26May
Pork and sage hand pies
These pies have everything that you need in your hand (and mouth): pork, sage, mustard and Parmesan.
Tag: pastry
11May
Sweet potato and feta galette
A savoury galette with foolproof crumbly, buttery pastry. This is my first ever attempt at making a galette. I didn’t even know what it was until someone challenged me to do it. Sure, once I googled it I realised I had seen it before – quite a popular little tart – and how had I never tried it before? The internet is choc-a-block full of different galettes, but mainly sweet ones, which look amazing with a good dollopo of ice cream in the middle. But true to my stubborn streak I decided to try not only a savoury galette but the less travelled road of a square shaped one too. In the process of testing this recipe I got sick of measuring grams for my shortcrust pastry and decided to work on a ratio as a quick go to whether serving two people or six. I am very proud to annouce it is: 1 liquid : 2 fat : 4 flour *taps self on the back obnoxiously* Sweet potato and feta galette (serves 2) For the pastry: 60g cold butter 120g plain flour 30ml cold water 1 tsp salt 1. In a bowl rub butter and flour together with your
10Feb
Mini raspberry choux buns
My husband and I don’t celebrate Valentines Day. Last year it fell on a weekday and I went to the gym after work whilst he watched a documentary. Romance for me is not about big gestures, heart shaped chocolate boxes or champagne filled dinners. These days my husband’s gift to me is cleaning the bathroom, doing the dishes and taking the dog for a walk when it is raining. Those are the little love acts that fills my heart, that makes me think I married a man that makes me want to be a better, kinder person. He has been suffering recently as I am on a diet and the only treat around the house is 85% dark chocolate so I thought of his thankful face whilst making these mini choux. It has been a long time since I have made choux pastry and I was really nervous to make it again, but these choux buns, also known as profiteroles, turned out so great I broke my diet big time! Mini raspberry choux buns (makes 15-20) For the raspberry cream: 120g raspberries Juice of 1 lemon 180g caster sugar 3 egg yolks 2 tbsp cornflour 1 1/2 tbsp butter 100ml
17Nov
Black Forest frangipane tarts
Pie making is not my forte and after watching endless Buzzfeed pie making videos I started to really worry about my skills, especially as me and Kelly decided to host an Instagram pie party. I have been testing different types of shortcrust pastry recipes for a while but my nutty versions were huge fails. I also made peace with my “rustic” crust style (or rough around the edges as I call it sometimes) but instead of getting so hung up on the look of the pie edge I moved on to the most important bit: filling and its endless possibilities! Frangipane was one of the first things I ever baked, and have baked quite a few times over the years with a variety of fillings. I have never actually made the traditional frangipane recipe, the addition of sweet jam has always been too sweet for me. Thinking about the warmth darkness of a black forest gateau I wanted to bring the flavours of cocoa and dark cherries to this tart. I soaked the cherries in Port and orange juice, which initially was a haphazardly addition as I didn’t have any kirsch and it turned out sooooo good. Best to leave it to
09Dec
Black grape and walnut mince pies
I have fallen in love with black grapes recently. It happened by accident, I decided to buy them after being tired of the same apples/bananas/satsumas routine we have here every weekend. They are not only a great snack for sweet-tooths like me but I have also been adding them to a lot of different foods, from crumbles to granola. So why not add them to my most detested christmas treat? Yes I hate mince pies. And it is tough being a mince pie hater here as it is a huge part of English christmas. They are literally everywhere, people are giving it to you as gifts, bringing them to work as a tea time snack…And you can get the really basic ones to the really fancy ones from high end shops, but it’s just never gone down well with me. It’s always just tasted like raisins, covered in sugar, wrapped in pastry. But this year I decided to tackle them my way. My recipe holds back on the dried fruits and sugar and, most importantly, there is no suet in sight! It takes a little patience to get the the mincemeat and the pastry ready, but you can start preparing
14Oct
Blackberry mille-feuille
My other half and I love going for long walks comes rain or shine. Mid summer I spotted loads of bramble heaped with blackberries. That in essence was not surprising to me, bramble bushes are 10 a penny around here, you even find them by the roundabout near my parents’ house, but I have always found that the “city” berries did not taste as good as the ones you buy in the supermarket, which is what I often resort to, reluctanlty paying £2 per 150g. But as our walks go deep in the New Forest and with all the sun that we had this year they were here early. So after a walk armed with an empty sandwich tub I started to pick them and in 5 minutes I had about 100g. I was never going back to the supermarket. How can they charge so much for something that is widely found for free in the British Isles? We got greedy, we soon realized that the really juicy ones were right at the back of the bushes. And that was when I realized why they charge so much for them: thorns. And not just one type of thorn. Big ones and then little needle pin thin ones barely
