Homemade Sausage Rolls

Hi guys, I decided to try a nice savoury recipe that everyone loves; sausage rolls, these are much better hand made! Happy baking xx

Ingredients:
12 pork sausages
2 rolls of puff pastry (750g approximately)
Salt and Pepper to your taste
5g mixed herbs
1 egg

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180' fan and line two baking trays with baking paper.

2. Skin the sausages into a bowl, so there is just sausage meat. Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Add in the herbs and mix everything in with your hands. Chill the sausage mixture until ready to use.

3. Take out the puff pastry and roll a little to stretch it out as it comes pre-rolled. Cut into 2-3 equal pieces and make a line of sausage meat down each part of pastry. Beat the egg into a cup and take a pastry brush and run some beaten egg down 1 side of each bit of pastry.

4. Fold the side of the pastry that doesn't have the egg strip, over the sausage meat and stick it down to the egged pastry side, crimp so the sausage meat is sealed inside a pastry case. Do this repeatedly for the other sausage rolls. Cut the rolls into 3-4 pieces depending on the size you want them. Place on a baking tray and egg wash the top of each individual sausage roll, then make 2 small incisions onto the top of each one.

5. Bake in the pre heated oven until the pastry is golden brown so about 15 minutes. Repeat for the other sausage rolls.

Happy Baking Beth xx

Delicious Summer Fruit Tartlets with Creme Patissiere

Hi guys, this recipe is amazing. The creme patissiere is beautiful. My family loved these tartlets, they went down really well. I hope you like them too!

Ingredients:

For Crème Patissiere:

300ml milk

1 tsp seeded vanilla essence 

3 large egg yolks 

50 g caster sugar

1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour

knob of butter

For Tarts:

300g shortcrust pastry ( I made my own pastry from a recipe)

400g mixed berries

1 kiwi cut into slices 

Method:

1. For the crème patissiere, pour the milk into a saucepan and add the seeded vanilla essence. Then bring the mix slowly to a gentle boil -- reduce the heat and gently simmer for a few minutes.

2. Put the egg yolks and the flour into a large bowl along with the sugar, and whisk for a few minutes until the mixture becomes pale and fluffy. You can tell when it's done as it will leave a small trail when you lift the blades up.

3. Pour about one third of the hot milk into the mixture whilst whisking constantly at a slow speed, until all of the milk has been mixed in. Then add the rest of the milk, doing the same.

4. Return the mix to the pan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly until the custard has thickened, and is smooth and glossy. It may look a bit lumpy to begin with, but don't worry keep stirring, it will become smooth. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2 minutes, whilst stirring. 

5. Remove the creme patissiere from the heat, beat in the knob of butter until melted, then scrape into a bowl. Cover the surface of the crème patissiere directly with cling film and leave to cool then put in the fridge until needed.

6. Heat the oven to 190C/170 fan. Divide the pastry in half. Put one half in the freezer for another use. The other half gets split in half again, so you have four pieces. Roll out each one to line the tartlet tins. Line each one with parchment paper and then put baking beans onto the parchment so it weighs down the pastry. Put on a baking tray and bake for ten minutes, then take out the parchment paper and beans. Bake for a further five minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden.

7. Trim the edges of the pastry after they have cooled slightly, then take out of the tins and leave on a wire rack to cool.

8. Fill the pastry cases with the creme patissiere and the berries, then add a slice of kiwi.

They are delicious, Happy Baking!  

Delish Mango and Lemon tart

I love this recipe as it's refreshing and so tasty! You'll absolutely love it - I know you will - happy baking! :-)
I got this recipe and altered it slightly from my Granny who saw Gino D'Acampo make it on a TV cooking show.

 Ingredients:

Ready roll pastry. ( It's not cheating - don't worry.)
2 mango's
1 egg white
200g of golden caster sugar, ( or demerara it tastes the same.)
150ml of double cream
4 free range eggs
Zest and juice of 2 un-waxed lemons.

Method:

1. Set the oven temperature to 190C

2.  Take the pastry and roll out to fit a 20cm flan tin. Prick the pastry with a fork. Make sure some of the pastry hangs off the side as you don't want it to shrink later on.

3. Put grease proof paper over the top and fill with baking beans to blind bake. Bake for 10 minutes. Then lift out the grease proof paper and bake for another 5 minutes.

