The Ordinary Cook

Roasted butternut, grapes and apple

20 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

This is based on a recipe from the book I reviewed recently, Molly Stevens’ All About Roasting.  I have been intrigued by roasted grapes since I saw them on Michele’s blog back in April.  Then I saw them in Molly Stevens’ book  and then again on Michele’s blog just last week.  I knew I had to try them.

There is a recipe in Stevens’ book which calls for slow roasting of grapes for a couple of hours.  I really want to try these but haven’t had the organisational ability needed for this yet. The combination of squash and grapes grabbed me though.  I made them last week with pumpkin, apple and grape and it was delicious, but we had tucked in before I remembered to take a photograph. So I made it again last night, this time with a butternut squash we had grown in the garden and some apples off one of the trees. We had it with roast chicken both times. But it would be good with anything, especially pork. Mr OC has taken the left-overs to enjoy at work today.

Molly Stevens’ suggests that you use either grapes or apple with the squash but I really like using both.  The tartness of the apple works well with the sweetness of the grapes and the squash.

Stevens’ suggests that you could use marjoram, rosemary, thyme or sage.  But my herb of choice would always be sage, as it is my favourite and it works well with the grapes and apple.

This makes enough for 3-4 as a side dish

20g butter, melted
1 tablespoon olive oil
5-6 sage leaves chopped finely
1-2 tablespoon of maple syrup
½ butternut squash
1 green apple
3-4 handfuls of grapes
salt and pepper

Method

Chop the butternut squash into cubes and the apple into 8 slices. Place the squash, apple and grapes into a bowl and toss with the butter, oil, maple syrup, sage and salt and pepper. Spread into a single layer on a roasting tray and place in a preheated oven at 200°c, gas mark 6, or in the middle of the roasting oven of the Aga. Roast for about 40 minutes until the squash, apples and grapes are nicely caramelised and tender. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Please try it, it is delicious. Michele’s recipe for grapes and sausages looks worth a try too.  That is next on my list now I know how lovely roasted grapes are.

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Shropshire Mint Cakes

18 Comments / Shropshire recipes, The Ordinary Cook /

Well, this is my first post in what I hope will become a series of Shropshire recipes. ( I suppose Fidget Pie was the first, but hey…).  Over the summer I found three books on Amazon,

and I found another today, which is winging its way through the British postal system as we speak.  I want to share some of these recipes with you to celebrate the traditional recipes of my lovely county.

The reason I found this fourth book is because I found the recipe for these mint cakes in the red and white book by Mary de Saulles, unfortunately the list of ingredients omits the sugar. So I found myself searching for the original recipe to find out how much sugar I should be using and I think it is in this book and I found the recipe online.

Whilst searching for this though, I found that a recipe for Shropshire Mint Cakes was published in an Australian newspaper on 24th April 1935.  How fantastic is that?  A Shropshire lass in search of a local recipe is assisted by a newspaper article published on the other side of the world 76 years ago.  The internet is a marvellous tool.

I couldn’t use this recipe either though because this one doesn’t seem to specify the amount of butter that you use.  The search has also revealed that like all recipes these little cakes can be adapted, one recipe uses currants but suggests that you could also use dried figs and the other recipe suggests the use of both currant and mixed peel. One recipe suggests that you make them by spreading the mixture over a square of pastry and topping with another square, cook, then slice into squares.  The other suggests that you make individual cakes.  I thought the latter would make for a neater cake, especially if my lack of dexterity became involved.

The Shropshire Mint Cake is a bit like the Eccles Cake, but with the addition of fresh mint.  You can really taste the mint and at first you think that these might be an acquired taste, but I can assure you that they soon become just that.  I had acquired a taste well before I was eating the fourth one in a row, warm from the oven (my well-known lack of willpower again!).

I urge you to give them a try.

For the pastry:

200g plain flour
100g butter, diced
1 tbsp caster sugar
enough cold water to mix

For the filling:
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
80g caster sugar
80g currants
50g softened butter
1 egg to glaze

Method

First of all place the chopped mint into a bowl and add 40g of the caster sugar and mix well. Leave to sit for at least an hour until the mint juices start to run.

Make the pastry by placing the flour and the diced butter in a bowl and rubbing the butter into the flour using the tips of your fingers, lifting your hands up high over the bowl to incorporate air. (I would use my food processor, but it broke and is at my Dad’s as he valiantly tries to repair it for me – thank goodness for Dads). When it looks like fine breadcrumbs, stir in the tablespoon of sugar and add enough water to make a smooth dough. Flatten the dough slightly into a disc and  wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for thirty minutes.

