Dan Lepard's Spiced Baklava

With just two weeks to go, I had to get my act together and try making baklava.  It's something I've wanted to do for years and it was on my list for the Olympic Food Challenge but because it could have been a recipe from about three of my countries on the list, I kept putting it off until I had no suitable countries left.  I'd gotten as far as buying the filo, but that was it.

So today, having promised my work colleagues at the other office that I'd bring them cake, I figured it was time to get my pastry thang on and put another tick on the list.  And who better to guide me through the minefield of recipes than Dan Lepard?

Partially syruped baklava

The recipe is simplicity in itself.  The only problem I had was with the power of my food processor with it taking nearly ten minutes to process the nuts to a dust.  And a bit of stupidity on my part where I didn't quite pay attention to the instructions for the dark sugar syrup and put all the water into the pan at the start - thus having to try and ladle it all out again without removing the sugar.

Using shop-bought filo is one of those acceptable kitchen shortcuts that even the most capable of bakers will do.  I'd love to see them have a filo-from-scratch challenge on the Great British Bake Off - it would probably make great entertainment.  Most people shy away from making their own filo but the lovely Lauren from the Eighty Bakes blog made her own in an epic version of baklava.  I am in awe of her patience.

The recipe calls for 500ml of syrup which seems massively excessive.  I was in two minds about whether or not to use it all, but knowing Dan's recipes always work pretty well (see the chocolate cake disaster) I ended up using it all.  Having just popped out to check on it as it cools, it seems pretty soggy so I'm hoping it will set once its cold.  This will be one of those posts where I'll have to update with feedback tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.

You can find the recipe here

Updated 12th September @ 12:10

I should have gone with my gut instinct.  500ml of syrup was way too much.  It wasn't so much a soggy bottom as a drowned bottom.  The whole lot ended up in the bin at about 5am this morning.  Saddened is an understatement - especially as the nuts and filo were so expensive.

I'd recommend anyone trying this recipe to add the syrup in stages and review after each addition has had time to soak in.

Olympic Food Challenge: Botswanan Chicken Pie - Botswana

With four competitors in two disciplines at the main London 2012 Olympics, Botswana managed to gain a silver medal in the Men's 800m.  Unfortunately, Botswana had to pull its team from the 2012 Paralympics due to financial irregularities in their Olympic Committee.

Moving swiftly on to the food (sorry for the short post), Botswana has its own unique cuisine, but is also influenced by its neighbouring countries.  Having already made Pap and Chakkalakka (just because I liked the name) when I did Lesotho, and lacking a three-legged iron pot (commonly used for cooking), I plumped for Botswanan Chicken Pie as chicken cooked for a guest shows special hospitality.

Mmmmm....pie....

Sadly I had no guests and I was just cooking for myself.  The appeal in this recipe was that it was for individual pasty-style pies so I could make just one.  I must confess I cheated a little as I was trying to hone my pastry making skills which leave a lot to be desired (see the Apple and Rhubarb Pie and Quiche Lorraine trials) and so I'd a piece of Dan Lepard's Shortcrust Pastry lurking in my fridge instead of the pastry recommended by the recipe.

Whenever I make pastry, it's too short and consequently crumbles everywhere.  As a last resort, I put my faith into Dan.  This is the best pastry ever.  He recommends using half butter and half lard.  I didn't have any lard so went with the 'you can use all butter' caveat and it turned out to be the tastiest, butteriest pastry I have ever had the pleasure to eat.  I expected nothing less and yet again, Short and Sweet delivered.  Miss A even now refers to Short and Sweet as 'Mummy's favourite recipe book' even though I have never uttered these words in her presence.  I'm pleased her two-year-old mind is capable of forming such opinions already.

As for the pie filling - it's a mix of chicken, apple, onion, tomato and currants.  If it wasn't for the OFC, I never would've tried the sweet and savoury thing.  But I was amazed at how much I enjoyed it.  It just worked.  The recipe mentions the filling as being a little dry so I roasted a chicken breast at 190c fan for 17 minutes so it was barely cooked.  I immediately chopped this and popped it into the pan to fry, thus finishing the cooking and stopping it from being too dry in the finished product.

Do try these. My picture is a bit rubbish as I wanted you to see the filling of the pasty and the crisp pastry meant it shattered perfectly, but wasn't very photogenic!

You can find the recipe for the pie here and watch Dan making one of his shortcrust pastry recipes here although I used his basic eggless pastry from Short and Sweet.

Olympic Food Challenge: Halloumi Parcels - Cyprus

What an immense day!  A world record in the means team cycling (although thanks to the torrential rain breaking the Sky box, I missed it).  Gold and silver in the canoe slalom.  Silver for rowing and judo and another gold in the clay pigeon shoot.  Go, Team GB.

As for the challenge, I ski-ed off-piste today and didn't deliver the previously promised dish from Guinea Bissau.  I was seriously not in a mood to eat tea tonight.  So instead, I opted for a 'trip' to Cyprus and some Halloumi Parcels.  A nice, light meal before an evening slaving away in the kitchen, licking cake bowls.  It's a tough life.

So Cyprus.  Thirteen athletes competing in seven disciplines and like El Salvador from last night, still looking for that first medal of any colour.  Rather sensibly, although they've got a cyclist on their team, they've chosen not to compete in the track cycling.  As one of my Twitter buddies said - why does anyone else bother showing up given that we're so awesome?

Divided by the Turkish part and the Greek part, Cyprus is the third most populated island in the Mediterranean.  The cuisine is influenced by both Turkey and Cyprus and this particular dish is reminiscent of the Turkish borek, but using the local delicacy of Halloumi rather than Feta.  The other slight variation is the inclusion of cottage cheese in the mix.  This is also commonly done in several other countries - such as Serbian Cheese Pie (a big version of borek) whereas Turkish borek tend to just stick to feta alone.

I must confess that ever since I went to Turkey fifteen years ago, I've been slightly obsessed with borek and when I was coming up with my recipe list, desperately researched which countries I could get away with making something similar for.  Good girl that I am, I won't be making the Macedonian version in a few days time - but the need for filo is another excuse to make that other Med favourite of Baklava instead.

Simple to make, quick to cook and packed with flavour.  The Halloumi made a nice change to feta and is far less squeaky on the teeth than when you just grill or pan fry it.  I'd make them again if I had some Halloumi and cottage cheese hanging around.  However given that today is the first time I've ever bought cottage cheese, I doubt I'll be making this variation again for a long time.

Because I love borek, I'll be biased and give this one a gold.  You can find the recipe here.

One other thing, I got a shout out on the Foodies 100 Ten at Ten today.  Big up to Ewan Mitchell and the rest of the Olympic Food Challenge Team who need to share in the glory.

