Maggie's gourmet pasties.

This week’s Friday baking club has been a bit hampered by a cold that just won’t go away. Anyway I decided to rest on Friday and baked on Saturday instead. Inspiration for this week has been a couple of weeks in gestation, as I’ve been dreaming of savory pastry treats. Up in Blackheath it was pies and puff pastry and last week it was pasties. I’d even flicked through a few recipe books and had decided on a recipe but I was hampered by the pre-bug as I spent most of the weekend tired and recovering from boxing, swimming and cycling with a spot of vintage furniture shopping thrown in. So alas the pasties didn’t get made.

Anyway this week I was determined to get into the kitchen and give Maggie Beer’s recipe for Spicy Pork and Apple pasties a go. Maggie has a few recipes that use gluten free pastry, this one is her cream cheese one. I’d not heard of it before and it intrigued me so decided to give it a go. Be warned though it is a coronary giving recipe with 500g cream cheese and 300g of butter for a measly eight pasties! Oh well I suppose we only live once and it’s always good to try new things.

So come Saturday morning arrived and I kicked off my making the pastry and soaking the fruit first before going to the osteopath. For me the pastry was the most daunting thing about the recipe as I didn’t have a food processor so I had to rub in 800g of shortening into 4 cups of flour by hand! A friend had mentioned that I might be able to use my mixer as she remembered her mum doing the same thing so after rubbing in about three quarters of the shortening and the dough didn’t look like forming a ball I got Kitchen Aid down and gave it a whirl with a flat beater. Now I wouldn’t recommend you use it straight away as you’d have flour flying everywhere especially when the butter and cream cheese is hard and the flour is just up to under the lip of the bowl, but worked OK once I given it a reasonable go by hand. I finished off with the dough hook and it came together in a ball and I just gave it a quick working over by hand in the bowl. And the pastry was reasonably easy to work into rounds between baking paper. Although in the future I’d try to go a smidge thinner.

Now compared to the pasties of my childhood these are rather gourmet with dried fruit, pine nuts, honey cinnamon and ginger, not to mention the fancy pastry and the pork mince! I’m more used to beef mince and grated carrot, potato, parsnip, turnip, parsley and bit of chopped onion. And super thin pre-rolled puff pastry. Having said that, the pastry holds it shape well and browns up a treat and although they are salty and cheesy meaning having more than one in a sitting is a challenge, they are very tasty. And sometime in the not too distant future I’d be keen to give them another go with less salt and cheese and a more traditional filling and I’m sure they’d be tasty too. Anyway for another day. So here it is, Maggie’s pasties. Enjoy!

Spicy Pork and Apple Pasties (Maggie’s Kitchen by Maggie Beer)
Makes 8

1/3 c pine nuts
½c verjuice
¼c dried currants
1/3c dried apples, chopped
Olive oil for cooking
1 small onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1Tbsp ground ginger
1Tbsp ground cinnamon
2Tbsp honey
500g minced pork
¼ preserved lemon rind, chopped (or lemon rind)
2 eggs
¼c flat leafed parsley, chopped
1½ tsp sea salt
Ground black pepper
1 egg beaten with 1Tbsp pouring cream (or milk)
Pastry
500g chilled cream cheese cut into chunks
300g chilled unsalted butter, chopped
1 1/3c rice flour
1 1/3c maize/cornflour
1 1/3c potato flour
2 Tbsp salt (too much I’d only use 2 tsp)
8g xanthan gum

1. Roast or pan fry pine nuts until golden, set aside to cool.

2. Place ¼c of verjuice in each of 2 small saucepans, then add the currents to one and the dried apples to another. Heat both pans gently over low heat for a few minutes, then set aside to plum and cool (can also be done in bowls in the microwave for 1-2 minutes)

3. Heat a splash of olive oil in a small frying pan over low-medium heat, then saute onion and garlic until translucent but not coloured. Add ginger and cinnamon and cook for another minute or so until spices give off a rich scent; take care not to burn them. Remove from heat, stir in honey and leave to cool.

