SPOOKY SAUSAGE ROLLS AND EERIE ECCLES CAKES

This recipe, if you can really call it that, came from an idea I spotted on Facebook. 

Mine didn't quite look quite as regular as the originals!

But fun to make and very tasty.

What's not to love about a frankfurter in puff pastry?!

They are quite easy to do although the markings are a bit fiddly.

With the pastry trimmings I made a few eerie Eccles cakes.

This is also from an idea I also spotted on Facebook, from the wonderful Nancy Birtwhistle.

The recipe is in her excellent book "Green and Easy Kitchen".

You can see the recipe here.

Mine were slightly over baked but tasted good nonetheless.

Ingredients

For the sausage rolls

1 pack ready made, ready rolled puff pastry.  Bring to room temperature for about 15 minutes. 

    Mine was a circle so hence the trimmings.

 ½ pack of snack frankfurters, so 5 frankfurters

Method

Cut each frankfurter into three pieces.  Mine were about 9" long so three 3" pieces.

Unroll the pastry and cut 15 squares about 3" square.

Plonk a square of pastry squarely over the end of a piece of sausage and ease the corners down over it to look like a ghost.

Cut two eyeholes and a mouth in each one.  To do this I used a piece of plastic straw.  I cut one end flat to pinch out round holes for the eyes.  I slashed an angled cut to make holes for the mouth.

Place the spooks on a baking sheet and bake at 180°C for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.

Makes 15 scary sausage rolls.

For the Eccles cakes  (my quantities are very approximate)

Pastry trimmings (if you have any)

2 tblsp currants

a splash of elderflower liqueur or cordial

2 tsp caster sugar

boiling water

milk and demerara sugar for sprinkling

Method

Put the currants, sugar and cordial/liqueur into a small bowl and mix together.  Cover with boiling water and set aside for the currants to plump up.

Gather all the pastry trimmings together and form into a ball.  Roll out as thinly as possible and cut into as many circles as you can using a 3" cutter.  Re-roll trimmings to use as much as possible.  I managed to get 6 circles from mine.

Put a scant teaspoon of currant mixture onto each circle and gather it up like a sack/purse.  Squeeze the edges together and put the gathered side underneath on a worktop or board.  

Flatten and roll out thinly so that the currants are visible through the pastry.

Cut holes for the eyes and mouth as for the sausage rolls.

Brush each one with milk and sprinkle demerara sugar over.

Bake at 180° fan for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Makes as many as you can from your trimmings.

*Nancy says in her book that the Eccles cake is 500 years old.  Really?  So I looked it up.

There is an interesting piece about it that you can read here.  

I am undecided whether it is true or made up!  However, just in case the link disappears I am sharing the text here, it's too fascinating to lose it!

Further research on the battle of Acre in 1189 suggests that the story of Eccles cakes is nothing more than a really good yarn.........but one worth telling..........it could have happened!!

The very first recorded instance of the Eccles cake was during the time of The Crusades, the year being 1191 when Richard The Lionheart was besieging the port city of Acre. It is in fact an ancient Turkish dish which was named after one of Saladins generals Beha-ed-Dineccles. Due to its excellent properties of keeping fresh in hot weather, because of its high content of raisins and sultanas which were in plentiful supply it was an ideal food wrapped in pastry for the Muslims who were under siege in Acre. Towards the end of the siege with ammunition running low within Acre, Beha-ed-Dineccles men started throwing these at the Crusaders who noticed when they hit their shields and the ground they burst open to reveal the ingredients. The Crusaders who were running low on food started picking these up and eating them. They called them Eccles cakes after the general Beha-de-Dineccles and the recipe was brought back to England after The Crusades with lots of people through the years claiming it was they who invented the recipe, when in fact it is an old Turkish dish and not connected with the town of Eccles at all.

FIG, HAM AND HERBY CHEESE GLUTEN FREE APÉRO TART

It's many times that on reading Dominic's blog "Dom in the Kitchen" I have felt inspired compelled to bake something he has posted straight away - or as soon as possible.  That's the case with his Boursin, fig and jambon galette which you can read about here.  

We had friends coming round for an evening BBQ and one of them needs a gluten free diet.  I had previously swooped on a pack of gluten free puff pastry in the supermarket with the idea of using it for some kind of nibbles for apéros.  It occurred to me that an adaptation of Dom's recipe would do the job really well.

I had some purple figs given to me by a friend, the right kind of pastry, some black olives and some ham in stock.  All I needed was the Boursin.  I popped into the village shop and whilst they didn't have Boursin they had their own brand herby soft cheese which worked fine.

It was a delicious tart, very simple to make and a great start to the evening.  The gluten free pastry didn't look quite the same as normal (shop bought) puff pastry when cooked but tasted fine and I would definitely use it again.