Dan Lepard's Apple Turnovers

After yesterday's pastry-fest ready for the sausage rolls, I ended up with a fair bit left over.  Some I froze, but I decided to keep a small portion back to make something else for the picnic.  We're on a long journey today - eight hours of solid driving, provided there are no traffic jams and excluding stops - and so I needed to be prepared.

Having a bagful of apples that also needed either eating or adding to the picnic, I saw an opportunity to make Dan's Apple Turnovers - a recipe that he recommends alongside his All Butter Puff recipe.

No cardboard in sight!

Earlier this week, the husband went out to buy wine and I asked him to bring me back something nice.  He came back with Tesco's Apple Turnovers.  They were stale and had no taste.  What a waste of calories!  So this seemed like a good time to show the husband how an apple turnover should taste.

The apple filling tastes amazing.  I used three apples-worth to make two turnovers (I like them packed with fruit, not air) and had a bit to spare.  The butter, sugar, lemon, vanilla and cinnamon combination is fantastic with Pink Lady apples.  And they keep their shape well without turning into mush like if you use cooking apple.

I have to blog really quickly as the husband is downstairs, huffing and puffing about how to fit everything into the car and if he knew I was writing this, I wouldn't be very popular!

And if he ever asks me to buy shop-bought apple turnovers again, I will hand in my notice as his wife.  Seriously, if you have the time to try the puff recipe, you need to make these.  They really are a treat (I've always hated the apple-pie-filling-stuffed-sugar-topped-cardboard that you get from the supermarket) and it's worth the effort.  Also a great way to use up leftover pastry - make mini ones from pastry scraps.

Right, got to fly before the husband purposely leaves behind my baking tins!

Recipe is here.

Dan Lepard's All Butter Puff Pastry

If we're off on a long journey, it's mandatory that I pack sausage rolls.  Not any old shop-bought things.  Even Morrisons ones won't do in this instance.  I doubt the ones from Downs Bakery would even past muster on this occasion.  They absolutely must be homemade ones.  Made using JusRol regular puff pastry and sausage meat from Les Smith's butcher in my childhood village.

They're  disappearing like hotcakes

I've tried subsitutions before - such as making them with The Black Farmer Sausages when I've not had time to go home before the trip.  Despite those being the sausages of choice for every other sausage-related meal, they make an inferior sausage roll filling according to the husband.  Likewise, I once tried JusRol All Butter Puff Pastry.  There was too much butter and they were too greasy.  Neither of these errors prevented the husband eating them all, but I learned not to do it again.

Generally, the husband will have his usual breakfast before we leave.  Normally this would sustain him until midday.  But for some reason, if we have a long journey ahead, he automatically starts whining he's hungry before we've even hit the M4 (about six miles from our house) and the sausage rolls have been broken into before we've made it to the next junction.

This year, I've decided to rock the boat again, all in the spirit of trying something new.  So I've spent today making Dan Lepard's All Butter Puff Pastry.  Having mastered both his Spelt Rough Puff Pastry and his laminated dough for Danish pastries earlier this year, I figured that proper puff was the last hurdle to pass before this year of blogging was out.

I also took the opportunity to absorb all the good advice that he imparts in Short and Sweet to help make the pastry experience a happy one.  The key point being that this is something that needs you to take a whole day to do.  Which is why I began at 5.30am, allowing me time to do two turns before work at 7am.  I eventually lost count of how many turns I did which reminded me about a lesson I should've learned from a blog post by my lovely Twitter pal Sadia about when she made this very pastry.  Do have a look at the post.  Her photography is stunning and she's got some good advice on the recipe.

I was very wary that I've gotten a little cocky following Dan's recipes and didn't assume that this would work well (see my tale of pre-bake smugness before the disaster that was my attempt at Brown Sugar Chocolate Cake) but thankfully, for the sake of the sausage roll demands it did what it said in the book.

The temperature of the pastry/butter is very important. I left my butter out overnight to soften.  Normally when i do this, it's still pretty solid, and I end up having to soften it further in the microwave.  But just to spite me, the butter was at the perfect consistency for cake making - not what I needed for pastry.  I used some from the fridge to do the first step of rubbing fat into flour and then refrigerated the rest before the layering began.  Thankfully my fridge has a super-chill setting for when you've been shopping so I stuck it on this for half an hour and it firmed up a little.  Normally I'd use the freezer, but sometimes I've ended up getting distracted and thirty minutes in the freezer becomes two hours and suddenly I have frozen rather than firm.

Work in progress

I think too cold butter was the problem that I had when I had my first attempt at making laminated Danish dough, using another recipe, just before Christmas.  Call it a lesson learned.

Once the layers start getting thinner, the butter has a tendency to escape so I found that strategic checking and re-flouring during rolling worked quite well.  But you have to be careful not to over-flour or the layers won't stick together.

Having snaffled one for taste-testing in advance of tomorrow's journey (with Miss A also being partial to sausage rolls, I probably won't even get one tomorrow), I am so pleased with them.  The pastry is light, flaky and beautifully buttery.  Obviously chock-full of calories, but hey we're on holiday.  Diet definitely resumes in earnest in July.  My only disappointment is that the pastry is a little lacking in salt.  It probably could've done with another quarter teaspoon.  Quarter of a teaspoon in a kilo of pastry isn't much.  I think it's because the sausage meat is so savoury, the pastry tastes a little bland against it.  Baked on its own though (I baked a scrap sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon) it tastes great.

I won't be buying pre-made puff again.  If you want to have a go yourself, you can find the recipe here, but I definitely recommend reading the good advice in Short and Sweet.

Lorraine Pascale's Quiche Lorraine

This wonderful hot weather just screams out for summer food.  I'm struggling to get my head round the fact that it's too warm to still be wearing opaque tights and that my feet are in desperate need of a pedicure so I can wear flip-flops.  I planned my recipes last week without much consideration for the weather forecast and so have been faffing around trying to switch to recipes more suited to the heat.

Egg Cracker in Chief, whisking the filling.

At about 10am this morning, I suddenly started craving quiche.  Most specifically, my grandma's quiche Lorraine.  She'd always make it for dinner in this weather with a nice crunchy salad.  Except I never learned her recipe from her and it's another thing that makes me more than a little bit sad that I didn't pay more attention when I was younger.

I remember the look - deep filled with chunks of rose-pink ham or bacon and mottled with golden brown toasted cheese on the top; the taste - salty with the sweet taste of soft onions; the texture - firm with the right amount of wobble and melt in the mouth pastry.  But I wouldn't know how to recreate it if my life depended on it.

The only time I've tried to make a quiche before, I proudly stepped back from the oven, baking tray in hand; tripped over one of the dogs and before I knew it, my beautiful leek and feta quiche had been inhaled by my spaniel.  I swear he put the dachshund up to it!

