Who Doesn’t Love a Tart? A White Wine Mushroom Tart…

Posted on April 19, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

See, when tax season ends it is supposed to be spring. Normally I can get outside in the fresh air and putter about in the garden. Mother Nature did not get the memo this year! On Monday we had a two hour delay for school due to snow and ice. It’s just been cold this week. The strong winds took down a large tree in town. She is being cruel!

I really hope the warm weather shows soon because it would be nice to have a spring longer than a couple of weeks. Summer likes to show early here.

Every Tuesday night we have pizza and sometimes I buy a phyllo dough mushroom tarts with white wine. It’s been on my list to recreate it but I decided instead of fiddling round with the phyllo that I would make my short crust pastry.

In a skillet melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Finely chop shiitake mushrooms to give you a cupful. Finely chop shallots until you have about 1/3 cup. Sauté the mushrooms and shallots on medium heat. Chop up fresh thyme and rosemary, about a small handful total and add them to the skillet. After cooking for several minutes add a 1/4 cup/2oz of dry white wine.

Grate about 3/4 cup of jarlsberg and put it in a medium bowl and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C and prep the pastry. Technique to do the pastry is here. For this recipe I used 1/2 cup/70g of flour, a pinch of salt, and just under a 1/4 cup of butter. When the butter is fully incorporated into the flour gradually add cold water a bit at a time until the dough comes together. Roll out thinly.

Add the mushroom mixture to the cheese and mix well. Add a dollop to the pastry.

Pinch the dough closed and slice three vents into the top. Brush with a beaten egg.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden and flaky.

These are great for a cheese and wine night or if you have a potluck to go to.

Cheese and Onion Pie, a Treat for My Husband

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Our Growing Paynes

“Oooh, I do like a bit of cheese” as Wallace likes to claim. It’s a sentiment we agree with. Maybe a bit too much but hey, we all have our vices! One of my husband’s favourite crisp flavours is cheese and onion so I thought as a treat I would make a cheese and onion pie. As I thought it was a treat from his childhood I wanted to get this right!

This is not overly difficult but there are a lot of steps to this. You’ll need a few hours to get this done. I researched several recipes and decided to use this Foodie with Family recipe as a guide. I did change a few things.

I had two very large onions which I sliced thinly. Oh the tears! In a skillet melt 4 tablespoons of butter to start with. Add more butter as needed as the onions cook down.

The onions will mound up in the skillet but after several minutes of slowly cooking the onions will soften and cook down.

As the onions cook, add 1/2 cup of veg bouillon and about 5 teaspoons of coleman’s mustard. Feel free to add a bit more if you like the heat. Season with sea salt and pepper. Simmer for a few minutes to reduce the liquid a bit.

Remove from the heat and let cool. Grate 1 1/2 pounds/675oz of sharp cheddar cheese. Yes, it’s a huge amount of cheese! In a large bowl beat two eggs and add 1/2 cup/4oz double cream. Add the onions.

Mix in the cheese completely.

Set that aside. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C.

Next prepare the hot water pastry, though in this case it’s hot milk pastry. In a mixing bowl sift together 3 cups/12 3/4 oz of all purpose flour and 3/4 tsp of kosher salt. Make a well in the flour.

In a saucepan, melt a cup/1/2 pound of butter, 1/3 cup/2.5oz of whole milk and about 4 teaspoons of coleman’s mustard.

Simmer but don’t boil. Pour into the flour well.

Mix well until the ingredients come together in a ball.

On a lightly floured surface knead the dough for a couple of minutes to work the gluten. This is a pastry where you don’t have to worry about overworking which is a nice change.

Line a 10″/25cm springform pan with parchment paper. Divide the dough into two balls, roughly in a 60/40 ratio. Now this dough is very fiddly! There were some words spoken as I rolled it out and tried to get it into the pan. Forget having it done in one piece! Use your knuckles to press it into the pan and up the sides.

Fill the pastry with the cheese and onion mixture. Top with the remaining pastry. As best you can pinch the seam of the top and bottom together. Use a knife to cut vents in the top. Beat an egg and add a tablespoon of the whole milk. Brush this over the top of the pie.

Bake 60-75 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

Let it cool and allow the cheese to set a bit before serving. I found I prefer it served cold but it’s good warm or cold.

My husband loved this. Turns out this was the first ever cheese and onion pie he had! So instead of an old tradition it’s become a new one. 🙂

SaveSave

Definitely Time for Comfort Food

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

A week ago I was filled with such anticipation of being on the cusp of history. Since then I’ve been in complete shock, along with a lot of the world.

I wore my version of the pantsuit. I don’t actually have one so a suit coat would have to do! I also wore white and purple for the colours of the suffragettes. I was excited! But after the evening wore on I could see the writing on the wall. Going to sleep that night I was hoping beyond hope that the numbers would be wrong. The first thing I saw in the morning was a message on my iPad from a friend in Scotland asking what the hell did this country do.

Clinton wasn’t great shakes but I am having trouble wrapping my head round the fact that so many people accepted the sexism, the racism, the ego, the inciting of violence, and outright lies of Trump. It pains me that these weren’t deal breakers and in fact celebrated. I don’t know what is in store in the next few years but I can’t say my normal optimism is in play.

It was also difficult talking about it with our kids. Fortunately they are old enough to recognise what is right and what is wrong. Let’s just say my daughter can’t wait to be old enough to vote!

In the meantime we have to get on with our lives. Given we had another weekend of home improvement and how the week went, comfort food was definitely in order.