4. Put minced pork pine nuts, cooled onion mixture, soaked currants and apple mixtures (including the soaking juices), preserved lemon, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

5. For the gluten free pastry: if doing by hand - whisk flours, xanthan gum and salt in a large bowl, rub in butter and cream cheese until a ball of dough is formed. If you have a kitchen aid or mixer some of this may be able to be done using the flat beater. If using a food processor pulse cream cheese and butter until combined. Add flour, salt and xanthan gum, then whiz to just combine scraping down the side of the bow with a spatula. If the dough doesn’t come together to form a ball add a little chilled water – 1 Tbsp at the most.

6. Turn dough out onto a bench dusted with a little extra gluten-free flour. Bring dough together with your hands, then knead for 3-4 minutes or until it forms a ball. Although this pastry does not need to be chilled for a long time, it is easier to handle if placed the refrigerator for 5 minutes before rolling out.

7. Divide dough into 8 even pieces, then roll out each piece, one at a time, between 2 pieces of baking paper to make a 3mm thick round (about the size of a side plate)

8. Divide filling into eights, then place one-eight on the bottom half of each pastry round. Fold pastry over to encase the filling, then fold over the edges thickly to seal, trimming off any excess pastry. Brush with egg wash made by beating egg with cream, then place on baking tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate for 10-15 minutes.

9. Preheat fan forced oven to 230C

10. Bake pasties for 20-25 minutes or until golden then serve.

Left over pastry can be combined and kept in the fridge for a few weeks. It can be used to make a quick cheese tart or topped with fruit such as apples, pears or berries for a sweet tart.

Baked 18 September 2010

Take 2 - Up-side down pineapple polenta cakes

Well I decided to do a spot of mid-week baking and try and prefect the up-side down pineapple polenta cakes. This had the added advantage that I could also take them to friends at work that I visit on Thursdays when I work in the city! Hopefully they will have returned from the field to enjoy them.

Anyway as some of you will know I tried the these little up-side down cakes when I was in Blackheath over a week and a half ago. I wasn't completely happy with the recipe as the mixture was too generous and I thought I'd like more coconut. So I took Sue Sheppard's recipe, cut most ingredients down to two thirds of the original, used brown sugar instead of caster and added a little extra moisture by adding pineapple juice to the polenta soaking batter and just before spooning into the cupcake tine I also added the drained juice from the crushed pineapple. With the extra liquid the little cakes took an extra couple of minutes to bake but the end result was very tasty and moist, especially served up with natural yogurt.

Now the revised recipe is just enough to make 12 cupcakes using about a 1/4 of a cup of batter per cupcake and they are a bit more golden in colour due to the use of brown sugar over caster sugar. And thankfully they are just as tasty as Sue original recipe! And they were also a hit with the city work crew - yay!

Up-side down pineapple polenta cakes (Adapted from Sue Sheppard's Gluten Free Kitchen)

Makes 12
90g yogurt
60g butter softened
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
¼c pineapple juice
2/3c quick cooking polenta
50g rice flour
¼ cup shredded coconut
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarb soda
½ tsp xanthum gum
1c tinned crushed pineapple drained (440g tin)

1. Cream butter and sugar, mix in yogurt then eggs one at a time. Stir in polenta and pineapple juice until well combined. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat oven to 180degress C and line a 12 hole standard muffin tin.
3. Whisk the flour, coconut, baking powder, bicarb soda and xanthum gum in a large bowl until well combined.
4. Add half of the dry ingredients to the polenta mixture and beat on low spread until well combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix well. (When draining pineapple you can add the extra juice to the batter for extra flavor and moisture)
5. Divide drained crushed pineapple between each muffin tin – about a tablespoon per hole, then spoon in batter, dividing equally between each hole. Bake for 18-20 mins or until firm to touch. Cool in tin for 5 mins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool slightly. Serve pineapple side up. Great with cream or natural yogurt.