As Lorraine Pascale was sat on my desk (not literally - I was working from home and I'd been leafing through Baking Made Easy at my computer last night), I decided to give her quiche Lorraine a go.  She uses creme fraiche rather than milk and cream for the filling so this gave me the opportunity to eliminate a few calories by going for the half fat version.  She also doesn't use cheese, which is interesting.  A little research revealed that despite all of the BBC Good Food recipes using cheese, the original quiche Lorraine didn't have cheese in it.

Badly patched pastry. I need more practice.

I made my own pastry using Lorraine's recipe.  I've still not cracked pastry making as it was too crumbly. My mum tells me that I make really good shortcrust pastry and it's always nice and short; but I never manage to get that beautiful perfect edge to it as it always breaks off round the edges when I try to put it in the tin.  Maybe I just needed a smidgen of water?

Pascale also uses two egg yolks in the pastry.  And if I'm honest, I didn't like the eggy taste to the pastry when it was cooked on its own in isolation (I rescued a couple of broken edge pieces from the oven).  But it tasted good once assembled.  Likewise, the egg mixture tasted really bland on its own but it worked with the salt-sweet bacon and onion filling.  Because I didn't have quite enough creme fraiche (the recipe uses 430g, I had 300g) I used some Greek yogurt which seemed to make no difference. This had the added benefit of further reducing the calories. Something I cancelled out when I wimped out and added 50g of cheese - half parmesan, half double Gloucester - to the mix.  My flan tin is probably only 2cm deep so I didn't end up using all the egg mixture to fill the case.

I was a little worried that I'd end up with an eggy mess because not only did my pastry start cracking once it was baked blind, I'd also pricked the bottom of the case.  My mum has always instilled the need to do this in me to stop the pastry from puffing up.  I didn't think until after I'd merrily pricked a pretty pattern into the base of the case that the egg might run out everywhere.  Thankfully, with the creme fraiche and yogurt, it was a pretty thick mixture so it stayed put.  And my bottom wasn't soggy.

Rustic looking quiche - is quiche peasant food?

The final result was a really pale looking pie and if I'm honest it looked really unappealing.  After then going out for a run, it looked even less appetising when I came home.  Which is a shame as the flavours are beautiful.  It would look great on a plate with a vibrant coloured salad, but just as a quiche on its own, it's really pale and sad looking.  Of course, that's the traditional look, but if I was really going for my grandmother's style, I'd sprinkle cheese over the top next time.

Definitely one that will evolve to become my own recipe over time.  I just need to remember to be a bit more vigilant checking for bits of shell when my helper is doing egg cracking :)

You can find the original recipe here.  This is my adaptation of it.

Serves 8–10

For the pastry

• 250g plain flour
• 125g cold butter, cubed
• 2 egg yolks
• pinch of salt

1. Rub the butter into the flour in a large bowl until it resembles bread crumbs.  Add the salt.
2. Add the two egg yolks and bring the mixture together to form a firm dough.  Add a tiny splash of chilled water if it seems too dry.
3. Pat to a flat circle about 2cm thick and place in the fridge for thirty minutes.
4. Remove from the fridge for five minutes and use for the recipe below.

For the Quiche

• 1 quantity of pastry using the above recipe or 500g of shop bought short crust pastry
• 1–2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion peeled and finely diced
• 4 rashers of thick cut smoked back bacon diced
• 300ml half fat crème fraîche
• 150ml Greek yogurt (I used full fat in mine as it was all I had but I'd try with low fat next time)
• 25g Parmesan cheese, grated
• 25g Double Gloucester cheese, grated
• 4 eggs lightly beaten
• Freshly ground black pepper

23cm fluted flan dish or tin about 3.5cm deep

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/170C fan gas 5.
2. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to just under the thickness of a £1 coin. Lower the pastry into the tin or dish and ease down into the sides and corners.
3. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or until firm. (oops, I forgot this bit!)
4. Once the pastry is firm, remove it from the fridge and trim the edges: using a sharp knife, cut off the excess pastry around the top of the tin then run a small sharp knife around the edge between the pastry and the tin to loosen slightly.
5. Take a piece of baking paper slightly larger than the tart and scrunch it up, then unscrunch it and line the tart with it, taking it right up the sides. Fill it with baking beans or dried beans and ‘blind bake’ in the oven for 20 minutes, until the edges are light brown and the base is dry to the touch. Remove the baking beans and paper from the pastry case, then return to the oven and bake for a further 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside. Turn the oven down to 150°C /130C fan/gas mark 2.
6. The filling can be prepared while the pastry is baking. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a low heat, add the onion and fry until soft and translucent with no colour. This can take a good 15 minutes. If the onion looks as if it is drying out, just add a splash of water water.
7. Add the bacon to the pan, turn up the heat slightly and cook for 5–6 minutes. Remove from the heat and add to the base of the flan dish.  Sprinkle the cheese over.
8. Place the flan dish on a flat baking tray. Whisk the crème fraîche and the eggs together gently in a large bowl, then season with pepper. You will not need any salt as the bacon and chese is already very salty.  Pour the mixture into a jug.
9. Slide the baking tray into the oven, pull the oven shelf the tray is on out slightly and pour the egg mixture into the case.  This stops you spilling it trying to get a full flan case into the oven.
10. Bake in the oven for 30–40 minutes, or until the filling no longer wobbles.
11. Good to eat hot but best eaten cold, giving the mixture a chance to settle. Kept in the fridge it tastes even better the next day (apparently - I'll find out at tomorrow teatime).

Dan Lepard's Spelt Rough Puff Pastry

When does someone else's recipe become yours?  I often ponder this question when I make 'my' chicken pie.  Because I learned the recipe from my ex.  And he got really miffed one day when I referred to it as my chicken pie.  That was ten years ago.  I'm not sure I've made any significant changes to the recipe until today but is it now my chicken pie.  Or is it his?  Or is it half Dan Lepard's because I made his rough puff to top it with whereas I'd normally use shop-bought.  Just some random pondering.

Lots of butter and a touch of flour

Anyway, today, I decided to tackle the black art of pastry making.  Shop-bought pastry is pretty good and consistent so why go to the trouble of making your own?  Now I've mastered shortcrust, I wouldn't buy shop bought again, but is it worth the time faff that goes into making puff and filo?  Well I don't think I would ever have the time and the patience to make my own filo like the amazing Lauren of Around the World In Eighty Bakes.  But having tried so many successful recipes from Short and Sweet, I felt confident that I could have a good go at it.

It's beginning to look a lot like pastry

And it's pretty simple, all told.  Except for the rolling bit.  You need big muscles for that when you do the first roll after each chilling.  But other than it taking a bit of time, it was a really enjoyable activity.  Even with a nearly two-year-old wreaking mayhem in the kitchen with orange playdough, pastry cutters and my ceramic baking beans (they need to be moved to a higher shelf!) 

