Professionally trained pastry chef, Alison Roman is someone who wipes floury hands on her pants; who can’t help slice a pie before it has cooled “just to taste it” and who avoids anything she has to plug in. Unlike most pastry chefs, she rejects the sentiment baking should be precise and tidy.
The Brooklyn-based cookbook author describes her baking as “a litte wild-looking and decidedly unkempt.” She says, “I admit that I didn’t so much choose this aesthetic as this aesthetic chose me.”
In her new book Sweet Enough, Roman implores us to strive for the “animalistically irresistable, not aethetically pristine”. She adds, “Perfection is boring, and these recipes – baked longer than you think so the edges caramelise and stay crunchy; seasoned with enough salt to taste the butter – well, damn, if they aren’t delicious.”
Creamy cauliflower galette
“Cauliflower is an ideal candidate for a savoury galette,” says Alison Roman. “It’s low in moisture, roasting to an evenly golden brown in sync with the crunchy, buttery crust. It never becomes soggy, is great at room temperature, and can handle a healthy amount of cheese without disappearing into the background.”
350 gm cauliflower, sliced lengthways through the core into slabs