Baked Wednesday 15th October

Baking with Sarah - The Amazing Tart

Last Friday's baking deviated from the norm, its good to mix things up occasionally! An old friend from work also had Friday's off and we were keen to catch up. Sarah was also keen to have a go at some baking so what better opportunity to get together catch up do lunch and bake. I left it to Sarah to pick the recipe so with a bit of to and froing we decided to try something with short crust pasty. I had notions of pies and pasties but Sarah is vegetarian and was kind of keen to try a recipe for chocolate stuffed prunes in almond tart. I was quite surprised - its not a combination I'd ever heard of before, but oh let me tell you, its ever so tasty!

I was in two minds on whether to just use Sarah's recipe and just substitute the flour to make it gluten free or to try a tried and trusted tart base. In the end I went with the substitution as I was keen to try a different ratio of flour butter water and eggs to see if it works ok. And luckily it worked out rather well. To make up the flour combination I did use the same component flours and just adjusted the quantities to make up the smaller quantity of flour. It mixed together well and just required a little bit of cold water (approx 1Tbsp) to bring it all together properly. 

It was interesting working in someone else's kitchen and its refreshing to know that I'm not the only one who cooks in a small kitchen with not a great deal of bench space and with a less than accurate oven temperature dial! And it's reassuring that you can adapt and work around this. Don't get me wrong - I still dream of one day being able to bake in a spacious well appointed kitchen but until that day arrives I'm not going to let that stop me baking! It's also fun to bake with someone else who is also a bit forgetful. As we were making the pastry, me gluten free Sarah normal, we both made the same mistake of forgetting to put the sugar in with the flour and butter. Surprisingly enough the lake of sweetness in the pastry didn't detract from the tart at all. If anything it made the filling speak for its self in all its rich almondy and gooey chocolaty pruney flavour. Ever so delightful. We also nearly had a few mishaps with the filling as we often forgot that we were doubling the recipe and wondering why it didn't look right. Anyway fortunately we did remember at the right moment.

It was also a bit of a challenge as between us we only had to small tart tins so there was way too much filling but we improvised with ramekins to take the left overs. And baking times were a bit of a challenge without an accurate temperature and a variety of different tart and ramekin sizes but it all came together in the end. One thing to note that I deviated from the recipe by choosing to roll my pastry between two layers of baking paper rather than to grate and press the pasty into the time. That sounded a bit too random for the likes of me. And it was also much quicker to roll it and the fit was more even.

I think what makes this tart special is the combination of flavours. The prunes are plumped up with butter and brandy then stuffed with the best value dark chocolate you can afford. The stuffed prunes then float in a mix of roughly ground almonds more butter, brandy and eggs and it comes together really well. And it is best served warm so that chocolate is gooey inside of the prunes. Anyway it is quite rich and not for the faint hearted and goes well with double cream or natural yogurt.

Anyway the tart made it out of the oven just in time for Sarah to go pick up her boys from school and for me to go buy a sewing machine. I've decided I need to look after my heart and waistline by only baking one item a week and spend some of the spare time trying to master the basics of sewing! Phew, we'll see how that one goes.  So thanks Sarah for sharing your kitchen and this recipe with me, we must do it again sometime. And now other can enjoy it too!

Chocolate-stuffed prunes in an almond tart (The Cranks Bible by Nadine Abensur)

pastry
90g unsalted butter, cold & diced
95g rice flour
50g cornflour
30g soy flour
1tsp xanthan gum
60g caster sugar (optional)
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
filling
300g semi dried plums or 225g soft prunes (pitted)
175g caster sugar
175ml brandy
90g dark chocolate
175g whole almonds
175g butter
2 eggs