It's also important to pay attention to the tip about ensuring the board is evenly and completely floured.  I probably used as much flour to prevent the pastry from sticking as I actually put into the pastry.

The recipe uses a small amount of spelt or wholemeal flour (I went with wholemeal) which gives the pastry a lovely nutty taste and makes you feel like you're eating something vaguely healthy (despite the copious amounts of butter in it).  

Fresh from the oven

I used about a third of the pastry - some to top a pie and the spare went into making a giant apple turnover for my pie-hating husband (he'll only eat steak and kidney pies from the chippie).  I will say that the puff on the turnover was better than it was on my pie but the pastry still tasted great.  I'd definitely go to the effort of making my own again if I'm making pie as I only make it when we have guests.  The rest got frozen - I cut it into two small blocks so I can try using some for one of Dan's savoury tart recipes on another occasion.  

Wish I had better lighting in my house...flash, bang, wallop!

Can definitely recommend the recipe.  And I'm sure the All Butter Puff would be fab too - will make some once I've used up the rest of the spelt pastry.  Seriously, anyone whole loves to bake should own a copy of Short and Sweet.  And if you're on Twitter, follow the lovely @Dan_Lepard because he's ace.

If you fancy trying the chicken pie filling, this is the original recipe which I got in lieu of half of my old house

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 500g chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 leeks, washed, trimmed and finely shredded
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 250g baby button mushrooms, halved
• 200ml double cream
• 2 tsp Knorr Touch of Taste stock (or in the old days, a Knorr stock cube crumbled)
• salt and freshly ground pepper

1. 500g puff pastry, rolled to fit your pie dish
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the chicken until it is white, but not browned.
3. Add the garlic and mushrooms to the pan and continue to fry for 3-4 minutes until the chicken and mushrooms are browned.
4. Stir the cream and stock into the pan and reduce slightly.  Season to taste.
5. Place in a pie dish and leave to cool slightly before topping with the pastry.

Quite Quick 'Apricot Danish Pastries'

They say that the camera never lies.  I know that this is not quite true.  Being married to a professional photographer has its advantages and disadvantages.  I've always hated having my picture taken because having been fat enough to rival Jabba the Hut in my teenage years, you don't want to be reminded which bits bulge that should bulge.  And even when I'm at my slimmest, I'm still not happy with my body - in fact when I was at my running peak (and I still weighed 10st something at this point) I thought I looked skeletal and gaunt - let's face it, women are never happy.

Breakfast: Danish, Berocca, Water and a Latte

When the hubby opened his studio, I was still in my post pregnant haze and so really not wanting to be in front of the camera at any cost.  I remember coming home from walking the dogs one morning to find him unpacking new lighting equipment in the lounge.  "Just sit there and let me test this" says he.  After a lot of protesting about being mud spattered and fat and ugly, I gave in.

A few hours later, he presented me with the results of the picture.  I was really chuffed.  I was looking quite good for someone still three stones over her ideal weight and who'd suffered many a sleepless night. Stupidly, I made this comment out loud.  "Well I slimmed down your face, rubbed out your wrinkles, edited out the bags under your eyes, whitened your teeth and eyes...." At that point, I walked away to have a little sob to myself.

Still at least when Abigail looks back at some of the pictures of her mum when she was young, she'll think her mum was a bit pretty.  In reality, I don't quite look much like my blog or Twitter pictures.  Unless I'm in flattering light.  I'm too old for that.

And unflattering camera light brings me nicely round to today's recipe.  When I took the pictures of the apricot Danish,  I couldn't quite find the right angle to photograph it from.  And when I did take the picture, the harsh light from the flash (it's just to miserable to get any good light in my kitchen this morning) showed up the need to grout between the tiles in my kitchen.  Ooops!  And I'm rubbish at Photoshop so I can't even edit them to make it look better.

The rustic 'I forgot to flour the worktop' look

I picked today's recipe because I had a little bit of left over pastry in my fridge from making sausage rolls.  It's from Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy which the husband bought me for Christmas.  I blogged early on about trying to make cherry Danish with puff pastry.  That recipe used some weird Philly-based cheese filling which was okay, but not really what I'd consider Danish filling.  My attempt at making actual Danish pastry the other day was a bit of a long-winded failure so Pascale's recipe seemed a good opportunity for another attempt to make something I could make time and again.  Simple and tasty without hours of labour.

The original recipe uses shop-bought fresh custard as the filling.  But as I didn't have any to hand and didn't want to buy a whole pot to just make two Danish (that's all the pastry I had), I thought I'd have a go at making proper creme patissiere instead.  It's something I've made once before when I was about ten, under the eagle-eyed instruction of my mother, the ex-pastry chef.  I think we made a strawberry flan.  But I'd have no idea how to make the pastry cream off the top of my head.

Creme patisserie

So I turned to t'Internet.  I know the Great British Bake Off book has a recipe for this, but I was too lazy to get the book off the book shelf at stupid o'clock in the morning.  Instead, I used a recipe from Joy of Baking.  As I was only making two pastries, I made one third of the recipe which was probably enough to make four apricot Danish.

I also put the custard under the apricots, rather than on top of them as Pascale suggested.  The pastry points wouldn't stay together on top of the apricots so I used a little blob of pastry from the trimmings to stick them all together and this survived the oven.

For a simple, non-faffy Danish recipe, this worked really well and I'd definitely make them again when I had guests.  I'd still love to master making the actual pastry myself, but it wouldn't be something I'd do every time as these are just as tasty as shop-bought and if I'm honest, most people (ie the husband) wouldn't appreciate the hours you spend labouring over home-made pastry if they taste just as good with shop-bought.

This is my own edited version of Pascale's recipe, hence calling it 'Quite Quick...' as hers are 'Really Quick....'

Makes 12

For the Danish

• 1 x 375g packet of puff pastry
• 1 quantity of creme patisserie (see below)
• Plain flour for dusting (I forgot this and they stuck to the work top!)
• 1 x 220g tin apricot halves in juice
• 1 egg lightly beaten for the egg wash
• Sugar for sprinkling

For the creme patisserie 

• 300ml milk (full fat or semi-skimmed)
• 1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise or 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 3 egg yolks
• 50g granulated white sugar
• 20g plain flour
• 20g corn flour

