flour to dust
Method
- Melt 75g of the butter in a heavy-based pan over a low-medium heat, then add the olive oil and bay leaf. Add the onions along with a generous pinch of salt, a couple of grinds of black pepper and 2 tbsp water. Mix well, then cover with a tight-fitting lid. Cook for 30 minutes or until the onions are completely soft and melting.
- Remove the lid and continue cooking the onions for another 30-45 minutes. They should start to brown a little and any liquid should evaporate away. You want a thick sticky mass of onions. Roughly chop the olives and anchovies and stir gently into the onions. Taste to check the seasoning; the olives and anchovies will provide plenty of salty punch so go gently with the salt. Allow the mix to cool completely.
- Lightly oil a large roasting tin and line with baking paper. Turn out your brioche dough onto a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll it into a rectangle about 25cm x 36cm. Spread the onion mixture out evenly over the surface of the dough. Roll the dough up, starting at a long edge, like a swiss roll. Cut the long roll into 12 equal pieces and lay them flat (cut-side down) in the lined tin, spaced evenly. Loosely cover and leave somewhere warm to rise for 1 hour.
- After an hour, heat the oven to 220°C fan/gas 9. Bake the scrolls for 20-25 minutes until golden. Meanwhile, combine the oil from the drained anchovies with the remaining butter in a small pan and melt together. As soon as the buns come out of the oven, brush them liberally with the anchovy butter. Allow to cool slightly, then serve warm.
Nutrition
- 227kcals Calories
- 13g (7.8g saturated) Fat
- 5.5g Protein
- 20g (4.5g sugars) Carbs
- 1.9g Fibre
- 1g Salt
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