Pastry
1. In a bowl whisk flours, salt and xanthan gum, add sugar if desired then rub the butter into the flour mix to form fine crumbs.
2. Bring together with egg yolks and a little cold water if needed. Roll the ball around the bowl a couple of times until it is smooth and the colour of polenta. Wrap in cling-wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease 28cm tart tin.
4. Roll the pastry between two sheets of baking paper, (or if you prefer grate into time and press it down). Refrigerate for 20minutes.
5. Blind bake for 10-15 minutes until pale golden.
Filling
6.Tuck the prunes into a small pan with 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and 60ml of the brandy. Simmer gently for about 5 minutes, turning each prune/plum in the process so that all the brandy is absorbed and they are coated in a thin layer of sticky syrup.
7. Allow prunes to cool and stuff them full of chocolate.
8. Process whole almonds in a processor, spice or coffee grinder until they are broken up into a mixture of fine and coarser grits.
9. Beat almonds, sugar and butter together and whisk in eggs one at a time, continuing until they are well blended. Finally add the remaining brandy and mix well. The mixture is almost bound to split and look curdled but don't become alarmed as it will come together again in the oven.
10. Lay stuffed prunes in the pasty shell then spread the almond mixture all the round. It will spread and fill any gaps on cooking. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until crisp on top, moist in the middle and the chocolate is melting inside the prunes. Serve warm.
Note: This recipe can be made ahead an warmed in the oven for a couple of minutes, especially to get the melted chocolate which is a special treat!

Baked Friday 10th September 2010

Blackheath Baking: Up-side down pineapple polenta cakes Part 1

Friday morning dawned in Blackheath, misty and damp. A bit of a shock after some very lovely weather warmer than average spring weather. So instead of boxing down at Bronte I curled up with my latest Ian Rankin. Breakfast was fruit salad, yogurt and date walnut and treacle toast. Yum! I’d baked a loaf on Wednesday night to take up with us – similar to my previous loaf with an additional tablespoon of treacle to the warm water for a bit of extra colour and sweetness. Not bad indeed.

As we were in Blackheath for the weekend with another couple staying at Neil’s parents holiday cottage I hadn’t planned any adventurous baking rather just plenty of time to potter around Blackheath and its surrounds. The weather was inspiring more inside pursuits although I did brave a walk into town myself to get a bit of exercise. I pottered through a secondhand bookstore and vintage markets coming away with good selection of current literature and crime novels. I also spied a new shop dedicated to homewares which was rather exciting. It had a multitude of baking tins so I was able to purchase 4 small deep dish pie tins, an oven thermometer and electric scales. The weather and the shop had me itching to be in my kitchen. I’d woken up that morning dreaming of making puff pastry and now I wanted to make meat pies! Oh well at least I had a few cookbooks to browse and get inspiration for another Friday.

Anyway the weekend wasn’t devoid of baking and experimenting with new recipes. I’d decided to try a recipe from Sue Shepards Gluten Free Kitchen for “Up-side down pineapple polenta cakes”. They didn’t look to difficult although there were quite different from anything I’d either eaten or baked. The recipe requires the polenta to be soaked in a butter, yogurt, sugar and egg mixture. It was later afternoon by the time I was spooning the mixture into the prepared muffin tins in the hope of a late afternoon snack. I was a bit surprised that the batter was excessive – probably 1 ½ times than that required. And indeed when they came out of the oven they had overflowed the tins. Still tasty fresh out of the oven, although I was the only one who decided to taste them warm. We had them the next day after lunch with a spoonful of cream and they were still fresh and tasty while the cream was a decadent addition. Now I’m not totally happy with the recipe so I’ve decided that I’ll have to have a play around with the recipe before I put it up on the blog. So stay tuned!

The only other tasty treat I baked was the previously tested and written up one for Self-saucing Jaffa puddings. The only addition I made to the recipe was to add 50g of dark chocolate as chunks to the batter before pouring over the boiling water. Also this time round I’d gone for the single pudding in a deep oven proof bowl and made sure that I’d put it on a tray just in-case there was any overflow. Now baking in the oven at Blackheath is always a challenge as there isn’t a temperature dial on the oven although the old knob is floating around for a rough guide but its in Fahrenheit! So I kept a close eye on the pudding to ensure that the sauce didn’t overflow. I also decided to pull it out after 30 minutes and it was a good call. The pudding was well cooked , there was plenty of sauce and there wasn’t any overflow! Yay. Mind you after such pre-dinner snacks and a roast lamb dinner there was only a very small amount of room for pudding and cream, but just big enough for a small taste! Mmmm.

Anyway it was nice to have a weekend away catching up with friends in the fresh mountain air, with plenty of inspiration for future Friday baking adventures.

Baked Friday 3rd September 2010.