I love foodgawker and pinterest for introducing me to food blogs I’d never have found otherwise, and recipes that make me go “hmmm… I could do that!” Like this one from Alexandra’s Kitchen for Spanakopita Strudels. Stuffed full of spinach and feta, a moreishly tasty flavour combo, the soft salty filling is perfectly contrasted by lovely crispy filo pastry.
And who doesn’t love recipes where the prep to results ratio is outrageously unbalanced in the favour of results, which this really is. The filling takes no time to put together and the pastry work is a total doddle thanks to spooning the butter over the filo rather than brushing it.
I’m also constantly on the lookout for new packable lunch ideas, because sarnies day after day after day gets a wee bit dull. So I tried this one Sunday afternoon to pack hubby of to work with the next day and was lucky there were any left after we ended up “testing” half the batch when they come out of the oven! To be honest, this is probably best eaten while still warm but it wasn’t half bad cold the next day with a mug of homemade soup đ
The trick to this recipe is simple – do not brush the butter over the pastry or try to cover every bit of it, if anything, the finished strudel will actually be lighter for the random spooning. Lay a second sheet of filo over the first and spoon three more teaspoons of butter over it, this time aiming for the areas you missed on the first sheet. Top with a third sheet and spoon another three teaspoons of butter over it, again aiming for any missed spots. Like this!
Scoop out a level 1/2 cup of the spinach and cheese filling…
… and place on the filo, about 2 inches from the bottom end nearest you.
Then fold the bottom of the filo over the filling…
…before folding the sides in, left first then right…
…and then from the bottom, fold the filling portion up and over itself until you’ve got a small parcel.
Place the parcel fold side down on your baking sheet and brush the top with butter.
Repeat until you run out of pastry or filling (or both!) – you should get six parcels out of this.
Spinach & Feta Strudels
2014-08-16 21:50:10
A moreishly tasty flavour combo, the soft salty filling perfectly contrasted by lovely crispy filo pastry.
18 sheets of filo/phyllo pastry, approx 9 x 14 inches
I used Sainsburyâs from the chiller cabinet and got 15 sheets out of it that were just a little smaller than 9Ă14 but worked perfectly.
Make!
Start by preheating the oven to 175C/350F, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Clear and clean your work surface so that you have enough room to comfortably accommodate the filo pastry sheets when they are laid out flat.
In batches, pulse the spinach in a food processor until itâs roughly chopped and place in a large bowl. Add the cottage cheese to the bowl, crumble in the feta cheese, add the beaten egg, and fold it all together with a spatula.
Lay one sheet of filo out flat with a short end towards you, and spoon/drizzle three teaspoons of the melted butter over it - do not brush the butter over the pastry or try to cover every bit of it, if anything, the finished strudel will actually be lighter for the random spooning.
Lay a second sheet of filo over the first and spoon/drizzle three more teaspoons of butter over it, this time aiming for the areas you missed on the first sheet.
Top with a third sheet and spoon/drizzle another three teaspoons of butter over it, again aiming for any missed spots.
Scoop out a level 1/2 cup of the spinach and cheese filling and place on the filo, about 2 inches from the bottom end nearest you. Then fold the bottom of the filo over the filling before folding the sides in, left first then right, and then from the bottom, fold the filling portion up and over itself until youâve got a small parcel.
Place the parcel fold side down on your baking sheet and brush the top with butter.
Repeat until you run out of pastry or filling (or both!) â you should get six parcels out of this â and then pop in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown on top.
Is it wrong that I love retro food quite as much as I do? I’ll happily feed friends my beef stroganoff and without a side of irony, or talk Hubby into picking up an M&S prawn cocktail on his way home (if Heston can eat them, so can I!). If there’s a Black Forest Gateau option for dessert then I can be usually persuaded to indulge my rare sweet tooth. And I’ve got my eye out for steak diane on a menu because it’s been forever since I’ve had one of those.
So it will come as no surprise that I have an irrational fondness for vol-au-vents. If there’s a plate of them on a buffet table I will make a beeline for them. And Christmas isn’t Christmas if I haven’t had at least one pack of M&S’s party food vol-au-vents.