Place the currants, mint mixture, remaining sugar and the butter into a bowl and using a fork combine well.

Roll the pastry quite thinly and cut out discs using a scone/cookie cutter.  Place half of these discs onto two baking sheets. Then place teaspoonfuls of the currant mixture in the middle of the discs. I used a scone cutter that measures 6 cm and this made 24 little cakes.

Beat the egg with a fork and then brush a little of the egg all around the edge of the discs of pastry and place another disc on top, sealing well around the edge by pressing with your finger.  Brush the egg all over the tops and then place the baking trays in a preheated oven at 200°c, gas mark 6 or the middle/bottom of the roasting oven of the Aga for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove carefully onto a wire rack and leave to cool a little before you sample your first one.

 

 

 

 

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Book Review-All About Roasting

6 Comments / Book review, The Ordinary Cook /

I have not received any payment for this review.  I did receive a free review copy of the book and was asked by the publishers to review this item on this blog. This review represents my considered and honest opinion of the book. 

I was pleased to receive a review copy of this book in the post a few weeks ago. As regular readers of this blog will know the Sunday roast dinner is a tradition that we like to uphold in this household.  I have picked this book up lots of times in the last couple of weeks – sometimes just for a read whilst I have a cup of tea or eat my breakfast ( I am not one for doing just the one thing at a time); sometimes to get inspiration and twice to follow a recipe.  As regular readers will also know I am virtually incapable of following a recipe word for word, so there are no pictures of the recipes that I (sort of) followed. However, I used the recipe for Tandoori-style roasted chicken legs (except I used diced lamb shoulder and didn’t have the pot of yoghurt in the fridge that I thought was there and so marinated the lamb in the spices first and then added the yoghurt later after returning from the shops.  This resulted in the paprika having already disappeared into the meat and the finished dish being more white than red) and the resulting dish, with its small changes, was very good indeed.  I also sort of followed the porchetta recipe for sunday dinner, with a few short cuts and dabbling with the ingredients (what did I tell you about being incapable of following recipes?) and that was very good too.

The recipes in this book take you from the basics (Straight-up Roast Beef) to the more complex (Pork Tenderloin Roulade with Fig-Cherry Stuffing and Port Wine Sauce). Each recipe has at least three or four pages of text which gives an indication of the technical detail this book goes into.  For example for the porchetta there are seven pages dedicated to this one recipe.  It begins with a mouth-watering photo of the end result then an introduction of the inspiration behind the recipe (New York’s Porchetta).  A description of the number of people the recipe will serve, how long it takes, how to plan ahead, and which wine you should serve with it. Then two pages listing the ingredients and thorough instructions.  A page with detailed photographs showing you how to season and tie the porchetta.  A page about shopping for the porchetta and finally a page with another photo of the finished roast made into sandwiches. It is the attention to detail for each recipe which makes this book a worthwhile buy.  Even if you are, like me, incapable of following a recipe word for word each recipe provides enough detail to make you think about experimenting with the way you cook your roast.

Whilst this book would particularly suit a meat-eater with chapters devoted to beef and lamb; pork; chicken and poultry; fish and shellfish, it does also have 100 pages devoted to the roasting of vegetables and fruit. Roasted brussel sprouts with capers and lemony browned butter and slow roasted grapes are two recipes in particular which are calling out to me.

The main reason to buy this weighty tome is for the technical knowledge contained within it.  I admit to have never having heard of Molly Stevens before I received the email from the publishers asking me to review this book but I have been digging around the internet to find out more about her.  She is a classically trained chef, cookery writer and teacher based in the US and it is this last skill that shines through in the book. She provides lots of detailed instructions and tips and I like the concept of providing shopping tips with each recipes. However, as this is an American cook book the shopping tips are rarely useful for the UK based reader.

And this is perhaps the one reason I wouldn’t spend £25.00 on this book.  It is written for the American market and has not been adapted for the UK market. As a result I now understand even more how some of my own recipes on this site may well be confusing for my American readers.  Apart from the measurements (cups and sticks), and this book does provide comprehensive conversion tables in the introduction, Americans also use different terms for cuts of meat, particularly it seems for beef.  The terms strip loin, top round, tri-tip roast and flank steak are unfamiliar to the British reader and it is difficult to understand which cut we should be buying. A note about this in the Conversion Tables chapter would be very welcome as a means of decoding the book.