1. First, make the creme patissiere.  Mix the egg yolks and sugar in a heatproof bowl then stir in the flour and corn flour to form a thick paste.
2. Heat the milk and vanilla pod (if using) in a medium saucepan until scalding.  Carefully remove the vanilla pod (if using) and scrape the seeds into the milk (this can be rinsed and added to a jar of sugar to make vanilla sugar).
3. Pour the hot milk into the egg paste and whisk quickly to combine.
4. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan and bring to the boil whisking constantly.  Once boiling, whisk for a further 45 seconds then remove from the heat and leave to cool.  If using vanilla extract or bean paste, stir this in now.
5. Preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7.
6. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface to a 30cmx30cm square.
7. Cut the pastry into 7.5cm squares and make diagonal cuts form each corner to within 1cm of the middle (note in the picture, my windmills are not precisely measured and cut - it was too early to find a ruler!)
8. Put a spoon of pastry cream into the centre and then top with an apricot half.
9. Fold alternate corners of each cut section to the centre, brushing the tips with beaten egg.
10. Refrigerate for 15 minutes or so until firm.
11. Remove from the fridge, brush with egg wash and then sprinkle with sugar.
12. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm, risen and golden brown.
13. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Danish Pastry

Today's blog has been partially pre-recorded.  There are two reasons for this.  One it's my birthday and I'm hoping that the husband is going to take me somewhere lovely and special (although judging by the pouring rain hammering on the Velux window as I write this first part, I have a feeling we're going to be stuck home all day).  And two, the recipe I'm trying takes two days to make.  Yep.  Two days.  But was it worth the effort?

As I've mentioned before, this blog was inspired by my lovely cousin Laura, @BridestockBride.  She tweeted me during GBBO and asked if I'd ever made my own Danish pastries.  The answer was no.  But I'd love to give it a go.

So today and tomorrow (or yesterday and today, or the 20th and 21st December 2011 depending on when you're reading this) I'm trying out Joanne Wheatley of GBBO fame's Danish pastry recipe.

Now there's no two ways about this.  Proper Danish pastry or French croissant dough is a faff.  Like puff pastry, there's lots of rolling and folding and resting and rolling and folding and resting.  This recipe requires four lots of the above at hour-intervals.  So not something I'll be doing every day.  Or probably again any time soon.  Unless there's a particularly special occasion, I'll just pass if it's all the same.  

It's too labour intensive for a full time working mother of a toddler who struggles to deal with the constantly full laundry basket (I struggle to deal with the laundry basket and the toddler - I'm not using her for slave labour just yet).   So the idea that I might have time for the frivolity of making my own Danish on a regular basis is just a pipe dream.  And if I won enough money on the lottery to give up work, I'd just move to France where someone else could make said patisserie for me.  

Back to my birthday.  I'm not high maintenance.  Far from it.  In fact, most of the guys I know wish they could have a spouse/girlfriend who is as undemanding as I am (my husband would not agree with the preceding statement in public).  Take yesterday's lunchtime conversation.  I am the only woman in a team of 20.  Topic for the day 'What are you buying your other half for Christmas?'  After listening to endless tales of the luxuries required by my colleagues wives, I was asked what I wanted for Christmas.  "Oh nothing" came my reply.  When pushed "well I'm hoping to get a sugar thermometer.  I'd like some time to myself to go running.  I'd like to not have to cook three separate meals every evening."  No shoes, no handbags, no perfume or expensive trips to New York.  If they were offered, of course I wouldn't say no.  But I'm not one to ask for them.

When we lived in London, one birthday we had a private flight on the London Eye and Tea at the Ritz.  I didn't ask for it.  I never would.  I loved the surprise.  If it was offered again, I'd love it just as much.  But to me, the perfect day would be breakfast in bed and then a trip out with my little family with no tantrums (from either the toddler or the husband).

Every year, the husband asks what I want to do on my birthday.  Every year it's the same reply.  Breakfast in bed - croissants or pain au chocolat, fresh juice and coffee.  Every year he nips off to Sainsburys at 9pm only to find that they've not restocked the shelves yet and returns empty-handed.  I wouldn't even consider suggesting buying bake your own croissants from a can that you can sometimes get in the chilled section of the supermarket.  And with Greggs being the only bakers in town, nearly-French patisserie isn't really an option.

So this year, I decided to have a go at making my own pastry.  With a day off work and Miss A at nursery (another wish - not to be judged by my friends who are lucky enough to have family who take their kids off their hands for sending Miss A to nursery once in a while when I have a day off so I can catch up on housework) I had some time in between cleaning ready for Christmas to give this recipe a whirl.

I found the pastry really difficult to work with.  I'm rubbish at rolling pastry out evenly at the best of times (I can turn a shop bought, perfectly oblong block of pastry into a weirdly shaped polygon in no time) but this pastry was a whole other level of strange to work with.  It was like trying to roll bread dough out.  Except the lumps of butter made it hard to even attempt to roll evenly and every time I rolled it one way, it just contracted itself back to half the size.

Then when I put it in the fridge - a step that is supposed to slow the yeast growth - it just took on a life of its own and multiplied its width three times.  I'm was thinking that maybe my fridge was too cold as the butter seemed so solid and I would have expected it to need a slightly warmer butter consistency as it didn't spread evenly through the pastry - it just hung around in nasty lumps.  But then if I'd left the dough in a warmer climate, it may well have turned into a behemoth given its propensity to grow in my cold fridge.

Anyhow, it's now resting overnight so that I can bake my own pastries first thing in the morning.  What's the betting that tomorrow, the husband will proudly present me with some croissants he procured at Sainsburys last weekend?

Here endeth part one.

Day Two

Well this is definitely one recipe I'm going to need to work on.  I think I need a better understanding of the science behind the bake before I attempt it again.  I'm not sure quite what went wrong because despite worrying my pastry had lumpy butter, it looked a lot like Jo's pictures in her blog, but when baked it didn't work.

Mmmm...chocolat

I hopped out of bed this morning and made four pain au chocolat for the husband to bake.  Instructing him to cook them for twenty-five minutes, he did so to the second and they were singed beyond recognition.  Just can't get to grips with my oven.  Some bakes take ages and on this ocassion, they obviously needed a lot less time.

Just baked one now whilst putting together some goodies for F-I-L's christmas hamper (more on that tomorrow) and it took 30 minutes to cook, it was dripping in butter and the result tasted very buttery but had a bready texture, rather than the crisply-soft pastry that a true French pain au chocolat would have.  All my mistakes, I'm sure - especially as these helped Jo to win the Great British Bake Off in 2011!

You can find the recipe here http://josblueaga.blogspot.com/2011/08/danish-pastry.html

I will be trying them again and may also give this recipe a go where they use softened butter spread straight on to the pastry rather than a chilled sheet. http://mymorningchocolate.com/2010/04/09/how-to-make-pain-au-chocolat-photos/ 

Lyn Bone's Bakewell Tart

Well this particular post isn't a new recipe for me (that post is coming later tonight), but I just wanted to blog about it because it's rather dear to my heart.

