Cheese and Chilli Whorls

Today was a 'make it' day... with not much time.  The oven was on and we needed some savoury snacks for the weekend.

A fridge audit revealed some Silly Yak pastry and grated mature cheddar... and an idea was forming.

Using half a pack of Silly Yak gluten free puff pastry, it was rolled out into a rectangle (about 3mm thick). 

The cheese was mixed with a Tablespoonful of paprika and smoked paprika, and a 'generous' sprinkle of chilli flakes.  These were then spread over the pastry, patted down and the pastry was rolled from one of the long sides... into a swiss roll shape.

Cutting the pastry roll into slices about 1.5cm thick, they were placed on a non-stick baking sheet and then put in a pre-heated hot oven (180C) for 10 minutes; they were checked and cooked for another 2 minutes until crisp and bubbling. 

Cooling them on the baking tray for a few minutes, they were removed and allowed to cool completely. 

A delicious, simple and spicy savoury treat.  Prepared and baked in 20 minutes - that's my type of cooking!

Speedy "Danish" Pastries

Having bought some Silly Yak ready made Gluten Free puff pastry, and looking for some breakfast ideas to tempt Sous Chef J, I hit on the idea of a sort-of Danish pastry.  We've also been blackberry picking this week and had made some stewed Blackberry and Apple... a plan formed.  A very SIMPLE plan.

Ingredients -

Silly Yak Gluten Free puff pastry (half a pack)
Four tablespoons of stewed fruit
a little beaten egg

To decorate/drizzle - two tablespoons of icing sugar and a small amount of warm water (make this as thick or runny as you like... it's your choice!)

Starting with the pastry block, it was rolled out to about 5mm thickness (we do this on a silicone sheet dusted with gluten free flour). 

The pastry was then cut into four squares.

An Lshaped cut was made to opposite sides of the square, the inner square's edges were brushed with egg and the cut section was carefully folded to line up with the inner square.

The pastry shapes were then put onto a non-stick baking sheet, brushed with egg and put in the fridge to chill whilst the oven reached baking temperature.

Once chilled, about a tablespoon of the stewed fruit mix was placed in the middle of each pastry.



Baking the pastries in a preheated oven at 180ºC for 8-10minutes, we checked them and turned the sheet, baking for a further 2 minutes before removing and cooling on the baking sheet.














The pastries were then drizzled with icing as decoration, just before serving. 

Pecan Cinnamon Twists

We were looking for a maple and pecan recipe (to try to 'do' a Danish like the ones J sees in the Waitrose cafe) but then realised we didn't have any maple syrup.  With this in mind, we decided to make up a 'post-Christmas' ingredients recipe to use up some of the things we had in the cupboards.  This is how we hit upon a recipe to use ground cinnamon and pecan nuts.

Having finally found some Silly Yak gluten free pastry (in the normal chiller with other pastries at Tesco) we thought we'd use this too.

We gathered the following ingredients -

35g dark brown sugar
25g pecans, shelled
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
200g puff pastry (rolled out to 20 x 25 cm sheet)  (we used Silly Yak gluten free which we'd finally tracked down in the chiller cabinet at Tesco)








To start, we combined first three ingredients in a the small hand blender bowl and blitzed till finely and combined.

Next the puff pastry was rolled out.  We used silicone sheets and lots of flour to make sure the pastry was thin and didn't stick (too much).

Once rolled out, the pastry sheet was brushed with the beated egg and then the sugar/nut mix was spread over it.

Using a pizza cutter, we cut the sheet into strips which were then twisted and placed on a chilled, non-stick, baking sheet.  We made sure to push the ends down in the hope this would stop the twists from straightening during baking.

We placed each finished sheet in the fridge to keep the twists chilled.

The twists were then baked in a hot (180ºC fan) oven for 12-15 minutes until golden (this time will vary depending on how thick you made your twists)

Cooling the twists for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, they were then transferred to a rack to fully cool.

YUM!