Having said that, for me, the best bit of this book is the introduction in which Stevens covers the principles of roasting and where her technical knowledge and skills really shine.  The chapter is very illuminating on the actual techniques of roasting and whether something should be fast roasted in the highest heat or slow roasted at low heat, or indeed roasted at a moderate temperature.  It gives detail of what constitutes roasting and how it differs from baking, the history of roasting and the science behind roasting. She also details how to test for doneness and the importance of basting, using fat and resting the meat.  But quite the most interesting thing is her use of presalting the meat hours in advance to produce the juiciest of roasts and it is this that will probably have the biggest impact on any future roasting that I will do.

In conclusion then, would I buy this book?  Well, it’s an interesting read with some interesting recipes and it is a good technical instruction manual on how to roast food.  It is a shame, however, that it has not been adapted for the UK market and so perhaps with its current price at £25.00 I might be more tempted by a homegrown book over this one if I was just looking for a recipe book. However, if you are keen to develop your technical cooking skills and knowledge then this book would be a very good buy.

The book will be available to buy in November and is published by W.W.Norton & Company (ISBN978 0 393 06526 8).

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The All Shropshire Fidget Pie

12 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

Yesterday was the BIG day – the tasting of the actual All Shropshire Fidget Pie.

The Drive team at Radio Shropshire set themselves the task of making a fidget pie with all the ingredients sourced from producers in Shropshire and they used my recipe as the ultimate fidget pie.

The last two weeks have seen Vicki and Adam from the Drive programme charging around the beautiful Shropshire countryside meeting wonderful producers to gather the necessary ingredients. They visited a poultry farm and saw newly hatched chicks; a dairy farm where the cows are milked robotically (yes you read that bit right – the cow decides herself when her udders are heavy enough to be taken into the milking parlour); a rare breed pig farm; a farm where they turn an apple into a wonderful beverage.  They sourced wholemeal flour from Daniel’s Mill, cream and butter from Acton Scott, water from Wenlock Water, apples from a Blenheim Orange tree owned by a couple who now supply Attingham Park with their apples, Wilja potatoes from Rolly Farm, honey from Church Stretton and sage and green chilli from kind listeners’ gardens.

It has been really wonderful listening to their adventures and hearing all about the fantastic producers that we have here in Shropshire. I have been very jealous and have wanted to join them on their sojourns across the county.

Then yesterday they took all of the ingredients to The Plough Inn at Allscott and assembled and cooked their pie with the help of Martin, the chef. When I listened to it all on the radio I was very nervous, hoping that Martin would like my fidget pie as much as I do.  I heard him struggling with the pastry as it is very short with all that butter and of course using wholemeal flour makes it even more tricky to roll.  But he valiantly managed it and Martin loved the pie and as he was making it for his lunch guests I hope that they did too.

Then it was my turn to taste it.  I went to the radio station yesterday afternoon and into the studio with Vicki and Adam doing a live show.  It’s quite nerve-wracking sitting in a studio with mics and expensive looking radio equipment all around you knowing that the county is listening.  I was presented with my piece of pie and I was very relieved to find that my recipe had stood up to it and that the pie was indeed delicious.  The ingredients from all those wonderful producers made the pie quite outstanding and the pastry tasted fantastic (note to self: must use wholemeal flour in pastry more often).  The combination of cider, cream, rare breed gammon, apple, potato and pastry is one that is very hard to beat. Martin and Vicki both felt that it needed a bit more seasoning. Of course, salt and pepper are not produced in Shropshire so they had used a bit of chilli and relied on the gammon bringing its own salt to the dish.  However, I thought it was great as it was (I am always a bit light handed with the salt anyway).

Being involved in the making of this pie has been really exciting and I have absolutely loved listening to Vicki and Adam visiting the people who have provided the ingredients.  For a while now I have been thinking about sharing some more Shropshire recipes with you and I think this is just the impetus I needed.  So be prepared for more Shropshire recipes here in the coming weeks and months.

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Honeycomb chocolate cupcakes

13 Comments / chocolate, sweet, The Ordinary Cook /

This is my contribution to this month’s We Should Cocoa Challenge.  This month it is very exciting as the challenge is a year old (time flies!) and Chele wanted everyone to make a cake suitable for a first birthday.