I've never really been a fan of Bakewell because I find it ridiculously sweet.  The jam never tastes of anything other than red, sticky stuff and its usually got icing on the top too.  Another one of those tooth-rotting recipes.  Plus sponge and pastry together.  Sometimes I'm a bit fussy like that.  In the way that I still, at thirty-something years old, won't eat pudding and custard in the same bowl.  An indulgence my grandmother started and my mother still despairs at to this day.  In some ways, that's a bonus because having gained a sweet tooth with the birth of my daughter, I'd probably be more likely to eat pudding in the canteen at work but they won't indulge my pecadilloes.  It's pudding with custard or go hungry.  Some people are so harsh!

Bakewell tart

Anyhow one day when I was expecting, I was at my mum's and she had the spoils of the cakes left over from her contribution to some do or another.  She proffered a piece of her bakewell and despite my initial reticence, I gave in to baby's will and ate it.  It was amazing.  What makes the difference is that she uses Polish cherry jam from Lidl.  That's jam from Poland.  Not jam made from polished cherries.

Because the jam is so fruity and sharp, it cuts through the sweetness of the sponge.  And my mum doesn't ice her Bakewell - topping it instead with baked almonds.  And she uses almond sponge rather than frangipane.  All of which goes to making a delightful Bakewell.

A while later, my boss was on a no-chocolate kick and we had a bake sale at work so I chose to make the Bakewell to make sure he stumped up and bought some.  He had the first slice, declared it the best Bakewell he's ever eaten and it sold out in about two minutes flat.

Polish Plum Jam

Since then, it's been a regular request from the people at work and I'm baking it today as part of my birthday celebration.

Somehow though, I've managed to mislay two jars of the prized cherry jam between here and Winchester so I had to buy an emergency jar of Polish Plum Butter from Tesco this morning.  Again, amazing flavour - I had a little taster out of the jar just to check I shouldn't plump for Bonne Maman blackcurrant instead.

As for the recipe, this is my version.  I've tweaked it a little by adding ground almonds and a little almond essence to the sponge, but it will always be my mum's recipe.  Her topping recipe is based on the weight of three eggs.  You weigh the eggs and use the same amount of sugar, flour and butter.  I find that three eggs-worth is always a bit to much but two eggs-worth is not enough if you're using a nine-inch tin.  So for the sake of simplicity, I've put the actual weights in the recipe as my eggs weighed 175g today, but do try the egg-weight method.

Makes a 9" tart

• 1 qty shortcrust pastry - I used Dan Lepard's recipe which you can view here
• 175g softened butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 eggs (rough weight 175g)
• 175g self raising flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 1tsp almond essence
• 2tbsp milk
• half a jar of Polish cherry jam or other flavour of your choice
• 50g flaked almonds

Essential equipment - 9" loose bottomed flan tin

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas 4
2. Roll the pastry to 5mm thick and large enough to cover the base and sides of your flan tin.
3. Line the tin with the pastry, prick the base over with a fork, add a circle of parchment weighed down with baking beans and bake for 25 mins.
4. Meanwhile, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
5. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding 1tbsp of the flour with each addition to prevent curdling.
6. Add in the almond essence then beat in the almonds and flour and 2tbsp of milk.
7. Remove the baking beans and parchment and bake for a further 10 minutes.
8. Remove the pastry case from the oven, cover the base with the jam and then top with the sponge mixture.
9. Sprinkle the sponge with the flaked almond.
10. Change the oven temp to 190c/170 fan/gas 5 bake until golden and springy to the touch - approx 25 minutes.
11. Leave to cool in the tin until completely cold then transfer to the serving dish.

Bitter chocolate and raspberry tartlet

Bake without trimming the edges

Today's recipe is from one of the challenges set by Michel Roux Jnr in Masterchef: The Professionals.  But that wasn't specifically why I chose it.  I still had a little pastry left over from my mince pie fest earlier this week and I wanted to have a go at making a small tartlet in one of my little loose bottom tartlet tins.

Every time I've tried to use them before, during blind baking, the pastry has receded into a disc in the middle, leaving me with no retaining edges.  But this time, it was going to be different.


I'm sure it was some random TV watch during my maternity leave when I was in the middle of a marathon breastfeeding session or another (altogether we kept it up for15 months - how proud am I of that!) that I happened across Cookery School on Channel 4 with Gizzi Erskine and Richard Corrigan.

Wohoo, I have sides

Mr Corrigan is someone who would probably drive me nuts in the kitchen, yet I respect him with equal measure.  I just adore Gizzi for rocking the retro look - I wish I could do perfect eyeliner like her!  Anyhow, they made this very tart but revealed the secret to a perfect pastry edge is to not trim the pastry before you cook it, but to leave it overhanging, bake and then trim with a sharp knife once it's cooled.  How very educational.  I've since seen the lovely Dame Mary do the same on GBBO so I was desperate to give this a try.

And largely, it worked.  I think I should've maybe spent more time pressing the pastry into the nooks and crannies of the mould but Miss A was busy washing my kitchen floor with the dog's water bowl so the pastry didn't have my undivided attention.  But when it was baked, I had a crispy bottom and a passable edge to it.

The finished tartlet.

Only problem was that as the tins are so shallow, the raspberries (despite me lying them sideways and squashing them a bit) poked out of the surface of the ganache so the finished pie looks a bit lumpy.

It's still setting as I type.  I'm off to sample it later and will post a pic of the presented version tomorrow but I came upstairs to write my blog and book tickets to go and see Santa at Longleat tomorrow - wheeee!  Even chocolate raspberry tart isn't as important as your child's first visit to Father Christmas.

The recipe is in this month's Good Food Magazine and there's clip from the programme on YouTube.

Thomasina Miers: The Best Mince Pies (updated)

Two years ago, when I was pregnant with my daughter, the ONLY sign of me nesting was that I started to get interested in cookery again.  I used to while away time daydreaming of what I was going to cook each time we had visitors.  The daydreams were elaborate, the visitors infrequent.

Come November that year, I got it into my head to make my mince pies totally from scratch.  So I made Delia's mincemeat and bought pastry from the shop as I've never got the hang of making my own - it always falls apart.  But the result was disappointing.  The pastry shrank, the contents spilled out and on the whole, I am just not a fan of mince pies made in tiny tart tins.

Another reason why I'm fat is because I love deep filled mince pies.  What's the point of having a pie if there's more pastry than filling?  Never understood that.  So I passed a jar of mincemeat over to my mother who then made her own mincemeat as well and in a blind taste test amongst my family, my mincemeat won.  Huzzah!  But I still had to figure out how to achieve the perfect - or a better - pie.

Last year had similar results.  I think I maybe need a bigger pastry cutter as I ended up with mincemeat topped pastry discs.  This year, I'm determined it will be different.

So after lots of research and a minor disaster road-testing shortcrust pastry at my mothers the other day (I misread the flour quantity!), I finally decided that today was M-day.  As I was idly scrolling through Twitter and trying to find a good recipe for pastry, I happened across a tweet from the lovely @ThomasinaMiers (I'm not obsessed or a stalker - honest!)  claiming that she had a recipe for 'The Best Mince Pies'.  And they're deep-filled.  Sold!