I finally made them myself over Jubilee weekend, having scoured the interwebs for an appealing filling recipe I found this on Gourmet Traveller’s site, and thought the celebratory tone the champagne gives it would be perfect for a family get together. And they went down a treat! So much so that I didn’t eat nearly enough of them and promised Hubby I’d make them again “just for us”, which I finally did this weekend đ I also seem to be having a love affair with tarragon at the moment so this killed two cravings with one dish!
The original recipe seems to be for small canape sized vol-au-vents, however, life is too short to make my own so I cheated and bought some ready to bake ones from Jus-Rol. They’re quite a bit bigger than bite sized, at least two-bite sized, so I’ve adapted my recipe accordingly.
Champagne Chicken Vol-Au-Vents
2014-08-17 11:20:31
Yields 8
More retro indulgence! Puff pastry nibbles for parties or seriously posh TV snackage.
1/2 small leek (40gm), white part only, thinly sliced
1 lemon, finely grated rind and juice
2 tbsp double cream
1 small chicken breast (about 250gm)
250 ml Champagne or sparkling white wine
125 ml water
Cook!
In a small saucepan, small enough to fit the chicken snugly and cover with the poaching liquor, combine the champagne, water, leek, lemon rind and tarrogon sprigs. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then add the chicken and return to the boil for 10 minutes (keep an eye on the pot as it will try to bubble over).
After the 10 minutes, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and leave to cool completely while the chicken poaches through.
Once the poaching liquor has cooled down, remove the chicken and finely shred it (fingers or two small forks are perfect) and refrigerate it until needed.
Strain the poaching liquor only into a clean sauccepan (you can throw away the tarrogon sprigs and leeks) and bring to the boil again over a medium heat. Cook the poaching liquor down until itâs reduced to 50ml which should take 15 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye on it as it can cook down quickly â I kept pouring it into a measuring jug to check how much was left, then pouring it back into the pan and then back into the measuring jug, until I had my 50ml. Leave to cool completely.
While the liquor is cooling, preheat the oven to 200C. Brush the vol-au-vent cases with a little milk or egg and cook per the package instructions.
While the cases are cooking, combine the chicken, reduced cooking liquor, cream and sliced tarrogon in a bowl. Season to taste with lemon juice and sea salt.
When the pastry cases are ready, divide the chicken filling among them and then return to the overn for 2-3 minutes, until the chicken is warmed through. Scatter with something green and decorative, and serve immediately with the remainder of your bottle of champagne!
So here he is, our Herman, and didn’t he scrub up nicely! He also tasted properly delicious, crazy moist and all cinnamony, with teasing nibbles of apple here and raisins there. The only thing that might have improved him would have been a slick of Danish bun style icing on the top. Maybe next time.
I read somewhwere that Herman is the modern equivalent of the chain letter, which I can see, but Herman didn’t threaten me with bad luck until the end of time if I didn’t pass him on. And he turned into a delicious cake instead of wastepaper bin fodder. So yeah, I’ll take Herman and his eventual cakey self over chain letters any time đ
Caring for him was actually kind of fun, although Hubby will tell you that the first thing I did upon rehousing him into a mixing bowl when I brought him home was try and delegate all care of Herman to Hubby. Which isn’t strictly a lie… But it was almost like having a pet, as the gluey blob of beige became a personality in his own right. Strange but true! That I then felt no remorse at a) baking him, and b) scoffing him is also strange but true… So if you get offered a Herman, do accept, he really is worth it. And that’s coming from a self-proclaimed savoury head! And if you can’t wait for someone to pass you some Herman, you can very easily start your own. A quick google of “Herman starter” throws up a bunch of websites with instructions on how to make your own Herman sourdough starter. All you need then are some instructions to pass on with your little Hermans when they’re ready. Here are the ones that came with mine, sad faces and all LOL
Hello, my name is Herman. I am a sourdough cake. I need to sit on your kitchen worktop for 10 days without a lid on. Please do not put me in the fridge or I will die. If I stop bubbling then I am dead đ
Day 1: When you get Herman home, put him in a large non-metallic mixing bowl and cover loosely with a clean tea towel.