My cupcakes are inspired by the wonderful blogs of both Chele and Choclette, the brilliant bloggers behind We Should Cocoa.  They have both recently featured honeycomb – Chele made Nigella’s Hokey Pokey and Choclette reviewed some very delicious looking honeycomb draped in Valrhona (drooling!).  I knew I had to make some honeycomb and soon.  Then I thought about a cupcake featuring honeycomb. When I was making them it seemed obvious that I needed to use spelt flour as I learned about spelt flour from Choclette.  The spelt flour has the consistency of wholemeal and so adds a bit more texture to the cupcake.  I happen to like this, but if you prefer yours in the traditional style then by all means use plain flour.

And, of course, if you are only one year old you don’t want a great big slab of cake (or you may want a big slab but your mummy won’t let you), so a cupcake is perfect.

Thanks to Chele and Choclette for a fabulous monthly challenge which has inspired me many times during the last year.

Before I divulge the recipe I have a few confessions to make.  I cooked the cupcakes with honeycomb sprinkled inside the batter, but all it did was dissolve and escape out of the top of the cakes so I wouldn’t bother with doing that again. My instructions for making the cupcakes will leave this bit out.  Also, when I was making the hokey pokey I reduced the amount of bicarb from the original recipe from 1½tsps to 1 tsp.

To make the cakes, first make the hokey pokey as described by Chele. Then make the cupcake batter as follows.

110g caster sugar
110g softened butter (unsalted)
pinch of salt
2 eggs
20g cocoa powder
1 heaped tsp instant coffee powder
100ml hot water
140g flour (spelt or plain)
1 tsp baking powder

Method
Dissolve the cocoa powder and the instant coffee in the hot water and allow to cool. Place all the ingredients into a large bowl and whisk until well combined.  Spoon into cupcake cases and bake in a preheated oven at 180°c, gas mark 4 or in the baking oven of the Aga for 12-15 minutes until cooked.  When you place a fingertip on top the cake should spring back. Remove the cakes in their cases to a wire rack to cool.

Make this chocolate frosting and top with honeycomb.  Make a cup of tea and enjoy.

 

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Judging those sausages at Ludlow

4 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

Firstly, I must apologise for this post taking a week to write. My eldest was seven at the weekend (where did those seven years run off to?) and so last week was a frenzy of tidying, planning, buying and cooking.  (Note to self: next year convince her that a party at the ball pit or ice rink is a much better idea than a party in the garden).

Anyway, the Ludlow Food Festival was brilliant this year.  I had my best year yet there, wandering around finding all the brilliant local producers, trying and buying their wares.  I also met up with Jo and Louise from Midland Food Bloggers.  It was lovely to meet them and have a chat and a wander.

Then at 3pm the main event for me was being part of the judging team for the Expert’s Choice for the best sausage of the five sausages on this year’s Sausage Trail.  The judging panel this year was myself, The Sausage King and his very adorable young son The Sausage Prince (who of course was the best judge at the table – that kid knows his sausages) and Rosanna Taylor-Smith, Councillor for Ludlow North.

Every year, as part of the festival, there is a sausage trail, with two rounds of judging.  The Peoples’ Choice Award and the Expert’s Choice Award.  For the first festival-goers buy a Sausage Trail Leaflet and then set off to try a bit of each of the sausages.  (It is extremely popular and the queues at each sausage stand are a sight to behold.) They then award each sausage a score, decide which one is best, take their leaflet to the final sausage tent and swap their completed leaflet for their favourite sausage in a bun. All of these leaflets are sorted and the sausage with the most votes becomes the People’s Choice.  Then a panel gets to try all five sausages and decided which sausage should win the Expert’s Choice.  This is the second year I have been on this panel and the judging is great fun, if not just a little bit difficult because of the very high standard.

All five butchers are local to Ludlow and the surrounding area and all five are traditional butchers producing some excellent quality meat. The sausages were all of a very high standard and all tasted mighty fine.  However, for the expert panel there were two sausages which came very close to being the best.  We all tasted and then tasted again, and then tasted again.  But in the end we all came to the same conclusion, the sausage from D W Walls just about clinched it, with Griffiths’ sausage coming a very close second.

The People Choice Award also went to Walls, with the Ludlow Food centre coming a very close second in that competition.