Deep filled mince pies with marscapone and almond topping

But alas, her pastry recipe called for lard and I didn't have any.  Further reading on the lard issue showed that whilst lots of chefs recommend it because according to Auntie Delia 'it has the best flavour', all butter would be fine too.  Discounting lots of recipes for pastry that use all butter, I once again turned to the lovely Dan Lepard (seriously, I just admire him and his lovely new book!) for his take on sweet shortcrust.

Bingo.  Simplicity in itself again.  I made the almond version.  If you want to watch him and find out the recipe I used, there's a video on YouTube.  Or buy the book!

The pastry came together perfectly.  It rolled like a dream.  My two-year-old mincemeat was beautifully mature (Delia says it keeps for three years in a cool, dry place).  The toppings for the mince pies tasted scrummy.

They went into the oven and disaster struck.  The sticky almond topping has melted everywhere.  I haven't a hope in hell of getting the mince pies out of the tin in one piece (I nipped off to take them out of the oven mid blog to discover this).  There is boiled sugar all across the bottom of my oven (I stupidly didn't put a tray underneath the mince pie shelf.

To say I am gutted is an understatement.  I could cry - but they're only mince pies.

What a complete waste of my last jar of mincemeat and all the other lovely ingredients.

So I'm still crap at making mince pies and will not be baking again for the foreseeable future.

The finished pie with orange marscapone

Thanks for the pastry Dan and Delia for the mincemeat which was lovely last time I tried it.  I just wish I knew what I'd done wrong.  Did I overfill them?  Maybe.  There was an awful lot of topping to go round to the point that I still have some left over in the fridge.  Shame there's no picture with the recipe to show you what the completed mince pies look like.  I have a before pic (excuse the state of my tin - the photo makes it look worse) and will add an after pic if I can prise one out.  If you ever read this Thomasina, please do give me some advice.

Update 07 Dec 2011: Having left the pies to cool overnight, I've managed to liberate most of them aside from two that crumbled.  They tasted a-mazing!!!  Will definitely make again although would possibly try a different pastry recipe as it was very soft and melted in the mouth but struggled to contain the weight of the contents - perhaps the actual recipe with lard based pastry would've been better??  And also use less topping and perhaps a 10cm guide for cutting to give a bit more space to contain the topping.

Top marks Thomasina and co - the faults are all mine :)

Apple and Rhubarb Pie

Staying with the Mothership this weekend, I figured it was the ideal opportunity for a masterclass in how to make pastry.  Many moons ago - before I was born - she was a pastry chef at the biggest hotel in Southampton so I thought I couldn't go wrong.

The finished pie (it leaked a bit)

I normally buy ready made pastry because it's easier and quicker and always tastes good.  Despite this, I still have shrinkage problems when I'm making mice pies and other small pies.  So I decided it was time to go back to basics and learn how to make my own.



And then she handed me her copy of 'Practical Cookery' by Ceserani and Kinton (1967 edition) and left me to get on with it!  Thanks mum.  I duly chose method two which she'd highlighted as the best option when she was a student in another lifetime.

It's a real chef's book because it's well thumbed, covered in prehistoric food splashes and annotated as she learned her craft and improved the basic recipes with her own twists.  In contrast, like me, she has a pile of pristine, glossy, celebrity chef scribed books that have barely had the spines cracked and have never even been near the kitchen - just salivated over with thoughts of a grand dinner party that never happens.

And yet, despite using a real chef's book, rather than a celebrity chef's book, I still had trouble.

First I made the mistake of asking why people say you should mix pastry with a round ended knife.  If there's one mantra I remember my mother chanting to me as a child (aside from 'don't get pregnant before you're married) was 'fingers were made before forks'.  This obviously applies to knives because she insisted that I use my hands like a real chef.  Even my comment that I remember always watching my beloved grandma using a knife to make her pastry as she lovingly crafted an apple pie (whilst I stole bits of apple when her back was turned) fell on deaf ears.  So if someone can tell me why I should use a knife, please email or tweet me.

Pastry made to a sixties recipes - looks like it was made then too!

The pastry didn't come together very well.  After a heated discussion, I was offered a second egg.  And yet the pastry still cracked every time I tried to roll it.  Apparently this is because sweet shortcrust pastry is similar to shortbread and more biscuit-like than regular shortcrust.  I'd really like the proper scientific explanation such as how it's something to do with the temperature of the butter or the gluten in the flour but Heston wasn't around when my mum was in chef school so the best answer I got was 'Because...'

Anyhow, the finished result wasn't all that bad.  The base pastry was a bit too thick as I struggled to roll that layer out without it breaking - but it cooked well and meant that the juice from the fruit didn't seep through.  No soggy bottom.  Result!

Ready for baking

The filling was from my mum's garden - half windfalls and half late rhubarb with a scatter of sugar and a water sugar glaze on the top.

The only thing I'd've changed was to use a bit more fruit but we were at the mercy of the garden supplies. Other than that, not bad for a first attempt.  Now to try a slightly different pastry recipe for my mince pies.

I now need to try and liberate the book and its brother - 'Patisserie' by L. I. Hanneman from her bookshelves - both are fantastic books with all the basic recipes that you then add your own twist to.  I could learn so much from these books - such a shame they're not still in print - everyone should own a copy.

Pate a Sucre (Sweet Pastry) Recipe

• 500g flour
• 150g chilled butter or margarine
• 60g caster sugar
• 1 egg (I used two in the end)
• pinch of salt

1. Rub the butter and flour together to make fine breadcrumbs.
2. Make a well in the centre, pour in the sugar and egg and combine until the sugar dissolves.  Gradually incorporate the flour and butter mixture.
3. Keep mixing until a smooth paste is achieved.
4. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before using.

Borek

Today's recipe was scuppered by a burst water main on the one way system, meaning I couldn't get to the supermarket for fresh veggies for Thai chicken noodle soup. Apparently the whole of Chippenham is at a standstill.  I am just grateful that I was able to slob around working from home today!

Contents of the fridge are rapidly dwindling.  So out came the filo again.  A small piece of feta.  And hey presto, we have borek.

I absolutely adore these little gems.  I fell in love with them on holiday in Turkey when I was nursing my first teenage broken heart.  We were upgraded to a four star hotel where all the other tourists complained that there were no full English breakfasts and decamped to the local McDonalds, leaving my mum and I to indulge in traditional Turkish fayre at our leisure.

I've never tried making them until now and am amazed at the simplicity.  Will definitely be making again.  A similar recipe I have to try during this year was given to me by a good Serbian friend.  It's a similar dish which he calls Cheese Pie and uses a mix of cottage and feta cheese and baked into squares rather than little cigarette rolls.  I've eaten his offerings many times, but never got round to using the recipe myself.  So watch this space.