Because we still have a ton of apples from apple picking I thought a pork hand pie with apple and sage would do the trick.

For the pastry I cut in 1/2 a cup of butter into 1 1/2 cups of flour and a 1/4 tsp of salt. When the mixture is reduced to the texture of bread crumbs and they stick together, gradually add cold water until the dough comes together. It doesn’t take much so add a bit at a time. Cover and set aside until it’s time to fill the dough.

In a skillet heat up about two tablespoons of olive oil. Add about 1/2 a cup of finely chopped onions and begin to cook. Once the onion starts to become translucent add a pound of ground pork. Finely chop 2 large cloves of garlic and mix in.

When the pork is half cooked add a small handful of chopped fresh sage and a small handful of sliced fresh cranberry. Then add a spoonful of mustard and about a 1/4 cup of dry white wine. Season with sea salt and pepper.

Roll the dough out thinly and cut out circles. I used a bowl for this.

Fill one side of the dough with the filling. I had filling leftover because I only needed one pie but that would be good for a later pasta dish! Brush beaten egg round the edge of the pastry and fold the pastry in half. Pinch with a fork round the edge and then put 3 small slashes in the top. Brush with the egg and bake at 425F/220C for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is golden and flaky.

My husband made a fabulous dessert with apple and frangipane so it was a lovely meal.

Now that a week has passed I hope the grass roots efforts that are springing up to hold on to the progress we’ve made for equality and to make this place better continue. It won’t be easy but we do have a voice.

Chicken Leek Flaky Pies

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Our Growing Paynes

This is just crazy. Every single year that I’ve been doing taxes I get sick or I fall just as the office opens. I thought not this year! The office opens tomorrow and I’m sick. Seriously? What kind of “rain” dance can I do to break this streak? So I’m trying to be very good today so it goes away and I’ll be fine for tomorrow.

I love the flavour combination of chicken and leek and I wanted to do a variation on the chicken and leek pies with phyllo dough. This time I wanted to use a short crust for the pie.

I made the pastry about an hour before making the dinner to allow it to chill in the fridge. Cut in 3/4 cup of cold butter into 2 1/2 cups of flour and 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. When the mixture is crumbly and sticks together add a tablespoon of cold water at a time until the pastry comes together in a ball. Cover with cling film and chill.

You need to make enough filling to fill the amount of pastry you have. The above recipe is enough for 2 9″ pie shells. Which was enough to make four pies. The ratio of ingredients is equal amounts for everything but the garlic. That was just 3-4 cloves. Everything gets chopped up into small pieces. You don’t want large chunks so everything cooks evenly.

In a large skillet start rendering the streaky bacon on medium. You don’t want the skillet too hot because you don’t want the bacon to catch. After about 5 minutes add the garlic. Then add the leeks and mushrooms.

Normally you start the chicken at the beginning but for this the chicken needs to complete cooking in the oven. You don’t want the chicken dry and tough. After the leeks and mushrooms have cooked for a couple of minutes add about a third of a cup of dry white wine. Add the chicken and a bit of fresh thyme.

Roll out the pastry. I rolled to a thickness of about a 1/4″/6mm. I used a 6″ plate to cut round.

Spoon the filling onto one half of the pastry. I used a slotted spoon because I didn’t want the filling to be too wet. Grate some jarlesberg over the filling.

Brush a beaten egg round the edge of the pastry. Fold the pastry in half and use a fork to crimp round the edge. Slice the top with three slits. Brush the pie with the beaten egg.

Bake in the oven set at 425F/220C for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden and flaky.

Serve immediately. The kids loved it and it is a very easy dish to put together. And a great way to use up some ingredients in the fridge.

Bacon Leek Quiche

Posted on September 22, 2015 by Our Growing Paynes

The air is crisp and you know what that means! Baking! It’s been gorgeous this week with lovely breezes and fresh air. There is something about baking with the windows up and and the trees rustling.

Because I have classes to teach two nights a week I try to get dinner sorted for the family. I also wanted something for the school lunches. Quiche fit the bill as it can be served cold and would be a nice twist for the kids.

For the pastry make one half of this pastry recipe I do for my apple pies.

Preheat the oven to 425F/220C.

In a mixing bowl beat 4 eggs and add 1 1 /2 cups of milk. Season with sea salt and pepper and a bit of cayenne pepper. Mix and set aside. Grate just over a cup of jarlsberg cheese and set that aside as well. Chop up 4 rashers of streaky bacon and start rendering in a skillet. While this cooks add a few chopped mushrooms and leeks. Add a few splashes of sherry.

Spoon the bacon and leeks into the pastry shell.

Sprinkle the cheese over the mixture.

Pour the egg and milk mixture into the pastry.

Bake for 15 minutes then lower the heat to 350F/175C and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven when the eggs have set.

I do like the combo of bacon and leek. They go very well together!

Peach Popovers

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Our Growing Paynes

I was in the mood to bake but I didn’t have a lot of time so I needed a quick recipe. I had some homemade peach jam to use so all I had to do was make some pastry. I used the pastry from this quiche recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Roll out the pastry so it is less than 1/8″ thick.

Ahem, yes there is a shortage of cookie cutters in our house! But the glass works. Take the round bit of pastry then roll it out further so it is elongated.

Place a dollop of the jam of your choice on one end and fold over. Pinch the edges closed then do a couple of quick slices on the top for vents.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the pastry is done. Serve and enjoy!

Our Growing Paynes

A journey about cooking, traveling, gardening, and crafting.

Tag Archives: pastry