Bonsoir my little Cosmonauts! In today’s blog post I’m going to be sharing with you the veggie treats I cooked up for Valentine’s Day, with two adapted recipes and one brand new recipe of my own in the offing! As they say in la belle Iceland þurfum við að tala um það? I didn’t think so.
I started off with some cheese straws. I find quite often the store bought ones use Gruyère, which normally isn’t veggie. I used Red Leicester in mine instead, but you can use any strongish tasting cheese, provided it’s rennet free! This is a recipe I adapted from The Veggie Student Cookbook (Hamlyn), which I highly recommend, regardless of your academic status and dietary preferences. It’s chock full of good recipes, even if it is a little patronising at the beginning telling you how to fit in with your horrible, obviously carnivorous house-mates, and you can grab it on Amazon for a PENNY. Blimey.
For Twenty-Five Cheese Straws:
150g plain flour
50g butter, softened and cut into cubes
2 eggs
75g of your preferred veggie cheese
Optional: a sprinkling of herbs or sesame seeds on top, for an extra burst of flavour
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 200C (400F/ Gas Mark 6)
Rub the flour and butter together in a large bowl until it resembles breadcrumbs. Separate one of the eggs. Add one whole egg and the yolk of the other to the mixture, along with the cheese. Mix until it forms a dough.
Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface, then roll it out to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thickness. Cut into strips and place on a greased baking sheet or, if you’re lucky and got a silicon baking mat from John Lewis in a Secret Santa once, you can use that.
Brush with the remain egg white and, if you like, sprinkle with herbs or sesame seeds. Pop in the oven for fifteen minutes or until golden and crispy.
Perfect with a nice tub of hummus!
I also made up a batch of my Veggie Sausage Rolls, the recipe for which can be read here.
My third recipe is an adaptation from The Cookie and Biscuit Bible (Herne House) which is a great buy if you’re into baking, although you will have to be wary of some of the American measurements, if you’re a Blighty lass like myself. They’re called Savoury Cheese Whirls in the book, but I prefers to call them Cheese and Marmite Pinwheels, cos that’s what they are. Although I actually buy store-brand “Yeast Extract” whenever I can because Marmite is owned by Unilever and Unilever test on animals, but that’s up to you of course! Likewise whether or not you use store-bought or home-made puff pastry. I made my own, but that’s cos I’m a glutton for punishment.
Makes 12 Pinwheels:
250g puff pastry
1 tbsp Marmite
1 egg, beaten
50g of your preferred veggie cheese (I used cheddar this time)
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 220C (425F/Gas Mark 7)
On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out into a square approx 30 cm/14 inches each way. Well, not diagonally, that’s not how shapes work. You know what I mean. Spread the pastry with Marmite leaving a 1 cm border around the edges. Sprinkle the Marmitey pastry with cheese, then brush the edges of the pastry with the egg. Roll the pastry up tightly into a spiral, Swiss-Roll style. Cut into thick slices and lay on a greased baking tray. Brush each slice with the remaining egg and bake for 12-15 minutes.
Honestly, they don’t photograph well, but they do taste great. And they’re super-easy and quick to do too! If you have your pastry ready you can have pin-wheels in just twenty minutes! Bonus.
My fourth and final recipe was an attempt to re-create something I sell at work, veggie style. For those of you that don’t know anything about my personal life, I work in a coffee shop that also sells baked goods. Probably our most popular product is a Cheese and Bacon Wrap and obviously this being 500 Things to do with Facon, I had to make my own version, just to see what the fuss is all about. They’re quick and easy to make too!
For Eight Cheese and Facon Wraps:
150g puff pastry
Eight slices of facon (I used Quorn Meat Free Bacon Rashers-fresh, not frozen)
50g cheddar cheese, cut into thin slices
One egg, beaten
Method
Pre-heat oven to 200C (400F/ Gas Mark 6). Roll out your pastry onto a lightly floured surface to about 1 cm (1/2 inch) thickness. Cut into eight squares of approximately equal size and attempt to fold in a slice of facon in a classy elegant way as demonstrated by the second set of pictures on this website. Fail and instead manage to insert some facon in between some flaccid triangles of pastry like this:
Place on a greased baking tray and brush with the beaten egg. Bake in the oven for eleven minutes. Remove from the oven and add a few slices of cheese to each wrap, then bake for a further three minutes until the cheese is melted and golden.
Eat while still warm from the oven, all the time nodding sagely and going, “yeah, now I see what the fuss is all about,” because they might look a little pants but honestly they taste great and for a first attempt, I was pretty pleased with how they turned out!
That’s my little smorgasboard of baked delights there. Can anyone top that for a bit of Valentine’s Day veggie bakery? Let me know and I’ll see you soon with some more facon themed rambling. Takk takk!
Fancy submitting me a recipe challenge? Want to rant about your soggy facon or why only certain types of Haribo are veggie (WHY???) Check us out on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/500ThingsToDoWithFacon and Twitter https://twitter.com/500FaconThings
500 Things To Do With Facon 