The entries this year were:

Andrew Francis Butchers – Pork with cracked black pepper
A. H Griffiths Butchers – Pork with sundried tomatoes and mushrooms
Legges of Bromyard – Pork with smoked pancetta and rocket
Ludlow Food Centre – Pork with blue cheese, redcurrant jelly and port
D W Wall – Pork with camembert, chives and redcurrant jelly

I do hope I can do it all again next year.

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BBC Radio Shropshire’s Fidget Pie

16 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

It has been another exciting day!  I have become a radio star (well ok, not quite, but nearly…).

BBC Radio Shropshire, my local radio station, have tasked themselves with making an entirely Shropshire Fidget Pie.  The Fidget Pie, as regular readers may remember, is a traditional pie of Shropshire.  The name is reputed to come from Fitcheted, meaning five sided (so presumably it used to be made five sided), or alternatively from being carried about in the pockets of farm workers and the filling fidgeting about.  Either way, I was captivated by its deliciousness when I discovered it and you can read my original post about it here.

In the BBC Radio Shropshire’s quest to make an entirely Shropshire Fidget Pie they came across that particular blog entry and decided that my pie deserves the status of the ultimate fidget pie (look away quickly, I am blushing).  I am extremely proud of this – I love food and I love Shropshire and in the Fidget Pie these two things are combined.

Their mission is to find the ingredients of everything in the fidget pie in Shropshire, including the pie dish.  They admit that it might be difficult to find salt and pepper, in which case an alternative will be sought.  But Shropshire is a farming county and we have some wonderful producers.  I, for one, am looking forward to following them in their mission to source everything locally.  Their promotion of local food is wonderful and the concept of creating an entirely Shropshire Fidget Pie is an exciting one.

Vicki Archer,one of the co-presenters of the Drive programme, came to my house to interview me and try my Fidget Pie and the results of that interview can be heard for the next seven days here. If you do want to listen, the interview starts 43 minutes into the show and is in three segments, the last starts about 1 hour and 10 minutes into the show.

I am ridiculously pleased to be on the radio talking about something I love.  I will be going along to the final tastings of the entirely Shropshire Fidget Pie in a few weeks and will let you know how that goes.

 

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Judging Sausages at Ludlow

11 Comments / The Ordinary Cook /

It’s going to be a busy and exciting weekend.  It’s Ludlow Food Festival weekend – a major highlight of the foodie year – and this will be the second time I am going to be a sausage judge for the Expert’s Choice and helping to decide which sausage should take the top accolade this year (banish all thoughts relating to either Julian Clary or Frankie Howerd immediately!).  It was great fun last year and so I very much expect it to be the same this year. I am looking forward to meeting The Sausage King this year, as last year circumstances meant he couldn’t be there to proffer his knowledge of all things sausage. You can see how I got on last year as a judge in this post.

Whilst I am there I am taking the opportunity to meet up with other fellow Midland Food Bloggers, including Louise of Comida y Vida and Jo from Jo’s Kitchen. I am really looking forward to what should be a great day out.  I will let you know next week how the sausage judging went and what the highlights of this year’s festival were for me.

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Damson or Plum Jam

31 Comments / damsons, jam, The Ordinary Cook /

Damson jam is a big favourite in this house.  I love it and my youngest adores it too.  We are lucky enough to have a couple of damson trees in the garden and they produce well most years.  I usually make something with them before freezing some for that lovely winter treat stewed damsons.  Sometimes I will make pickled damsons, otherwise damson vodka (very popular round here for some reason) or damson jam and if I am feeling especially productive I will manage all three.  This week is the turn of the jam. It is very easy to make and very delicious to eat. The same recipe can be used for plums of any description.

This makes about 6-7 jars of varying sizes or 8 lb jars

1.5kg damsons
1.25kg granulated sugar
400ml water

Method

I can never be faffed to stone my damsons before making this jam and so I cook them whole and then scoop most of the stones out before pouring into the jars and then take the rest out when spreading on my  bread. But if you have more patience than I do then go ahead and stone the damsons/plums.

Put the prepared damsons/ plums (i.e stems removed, any over ripe ones removed, washed) into a preserving pan with the water.  Simmer for about ten minutes until the fruit is soft. It may take longer for some varieties and some may be ready sooner so keep an eye on things.

Add the sugar and stir until dissolved.  Bring to boiling point and boil rapidly until setting point is achieved.  Setting point can be tested by placing 4 saucers in the fridge before you start making the jam and then you pour a teaspoonful of the jam onto a cold saucer.  Leave to cool for a minute or so and then push the jam with your finger, if it wrinkles, it is at setting point. If it doesn’t wrinkle then boil for a few more minutes and then test again.  Otherwise use a jam thermometer and it is ready when it reaches 104.5°c.

