Sunday 4 January 2015

Asparagus, Pancetta and Cream Cheese Pastries



Hey!

Yesterday my sister baked some delicious pastries and I put up a photo of her asparagus puffs on twitter, and someone asked for the recipe so I thought i'd put it up on here! 

The recipes can be found here on the GoodFood website:

But if you want them both in one place i'll type them out below too :)



Pastry Ingredients:

250g Strong Plain Flour (8oz or 1 cup)
1 tsp Fine Sea Salt (½oz or 5ml)
250g Butter, at room temperature but not soft (8oz or 1 cup)
150ml Cold Water (5fl oz or 2/3 cup)

Filling Ingredients:

Plain Flour for Dusting
150g Cream Cheese
400g Asparagus Spears, trimmed
1 Medium Egg
4 Thin Slices Pancetta

Method:

Prepare the pastry first!

1. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and add the butter in small rough chunks. Rub these together but make sure you can still see bits of butter.

2. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and add about two thirds of the water. Mix together until you have a firm rough dough, you may need more water. Cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for 20 minutes in the fridge.

3. Sprinkle flour on a board and knead your dough on it gently into a smooth rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction only until roughly 20x50cm, edges should be even. Make sure you don't work in all of the butter, you should have a marble effect.

4. Fold the top third over the centre then the bottom third up over that. Turn the dough 90 degrees to the left or right and roll out again to three times the length. Fold over as before and cover with clingfilm to chill for least 20 minutes further in the fridge.

Now you can prepare your fillings and bake your pastries!

5. Heat oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6/392F and line a baking tray with parchment. On a floured surface, roll the dough into a square measuring 30x30cm, and cut into four squares.

6. Spread a quarter of the cream cheese onto each square, leaving 1cm clean around the edge. Wrap a piece of pancetta around 4-5 asparagus spears and lay on top of the cream cheese. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little beaten egg.

7. Loosely wrap two edges over the asparagus to meet in the middle, keeping the top and bottom of the asparagus showing. Brush the pastries with beaten egg and place on baking tray.

8. Bake for 20-25mins until the pastry is cooked, golden and puffed, and the asparagus is tender.

9. Serve hot and fresh out of the oven :)

And that's it! Sorry I don't have more photos for you! I didn't know I was going to be writing this post until after they had been eaten! Hence the presentation haha. 

If you want any help with the recipes i've put the links to the originals at the beginning of this post, both from the BBC GoodFood website.

The recipe says to use smoked ham rather than pancetta, but I think it's up to you what you use! :)

Hope you enjoy making these!

Do you like reading recipes like this? There would be more photos in future, as i'd be more prepared :) My sister has thinking about writing a food blog too (she makes some amazing things), so if you like these sorts of posts i'd love to hear and i'll let her know! :)

Let me know in the comments!

Love Amylou x

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