If gluten free was not a requirement I would use a pack of ordinary rectangular puff pastry and bake it into small square mini tarts which are easier to hand round and eat for people sitting with a glass in one hand!  Cutting squares from a round pack of pastry produces a lot of waste or some odd looking shapes of tart!  It also occurred to me that the filling would work well made into little filo parcels using filo pastry (known as "brick" in France).  I'll add this to the post if I do try it!

Ingredients

1 pack of ready made, ready rolled gluten free puff pastry

4-5 ripe figs, quartered

2 slices of thin ham, cut into strips

6-8 stoned black olives, halved

1 small pack of garlic and herb cream cheese

a little olive oil for drizzling

 

a little runny honey for drizzling

1 egg, beaten

Method

Take your pastry out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature, about 10-15 minutes.  Preheat your oven to 190°C / 170° fan.  Place a sheet of baking parchment on a large baking sheet.

Unroll the pastry onto the baking sheet.  Make a cut all the way around about 2cm from the edge to create a border but not going through the thickness of the pastry.

Spread a generous layer of the cream cheese over the pastry within the border.  Lay the strips of ham on top and arrange the fig quarters and black olives on top of them.

Drizzle a little olive oil and honey over the top and sprinkle with the fresh thyme leaves.  

Brush the edges of the pastry with beaten egg and bake for around 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the cheese bubbling at the edges.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cuts into 8 - 10 slices.

TOMATO MINI TARTS FOR APÉRITIFS

 

These little bite sized tarts are so easy to make and work really well as nibbles for a crowd.

Scoring the lines in the pastry is the only fiddly part.

You can get 48 tarts from one sheet of puff pastry!

(Depending on the size of your tomatoes!)

There are endless variations you could do.

Ingredients

1 sheet of oblong ready made puff pastry

A handful of cherry tomatoes, a mix of colours makes the nibbles more interesting 

A handful of grated hard cheese, any type

1tblsp grated parmesan (optional)

1-2 tsp mustard (optional)

1tsp dried herbs (optional)

Method 

Remove the pastry from the fridge 10-15 minutes before using, otherwise it may crack when you unroll it.

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan.  Unroll the pastry and leave it on the paper it comes rolled in. 

Being guided by the size of your tomatoes, cut the pastry into even squares.  Then mark out border lines just within all sides of the squares but not cutting through.

Smear a little mustard onto each square if using and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Cut your tomatoes into slices about the thickness of a £1 or 1€ coin and place one slice in each square.  

Lightly grind salt and pepper over the tarts and sprinkle over the parmesan and dried herbs if using.

Transfer the paper loaded with the tarts to a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and cheese bubbling.

Makes up to 48 nibbles.

NOGGLE END TOMATO TARTS

Our tomatoes have started to ripen but although they taste delicious they would not win any beauty contest!  They are a bit "noggly" - lumpy and bumpy with the odd split.  With a pack of puff pastry in the freezer I decided to use some of them for little tarts.

There was also a selection of bits of cheese in the fridge - we call those "noggle ends" - bits you would put under the grill on toast or in a quiche.  I used Camembert and something called Tome aux Fleurs, a hard cheese with a crust of flower petals, which you can read about here.  Grated cheddar would have worked well.

Also lurking in the fridge was a small pack of cocktail frankfurters, purchased for some long forgotten event and never used but fortunately well within date. 

I used my free Yorkshire pudding tin (see here) to make four tarts but this time used a slightly bigger template to cut the pastry allowing me to crimp the edges more neatly.  (It's actually something I spotted in Ikea, is meant to be the base for one of those stainless steel kitchen tool holders and I had a hunch it would be just the right size.)

My pastry made four tarts and eight cocktail sausage rolls (recipe here) from the trimmings.  All fun to make and very tasty - a nice way to entertain children on a wet afternoon in the school holidays I think - they are very adaptable and bake in just the right amount of time to clear up then heat up a tin of baked beans!😋

Ingredients 

1 pack of ready made, ready rolled, oblong puff pastry

2 tsp French mustard (or brown sauce, onion chutney or ketchup if you prefer)

6 thick slices of tomato

Thin slices of any cheese you have (or grated cheddar if you prefer)

1 egg, beaten (optional but worth using if you are also making the sausage rolls)

Fresh or dried thyme

8 cocktail frankfurters (or one large frankfurter cut into bits or the filling from a sausage)

Method 

Preheat the oven to 200°C / 180° fan / gas mk6.  Grease the four holes of a Yorkshire pudding tin or four small tart tins (or use four ovenproof saucers placed on a baking sheet).

Allow the pastry to thaw and come up to room temperature.  Unroll and cut four circles about 2cm bigger than the holes using anything you have that’s the right size as a template.  Lay the pastry into the holes and crimp the edges.

Using the back of a teaspoon spread 1/2 tsp mustard over the base of each tart.  Add the slices of tomato, cutting to fill the pastry.  Arrange thin slices of cheese on top but leaving gaps as the cheese will melt and spread.

