Saturday, October 26, 2013

Nutella mini croissants

I have some left over puff pastry in the freezer from the last time I made sausage rolls for a picnic. I didn't relish doing sausage rolls again, so thought I'd look for some quick and fast recipe. Since I have 1.5 bottles of Nutella in the pantry, et voila, this is perfect!

I can't stand the way the chef pronounces "Nutella" as "Neu-tella" but hey, whatever floats her boat, right, especially if she's trying very hard to be faithful to her Italian (Brooklyn?) heritage.

She uses 425 deg F (220 deg C) for 10 to 12 minutes.

Here's another recipe that uses chocolate buttons (which I also have lurking around in my pantry) instead of Nutella, and bakes it at much lower, only 350 deg F (180 deg C) but for 20 to 25 minutes. I guess it takes longer to melt the buttons than the Nutella, which is already kinda liquid.

http://www.inspiredtaste.net/20300/sinfully-easy-chocolate-croissant-recipe/

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/3-ingredient-nutella-croissants-recipe/

Basic recipe is as follows:

1) 1 sheet of pastry, rolled out another another inch on all sides. Cut into 8 rectangles, then cut each rectangle diagonally to make 16 triangles.

2) Try to make the triangle equilateral by stretching out the dough. Then starting from the longest side, put 1 tsp of Nutella or 1 tsp of buttons. Brush egg wash on the sides and then roll towards the other end (watch the video), making sure to tuck in the filling so it doesn't spill out. Then like a croissant, turn in the ends towards the centre.

3) Place on baking sheet with parchment or baking paper, then brush the tops of each croissant with egg wash (1 beaten egg with dash of milk).

4) Bake away and serve dusted with powered sugar if using.



Saturday, October 12, 2013

Sausage rolls

Jaime Oliver did a simple sausage roll recipe in his 30 minute meals series, and received rave reviews from cooking blogs so I thought for my upcoming picnic, I'd be able to whip this out on the morning of the picnic in under 30 minutes (plus baking time!) I was so wrong - it took me 1.5 hours, because I made an error and had to undo the first batch, and also because I was going really slowly so as not to spill stuff here and there and then have do a huge clean up afterwards! He's got a clean up crew - I don't!

I found the best pictoral preparation blog entry was this one: Dine at Mine http://dineatmine.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/sausage-rolls.html

I didn't exactly follow the blog so here's my interpretation.



Ingredients (I made 24 out of this but the recipe says you can make 20)
1 packet of chipolata sausages (12 inside)
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 egg and splash of milk
2 sheets of store bought puff pastry, thawed
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 tbsp sesame seeds

Method (best to refer to the Dine at Mine's photos)
1) Unroll the puff pastry sheet and place on a lightly floured surface. Cut 1 sheet of puff pastry in two.
2) Near the edge of 1 sheet, place 4 sausages diagonally (I only used 4 because I found it too full to close up if I followed the recipe and put 6).
3) In a pestle and mortar, pound up the coriander and fennel. Sprinkle over the sausages.
4) Sprinkle the cheese over the sausages.
3) Fold over the pastry and seal the edges with a bit of egg wash and use the twines of the fork to crimp them down.
4) Brush with egg wash and scatter the sesame seeds on top.
5) Cut each roll into about 5 or 6  x 10 cm pieces.
6) Transfer each sausage roll onto a parchment paper and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 220 deg C or until golden brown.



Buchujeon (Garlic chives pancake)