Here’s a new variation of an accompaniment for your meat & cheese platters and other appetizers, that isn’t a sliced baguette or flatbreads nor dry and crunchy breadsticks or crackers; here are your new freshly-baked and tender bread bites !
These bread bites visually resemble the different versions of the crunchy and dry miniature Spanish “picos”, but they’re larger in size, crusty on the outside and soft and warm on the inside.
Don’t misunderstand me, I absolutely love those tiny and crunchy, bite-sized Spanish “picos” to accompany charcuterie & cheese platters but I didn’t have the courage to hand-roll and shape 100 little dry and crunchy morsels and since it’s quite cold outside, I wanted something softer and warmer.
Come summer, I’ll be making little “picos”, for cured meats and cheese boards, as well as for dips (no double-dipping possible when they’re that small). I’ll just have to make them smaller and oilier and double bake them to dry them out.
Back to this recipe. It’s basically a dough for a thin crust pizza but using beer instead of water. I also tried the dough with water once and with white wine a second time, but they’re not as good. A touch of cracked mixed peppercorns and a sprinkling of sesame seeds is a nice touch too.
On a personal note, I find that when pairing drinks with various platters, beer or cider or sparkling white wine are much better than red wines, whose tannins often seem to overpower the cheeses, unless it’s a light burgundy wine.
These bread bites are fun to make, even though separating the dough into little balls (slightly smaller than walnuts) and then rolling them between your oiled palms to create oval shapes, then pinching the ends and adding the sesame seeds, does take time, but it’s a question of practice. They’re worth the effort.
And on a more practical side, you can make these bread-bites in advance, store them in airtight bags and then spray them with water and reheat them in a hot oven or a toaster for a few minutes and they’ll be like new !
The winter holidays and guests are almost here, so get ready ! … :)