The recipe today was courtesy of the Good Food Channel and can be found here 

I only made a quarter of the recipe otherwise I'd've eaten the whole lot!

Cherry Danish

A couple of weeks ago, the lovely Bridestock Bride tweeted me during the Great British Bake Off to ask if I'd ever made pastries properly.  The answer is a most resounding no.  When it comes to pastry, I'm pretty rubbish unless it comes out of a packet - which is one of the reasons why I'm holding off on my GBBO application despite all the badgering.

For some reason, I just don't quite have the knack.  I can make a good enough pastry for my signature bakewell tart (okay I nicked the recipe off of the mothership and improved it) or a quiche, but because year after year, I fail with my mince pies, I've never quite gotten into the whole pastry baking thing.  But it's something I'd love to master over this year.

Since that GBBO episode, I've been reading up on how to make Danish pastries.  I L-O-V-E apricot danish and cherry danish.  In fact when I was in Germany, I snuck off to a shop and bought a bag of the most a-mazing cherry danish and hid them in my suitcase as the hubby can't eat cake but I just couldn't miss out.  Hopefully, he gave up reading at the first paragraph...

Anyway, I digress a little.

Having consigned most of the defrosted, warmed up contents of my old fridge freezer to the bin - Currys didn't arrive til mid afternoon - I was left with a quarter of a block of puff pastry, the scrapings of a jar of cherry jam, a lemon, some eggs and a couple of mini tubs of Philly.  Just right for having a go at some cherry Danish.

What surprised me in all the recipes that I read was that the filling was made using cream cheese.  I'd always assumed that Danish were filled with a thick, creme patissiere but maybe not.  I'm happy to be proved wrong.  Even the lovely Mary-Anne from GBBO filled her raspberry and rosewater Danishes with the cream cheese mixture so it must be true.

They look a bit rough and ready as I was a little short on pastry and a little over-exuberant with the jam, but are now cooling down ready for breakfast.  That's not cheating - I did the recipe today, just not the eating.
se4
Onee point of note for the future.  Use full fat cheese as the low fat Philly started to split and as per the advice I read on one blog, chill the cheese mixture overnight to stop it from running so much in the oven.

Yet again, the phone is flat.  Picture to follow tomorrow when I've drizzled them with white chocolate.

Need to work on the elegance!

Update: Well the pastries did taste better than they look.  I think I skimped a bit on the pastry because I only had a tiny bit leftover and next time I will definitely make my own.  Wasn't convinced about the lemon-cheese filling.  It tasted fab but overpowered the jam - which is an achievement as the cherry jam I use has a really strong, sharp, distinctive taste that comes through well even when used in tiny amounts.

So I thought I'd look up in my Mary Berry's complete cook book to see how she does it.  And rather disappointingly, she uses white almond paste to fill all of hers - even the classic apricot ones.  But I swear the ones I've had in the past from various locations have a different filling.  More research needed.

Incidentally, Dame Mary had the temerity to criticise the lovely Janet for her incorrectly rolled croissants.  Yet if you look in Dame Mary's own book, she rolls hers exactly like that.  Pot.  Kettle.  Black!  I must admit, I have the 1995 version so maybe she's updated it since then...

Recipe - makes eight

• 500g ready made puff pastry (I will make puff pastry one day - probably when the child is 18 and I actually have some 'me' time again)
• 225g full fat cream cheese
• 125g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1tbsp plain flour
• zest of one lemon
• 75g cherry jam (the best one is the Polish one from Lidl)

1. Mix the cheese, sugar, egg yolk, flour and lemon zest together and chill overnight.
2. Roll out the pastry to approx 5mm thick and cut into eight squares.
3. Fold each square lightly in half on the diagonal.  Make a cut about 1cm running parallel with each of the diagonal edges, stopping about 1cm from the point.
4. Unfold the squares.  Fold one of the edges across to meet the point on the inner square.  Repeat with the other edge.  This forms a diamond shape.
5. Place a spoonful of cream cheese into the centre of the pastry.  Top with a spoonful of cherry jam.
6. If you wish, glaze the edges with milk or egg yolk.
7. Bake for 15-20 mins until golden.
8. Cool then decorate with a drizzle of royal icing or melted white chocolate - use a piping bag for a really fine drizzle

Caramelised Onion and Goats Cheese Tarts

Back last year, I asked the husband to buy me a proper cookery book.  And by proper, I don't mean one of these glossy, celebrity-chef endorsed, tv-series inducing bestsellers, but a real proper cookery book like my mum used to have when I was a kid - one that explained the basics of cookery, teaches you how to cook simple food that tastes great and is all about the instruction rather than the presentation.

I picked Leith's Simple Cookery and spent about a week reading through it but never got round to making anything.  Despite a few poor reviews from some cynics on Amazon (well there were some on there when I ordered my copy), it seemed to be a great book for getting back to basics and learning the art of how to make classics well and recipes that can be adapted and won't fail if you've only got low fat creme fraiche rather than soured cream.

So last night, I figured that I'd use it to find a good recipe for that French onion soup I've been meaning to make ever since Ocado delivered eleven million tonnes of onions that the child accidentally ordered via the Android app.  And would you believe it?  It's obviously not simple enough to make the book.

My pictures would be so much better if
the husband would lend me his X100!

So instead, I plumped for the caramelised onion and goats cheese tartlets, thus using up yet more things (pastry, cheese, onions) from the fridge that is due to go to fridge heaven tomorrow.

It's a great light lunch or tea and would make a fab starter too.  Lovely combination of salty feta with meltingly sweet onions.  Must admit I cheated a bit as I was supposed to caramelise the onions in the oven for 45 minutes but after a long day (up running at 5am, full day's work, mummy duties, three different dinners to cook) I caramelised them in a frying pan - and I was only doing a quarter of the quantity so it probably made more sense anyway.

Recipe as follows to serve four

• 500g block of puff pastry - one day, I will get round to learning how to make my own
• 600g onions, finely sliced - roughly six medium onions
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2tbsp brown sugar
• 60g feta cheese, crumbled

1. Roll the pastry out into a rectangle until it's about 5mm thick.  Cut into four.
2. Score a line around the edge of each piece about 1cm from the edge, taking care to not cut right through.
3. Use a fork to prick the inner rectangle of each piece.
4. Bake for 15 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, lightly fry the onions in a frying pan until they start to soften and caramelise - add a little water as necessary to stop them burning.
6. When soft, add the vinegar and sugar and continue to cook over a low heat for 3-5 minutes.
7. Remove the pastry from the oven.  Top with the onions, crumble over the cheese then return to the oven for a further five minutes.
8. Serve with a green salad and a glass or several of Chablis (not that I had any...sob...sniff)