Easy Mincemeat 'Sausage' Rolls!

Last week for the Booths Cheers party I was given a 'Secret Mission' to make mince pies with a twist.
Now, the box with the wine arrives on Tuesday and as I'm at work all day, I didn't get my mission instructions until I got home on Tuesday evening.  The party is on Wednesday night,  so not a lot of time to prepare.  I knew I had some ready rolled puff pastry sheets in the freezer and a jar of my 'Instant Chocolate Mincemeat' in the fridge.  I initially planned to make some mincemeat pinwheels but, flicking through 'How to Bake' by Paul Hollywood I noticed some sausage rolls...I wonder?




I took the pastry out of the freezer in the morning, so when I came in from work, I assembled my ingredients:
Ready rolled puff pastry - check
Approx 300g Instant chocolate mincemeat - check
2tbsp ground almonds - check
eggs (2) - check
grated zest of an orange - check
1 tbsp Croft Indulgence Finest Reserve Port from Booths - check

This isn't an exact recipe, put the mincemeat in a bowl, mix in one beaten egg. 1 tbsp port and 2 tbsp of ground almonds.  Divide the pastry in two lengthways, divide the mincemeat mixture between the two strips of pastry.  Beat the other egg and brush egg wash around the edges. Sprinkle the mincemeat with grated orange zest.

Labels: Booths Cheers, ground almonds, mince pies, mincemeat, orange, puff pastry

posted by Janice @ 21:58 10 Comments

Seasonal Cheese and Leek Flatbread Sandwich

Jacqueline has set us a slightly different challenge for  this month's No Croutons Required,  she says "I would like to focus on what is often served alongside soup or a salad. I am thinking of the humble sandwich.  Toasted or plain, I would like you to come up with an interesting sandwich. The only stipulation is that it must be suitable for vegetarians."

My Mum probably makes the best sandwiches, she always ensures that there was plenty of filling and that the filling goest right to the edge of the sandwich, the best way to achieve this is by cutting off the crusts. But I'm not going to make that kind of sandwich because ever since the early stages of the Great British Bake Off, I've been hankering to make some flatbreads.
 I used the recipe for 'Magic Bread Dough' from Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Everyday.It's an interesting mix of strong and plain flour and something I haven't tried before.
  
There is plenty of dough to make several different flatbreads. For the dough for my sandwich I added some chopped rosemary.  You can cook the flatbreads on a griddle but I put them in a hot (240C) oven for about 5-10 minutes.

This one is more like a pizza.  I spread the dough with, one of my favourite sauces, Maggi Chilli and Tomato Sauce straight from the bottle.  Then sprinkled over some grated Lockerbie Cheddar Cheese.


For the sandwich filling, I adapted  Hugh F-W's  Leek and Cheese Toastie from River Cottage Veg to lower the calorie count.

Leek and Cottage Cheese Flatbread Sandwich

15g butter
2 medium leeks, trimmed and finely chopped (white and pale green part only)
A couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves only
3 tablespoons of cottage cheese
1 tsp cornflour
50g cheddar
1 large rosemary flatbread
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a frying plan and add the leeks.  Cook gently until softened. Stir in the thyme.  Mix the cornflour with some of the liquid from the cottage cheese and add to the pan, add the cottage cheese and warm through.  Take off the heat and add two-thirds of the cheese .

Pile the leek and cheese filling onto one half of the flatbread and fold over, sprinkle over the rest of the cheese and place under a hot grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts.




Serve with salad

I served my sandwich with a Carrot, Cucumber and Apple Salad with chopped Pistachio nuts


To finish off, I'd like to show you the sweet flatbread that I made, using the basic dough a few dried apricots, chopped white chocolate and ground almonds.


After it was baked, I glazed it with honey and put it back in the oven for a couple of minutes. 
I'm entering this for No Croutons Required run by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Labels: apples, apricots, carrots, flatbread, ground almonds, Herbs on Saturday, Leeks, No Croutons Required, salad, sandwiches, Simple and in Season, white chocolate

posted by Janice @ 21:26 10 Comments

Pear and Blackberry Frangipane Tart

It was a rather wet start on Sunday, but when it dried up after lunch, I went out and noticed that there were a lot of 'brambles' which were ripe.  I started to pick them, but once my hands were full, had to come back to the house for a bowl!

I put most of the blackberries in the freezer but decided to keep some back to make a dessert.

Pear and Blackberry Frangipane Tart

1 traybake tin  approx 30 x 23 x 4cm (12" x 9" x 1 ½")
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
3 tbsp raspberry jam
1 or 2 poached pears, quartered
100g blackberries (or a couple of handfuls)

for the Frangipane
55g butter
55g caster sugar
40g ground almonds
1 large egg
15g plain flour

1. Heat the oven to 180C/170C fan oven
2. Line the tin with the pastry and trim to fit
3. Spread the raspberry jam on the base of the pastry
4. Using an electric mixer or a wooden spoon, beat together the frangipane ingredients
5. Add peached pears and sprinkle over the blackberries, push them down into the frangipane mix.
6. Bake at 170C for 20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

I served the tart warm with icecream, but you can also eat it cold.  If I was going to make this again I would make shortcrust pastry for the base as the puff pastry wasn't so good underneath especially when cold.


I had some company when I was out picking brambles, the horses in the next door field were very interested in what I was doing!

Labels: blackberries, dessert, frangipane, ground almonds, Pears, puff pastry, tart

posted by Janice @ 20:49 12 Comments