Day 2: Stir well with a wooden spoon
Day 3: Stir well
Day 4: Herman is hungry! Add 1 cup of plain flour, I cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk. Stir well
Day 5: Stir Well
Day 6: Stir Well
Day 7: Stir Well
Day 8: Stir Well
Day 9: Herman is hungry again! Add 1 cup of plain flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk, and stir well. Divide into 4 equal portion, keep 1 portion and give the other 3 away to friends with a copy of these instructions.
Day 10: Herman is VERY hungry! And so are we…
Herman, the German Friendship Cake
2014-08-17 12:34:46
Delicious, crazy moist and all cinnamony, with teasing nibbles of apple here and raisins there... Friendship cake, does it get any better than that?
Herman is VERY hungry! Stir well, and then add all of the ingredients in the first list above.
Mix everything together and put into a large greased baking tin. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and melted butter per the second list above.
Preheat the oven to 170-180 C before put the cake mixture in. Bake for 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes, the top should be nice and brown (and the amazing smell of the cake should be setting your dribble off!). Cover with tin foil and bake for a further 15 minutes, just to make sure that the middle of the cake is cooked well enough. Stick a knife in the middle to test, if you get wet cake mix on the knife then it needs more baking.
Donât worry about over-cooking Herman or drying him out, the apple makes him lovely and moist.
When youâre happy that Herman is cooked, take him out of the oven and leave him to cool down a little. If you canât wait, he tastes great while still warm with a little cream or ice-cream.
Notes
Herman also freezes well, which given the amount of cake he makes is probably just as well!
Meet my new friend, Herman, the German Friendship Cake. Only, he’s not quite cake yet. More a bubbling blob of beige that kind of smells like glue…
If you’re not familiar with Herman, he’s a sourdough cake starter that you are gifted by a friend, that you feed and nurture for ten days. By this time he will have quadrupled in size, so you split him into four batches and pass three on to friends who then start their own ten day feeding cycle of the Herman sprogs. The fourth batch you bake into a delicious cake, full of cinnamon and apples, and share with more friends. How lovely is that!
So this is my Herman, on day 2. The instructions that he came with are hilarious! They’re handwritten and besides those days where Herman gets hungry and you have to feed him, they’ve drawn a sad face next to the “or he’ll die” warning LOL I’ll be back when he’s less blobby and more cakey, which I’ve already tasked Hubby with the baking of since Herman is of Amish origin, apparently, and Hubby hails from Amish country (although isn’t actually Amish himself…)
Easter weekend and then my birthday have conspired to throw my posting timetable a little off track… Hoping to resume normal service this Sunday! In the meantime, feast your eyes on these seriously cute cupcakes that Hubby rustled up to celebrate (or commiserate) me turning another year older đ
Being a savoury tooth rather than sweet, I prefer my cake-age to be of the unfussy variety. It took me forever to persuade Hubby that a Victoria sponge really was my idea of a good time, whilst death by multiple varieties of chocolate really wasn’t! So this year I woke up to the smell of these baking, and they were utterly divine. The perfect balance of buttercream and strawberry jam in the middle allowed the simple tastiness of the sponge to shine through. Just perfect with a nice cup of tea…
200g Stork (the tub, not the block), or margarine. Donât be tempted to use butter. Just donât. If you want a perfect sponge, go Stork.
240g self-raising flour
4 large eggs
1tsp good quality vanilla extract (I use a variety with vanilla seeds in, itâs lovely)
(And, if youâre making the Victoria Sponges here and not just cupcakes, a jar of your favourite jam)
Cook!
Preheat the oven to 150C/300F.
Begin by creaming the Stork margarine using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or the electric mixer. Do this until the margarine is very soft and pale in colour, it should take a minute or two.