Brush the pastry edges with beaten egg (optional).  Sprinkle with fresh or dried thyme and bake for 20 minutes until the pastry is crisp and golden brown and the cheese has melted and bubbled.

Use the pastry trimmings to make little sausage rolls which can go into the oven at the same time.

Makes 4 tarts and 8 cocktail sausage rolls

AMUSE BOUCHE

An amuse bouche is an appetiser served before a meal usually with a drink or apéritif.  Usually it would be  blinis, dips or toasts, but sometimes something in a small glass called a verrine.  These are often layered up with  cream cheese, chopped veg or salad, chilled soup or even a mini prawn cocktail.

Some friends served a delicious amuse bouche a while ago (in little plastic pots) that she had bought locally and ever since I have been on the lookout for the right kind of glass or verrine.  When I spotted these glass espresso cups on a stall at a brocante it occurred to me that they would be perfect for an amuse bouche.  With a full set of ten for 3€ they were a bargain.  They could even be used for actual espressos if I was entertaining quite a crowd!  You can of course use any kind of glass of the right size but preferably glass not china so that you can see all the layers.  Mismatched glasses look very pretty too.

My first experiment was layers of whipped goat's cheese with crème fraîche, topped with chopped cooked green asparagus and finally chopped dice of smoked salmon mixed with a little lime juice, decorated with some snipped chives and an asparagus tip. For the second attempt I swapped the asparagus for chopped cucumber and decorated with a slice of cherry tomato.  

They were not quite as refined as the shop bought alternatives - a little more rustic or homely looking - but delicious!

I think I could improve the look by whipping the cheese and crème fraîche to give it more volume and  make it lighter in texture.  Piping it into the glass would make it a bit tidier.  But there was nothing wrong with the taste.  The friends I used as guinea pigs were very "amused"!

Ingredients 

2 tblsp whipped goat's cheese or other cream cheese

2 tblsp crème fraîche

1 tbslp chopped cooked asparagus stems (or chopped cucumber)

1 tblsp chopped smoked salmon

1 tsp lime juice

snipped chives

asparagus tips or cherry tomato slices to decorate

Method

Beat together the whipped goat's cheese and crème fraîche and divide between the glasses.  Mix the smoked salmon and lime juice together.  Layer the asparagus and smoked salmon on top of the cheese mixture, snip some fresh chives over, add the decoration and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Serves 4.  Serve with a small teaspoon or coffee spoon alongside, small enough to get to the bottom of the glass!

For a very quick vegetarian amuse bouche, which came about because of a couple of nearly empty tubs of shop bought dips in the fridge:

Ingredients 

1 dessert spoon tzatziki (a cucumber dip)

1 dessert spoon ktipiti (a red pepper and feta dip)

1 dessert spoon natural Greek yoghurt 

Chopped cucumber

Chopped pepper (red or green)

1 cherry tomato or 1 red and 1 yellow (you will only need half of each)

Method 

Stir half of the yoghurt into each dip to loosen it.

Layer up with the cucumber and pepper into espresso glasses

Top with sliced tomato

Garnish with a sprig of mint or chopped chives if you like (I didn’t get that far)

Chill for 30 minutes before serving, if you can wait that long!

Serves 2.

PARMESAN BISCUITS (canapé size)

I recently spent a happy half hour (or more) leafing through my cook books for recipes for nibbles.  We had friends coming for lunch and I found myself with the luxury of time on my hands that would enable me to do more than just spread some paté on bits of toast or put olives in a dish.

I found a Nigella Lawson recipe that I liked the look of and with all the ingredients to hand thought it worth a try.  The recipe makes a bowl full of little cheesy biscuits for now and enough mixture to freeze half of it for later.  Always a good idea in my book!

Very easy to do, delicious and highly recommended.

And then there were three!

Ingredients

150g plain flour

75g grated parmesan (I used the ready grated kind as that's what I had in)

100g butter, softened

1 egg yolk

Method

Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and mix together using an electric hand mixer until it comes together in a large clump.

Transfer to a work surface and knead briefly until smooth.  Divide roughly into equal halves.

Take one half and roll it into a log then an even cylinder about 3cm diameter, with nice flat ends.  Wrap in cling film, twist the ends to secure and chill for at least 45 minutes or until needed, by which time it should be firm enough to slice easily. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Preheat the oven to 180C / 160 fan / gas mk4.

Unwrap one or both cylinders and slice neatly and evenly into discs about 1cm thick.  I got 20 discs from my first one (the second is in the freezer).  Some of my discs looked rather irregular in shape but miraculously turned into nice neat circles when cooked.

Arrange on a baking sheet lined with baking paper (one sheet for each cyslinder) and cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes until a pale golden brown (depending on how thick the discs are).

Makes about 20 biscuits per log.  Store in an airtight tin or box (if there are any left!).