Remove any scum that has risen to the surface. Pot into sterilised jars and cover whilst hot.

 

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Madeiran Custard Tarts – Pasteis de Nata

10 Comments / eggs, pastry, The Ordinary Cook /

These custard tarts are very Portuguese ( Madeira is a Portuguese Island) and very delicious.  They put the English custard tart to shame with their egginess and deliciousness.  The many bakeries in Madeira are the best place to buy them, should you find yourself on the island any time soon. The tarts available in the supermarkets (Pingo Doce and SA) are just not as good. But if you find a good bakery then these little treats are divine – crusty flaky pastry filled to the brim with sweet unctuous egg custard and caramelised on top.

I was determined to have a go when I got home so I searched blog sites and YouTube and found this video.  I watched it, tried my best to translate it, and then halved the mixture (because even I can’t eat 24).  I then had a go on Monday afternoon, trying to memorise what she did.  Needless to say I got it wrong.  I forgot the boiling the sugar part and just added the sugar to the milk.  I also didn’t note that she was just using the egg yolks and so I added the whole eggs.  The result tasted pretty good but it wasn’t the same as I had when in Madeira.  So today I watched the video again, took more note of what she is actually doing and then made them again. I am pretty pleased with the result.

I used a lot more pastry than the lady in the video does but then I am a big pastry fan.  You may want to be more light handed with your pastry than I am and make the bases a little thinner.

500g puff pastry or Delia’s Quick Flaky Pastry (recipe below)
250ml milk
A good sized strip of lemon peel (removed using my vegetable peeler)
1 cinnamon stick
30g plain (all purpose) flour
250g sugar
125ml water
4 egg yolks

Method

Place the flour in a small bowl and use about 50ml of the milk to make a smooth paste.  Pour the rest of the milk into a saucepan, add the lemon peel and cinnamon and heat to boiling point.

In the meantime, pour the sugar into another saucepan and add the water.  Place over a gentle heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.  Stop stirring, turn up the heat, bring to the boil and let it boil for three minutes.

When the milk has come to the boil stir in the flour and milk paste and using a whisk keep whisking until smooth.  Cook for a minute or two, stirring all the time, to cook out the flour.  Once the sugar syrup has boiled for three minutes, carefully (because it will be very hot) and gradually add the sugar syrup to the milk mixture, whisking all the time.  When it has all been added allow to boil for a minute.  Then strain the mixture through a sieve to remove the lemon peel and cinnamon stick.  Allow to cool whilst you put the pastry into a muffin tin.

If you are using ready made puff pastry roll it out into a rectangle and then roll up into swiss roll shape and slice into 12 even sized pieces.  If you are making Delia’s Quick Flaky pastry then form into a long sausage before chilling.

Take each piece and mould, using your thumb and fingers, into the hole of a muffin tray ( if you watch the video you will see what I mean).

Now add the egg yolks to the custard mixture and whisk in well. Make sure that the custard mixture is not still hot or the egg yolks will scramble. Pour this mixture into the pastry moulds and cook in a preheated oven at 250°c for about 15-20 minutes.   (I cooked mine in my Aga which does not reach 250°c, so I cooked them on the floor of the roasting oven for ten minutes to cook the base of the pastry cases, then moved to near the top of the roasting oven for another fifteen minutes before they were cooked to my liking and nicely caramelised on top.)

For Delia’s Quick Flaky Pastry:

When I made these tarts on Monday I followed Delia’s recipe word for word but the pastry only stretched to fill nine muffin holes so I made 1½ times the mixture today which yields nearly 700g of pastry.  This is more than enough for 12 and a bit left over for jam tarts or cheese straws depending on how the fancy takes me later.

350g plain flour
250g butter
pinch of salt (if you are using unsalted butter)
cold water to mix ( I probably used about 1 large wine glass full)

Method

Place the butter in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Put the flour and salt in a bowl. Grate the butter over the flour and mix with a palette knife.  Add water and continue to mix with the knife until it starts to come together.  Then quickly use your hands to bring it into a sausage shape.  Wrap in clingfilm or a food bag and chill in the fridge for thirty minutes.  The key is to handle it with your warm hands as little as possible to keep it flaky.  When you are ready, take golf ball size pieces of pastry and mould into the muffin holes.

 

 

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