Once the Stork is nice and soft, simply tip the rest of your ingredients into the mixerâs bowl or a mixing bowl and mix until everything is incorporated, starting on a low speed to minimise the mess. Thatâs really all there is too it, thereâs no need to separate your wet and dry ingredients, or fold anything, itâs just that simple.
As a note, donât be tempted to over mix the ingredients, you really just want them blended, with no visible lumps. Too much mixing will result in a tougher batter, and youâll end up with dense cakes that aren't light and fluffy. We donât want that!
After everythingâs blended, just spoon the batter into the muffin cups â this recipe makes about 12 good-sized cupcakes, and set the tray into the oven, on the middle shelf. You donât want to get the tin too close to the top or the tops of the cupcakes will brown over-much.
Now, hereâs the only really fiddly part. Since youâre baking on a low heat, youâll need to keep an eye on the cupcakes. The recipe guideline states about 15 minutes cooking time, but I find that this is a good starting point for when you should first check their progress. I find around 20-22 minutes to be more accurate. You can tell theyâre done when, if you insert a toothpick into the centre of one, it comes out clean. If not, just add a few more minutes at a time, and monitor them until theyâre set.
Once theyâre ready, remove the tin from the oven, and allow them to sit for about 30 minutes before you remove them to your sheet of aluminium foil or greaseproof paper to continue cooling. This can take an hour or more, so be patient.
While itâs cooling, you can prepare the buttercream frosting. As a note, I find that frosting is a very subjective area. Some people like a little, some people like a lot. The recipe below makes enough for, on average, about twice the amount of cupcakes youâll be making, so you can easily halve the recipe. I've tried it, and found that I was panicking about running out of frosting on the last few cupcakes. Too much is always better than not enough!
Buttercream Frosting
As with the cupcakes above, this is a great âbasicâ frosting thatâs very easy to add other flavours to. The version here is vanilla.
Youâll need
500g (one box) icing sugar
250g (one block) unsalted butter
1tsp vanilla extra
Mix!
The most important thing in getting an excellent buttercream is having the butter be very, very soft. Ideally you can leave it out overnight, or take it out first thing in the morning for making later. If you forget, you can soften it in the microwave, on the lowest setting, running it for about 10 seconds at a time.
It needs to be soft, but NOT melted. Any melting and your buttercream wonât turn out right, so be very careful if youâre using this method.
To begin, beat the butter until soft and pale, for about a minute or so. Then, add your icing sugar; batches of a third at a time seem about right. This will be messy, so be prepared to accept that. Cleaning up is all part of the fun, right? Right! After all of the sugar is blended, add the vanilla and beat until fluffy. This will probably take longer than you think, but about five minutes is a good guide.
Youâll know that itâs set when you can spoon a bit up and itâs firm, yet fluffy. Be aware that the sugar and fats in the butter will firm up once it settles and make a really pleasing firm outer layer with a soft, fluffy icing beneath.
Assemble!
Now that your cupcakes have cooled, and the frosting is ready to go, itâs time to assemble. If youâre making them as in the picture, just cut them in half, about halfway up or a little higher (theyâre easier to stack if you cut about a 1/3 of the way from the top).
Spread the bottom half with a layer of your jam of choice. I used strawberry in my version. Now, spread a good layer of buttercream frosting on the underside of the top half, and then simply sandwich the two halves together.
Once youâve assembled them all, set them back on your cooling sheet, and dust the tops with a good dusting of icing sugar. Voila!
The Lemon version
For the sponge, add a few teaspoons of finely grated lemon zest to the batter, along with about a teaspoon of lemon extract (in addition to the vanilla). I prefer a nice, natural, Sicilian Lemon Extract for an authentic lemony goodness.
To the frosting, add another teaspoon of the vanilla extract (in addition to the vanilla), and a few drops of yellow food colouring at the end. Youâll want to use this sparingly, as a pale yellow is generally more pleasing than a bright, glaring version.
Thatâs all there is to it, and the lemon cupcakes turn out light, fluffy, and as Summery-fresh as you could hope for. Enjoy!