4. Brush the pastry wit egg white and bake for another 5 minutes until the pastry case is shiny.

5. Bring the oven temperature down to  150C.

6. Whisk the caster sugar and the eggs until foamy.Then beat in the cream along with lemon zest and lemon juice.

7. Peel and cut the mango into small chunks ( about 1cm wide) and arrange on the bottom of the pastry case - pour over the lemon mixture.

8. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes it should have a slight wobble.

9. Cool at room temperature take out of the tin and enjoy!

Happy baking!  :-D  And trust me it tastes better than it looks! :-)

Cheese and Bacon Plaits

I adore this snack, it is so simple and quick to make. These cheese and bacon plaits are really good for party food. They are best served warm out of the oven! Have fun :-D

Ingredients:

Dijon mustard - only a little for brushing
1 pack of grated cheese
1 pack of bacon
Ready roll puff pastry

Method:

1. Pre- heat the oven to 200C.

2.. Roll out the puff pastry until roughly 30- 40 cm in length and width.

3. Brush the pastry lightly with Dijon mustard and sprinkle on the grated cheese.

4. Lay the bacon  horizontally onto the pastry about 3-4 cm apart.

5. Cut so there is one piece of bacon per slice.

6. Trim the ends of the pastry and pick up a slice and twist one hand clockwise and one had anti-clockwise so it makes a twirl. Carry on with the rest of the slices.

7. Bake for 10-20 mins.

Apple Puffs

An easy dessert to make, filled with apple deliciousness! I have put some cinnamon in to the apples for extra hint of spice.

 Ingredients 

Ready roll pastry

4 granny smith apples peeled , cored and cut into 8-9 pieces per apple

A shake of cinnamon

1 egg

 A couple of table spoons of brown sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Put the cut apples into a medium sized pot and put on the heat, keep stirring every minute or so to stop the  apples burning and sticking on the bottom of the pan.

2. Once the apples are getting softer and you can almost break them up with the wooden spoon add a shake of cinnamon. Stir into the apples and carry on stirring every minute or so.

3. When the apples are soft take off the heat and place onto a small cooking rack.

4. Roll out the pastry and when the apples are only just warm, with a wooden spoon, put a strip of apple in the middle of the pastry, use all of the apples!

5. Break the egg into a cup and beat to make the egg wash. Then put a bit of egg wash on either side of the pastry. Take the left side and put it over to the right side.

6. Put slits diagonally onto the top of the pastry and put the rest of the egg wash on the top with a big sprinkle of brown sugar.

7. Bake for 20- 25 mins until golden brown.

8. Serve with ice cream or cream.

Chocolate Tart

This recipe is in Jamie Oliver's 'How to make you a better cook' cook book. I have put my own twist on it by using a mixture of dark and milk chocolate. It tastes like a chocolate bomb has gone off in your mouth. It is a melt in the mouth sensation. We only waited for about half an hour because we were so tempted ,so we had a slice, it was amazing! :)  :-D  : 8)

Ingredients for pastry

325g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
565g plain flour sifted plus extra for dusting pastry
3 large  free- range eggs
45g coco powder

For the filling

200ml milk
Pint of cream (565ml)
65g caster sugar
175g milk chocolate
175g dark chocolate
2 large free-range eggs


Method


1.  Grease a loose bottomed tart tin with a little oil, so pastry doesn't stick to the bottom of the tin.

2. To make the pastry measure out the butter, plain flour and salt and then put into a food processor and mix. Transfer into a mixing bowl and add the eggs and coco powder and mix together, then form into a ball of dough.

3. Wrap up in cling film and put into the fridge for 1 hour and pre-heat the oven to 180C.

4. Roll out the dough, line the inside of your tin with it and put in the freezer for half an hour.

5. Take out of the freezer and blind bake for 15-20 mins. Blind baking means to part cook your pastry case, so the bottom of your pastry base dose not go soggy when you put the filling inside. To prevent the pastry case from rising whilst you are blind baking, cover the pastry with some grease proof paper and place a weight on top of it. I use ceramic baking beans.

6. To make the delicious chocolate centre, put the milk, cream and sugar into a saucepan and slowly bring to the boil, while stirring, when the creamy mix is boiling, turn off heat and break up chocolate and put in the sauce pan to melt. Take out grease proof paper and slide pastry back into the oven. When chocolate has melted slide the oven tray half out of the oven, and pour filling into pastry base.


7 Slip the oven tray back into the oven carefully,bake for a further 15 - 20 mins, until the centre has a slight wobble to it.


8. Cool naturally for an hour and then put in the fridge for half an hour.


This is lovely served with ice cream! (=ＴェＴ=)