Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Fun with Pastry

When it gets cold (like it is now, brr!), Andy and I eat a lot of oven meals.  And that tends to lend itself to wrapping things in pastry.  Which is delicious, and while not exactly the healthiest way to eat things, it does make them flaky and buttery-tasting and delicious.

Sometimes we make our own pastry, like we did for these mini quiches.  The crust recipe comes courtesy of The Blooming Platter, known as press-in pie crust.  The idea of not rolling out dough was very appealing, and this crust was quite easy.  It was a bit crumbly for us, possibly because we used silicon cupcake pans and so the pressing didn't pack the crust in as much as firm moulds would have done.  For the filling, a variation on the Global Vegan's chickpea omelette.  We found that recipe about three years ago and still love it.  It's a bit dense for a quiche filling, so next time we might try blending in some tofu or beans, but it is tasty.

More often, however, we take advantage of the readily available frozen vegan pastry.  It makes for delicious sausage rolls -- filled with a blended-up mix of leftover baked beans and oats.  Andy said these were the best sausage rolls we've ever made.

Frozen puff pastry also makes it possible to throw together a quick dessert for those nights when dinner seems like it won't be enough.  A tarte tatin, as I understand it, is an upside-down fruit tart.  I didn't look up a recipe, but just put sliced apples in a pie pan.  I sprinkled brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg over the top, and then laid a piece of pastry down.  It came out of the oven looking like this:

Then I quickly flipped it onto a plate and we had this:

It was very yummy, but I was regretting the lack of custard to go with it.

Sometimes even tarte tatin seems too difficult.  On one of those nights, I made a fancy-looking but very simple banana-choc turnover.  Chocolate spread and sliced bananas folded inside a square of pastry and then brushed with a mixture of soymilk and cinnamon.  This was delicious, and took about 2 minutes to make.



 

10 comments:

Hannah said...

This is making me feel a bit blue about the lack of pastry-eating in my life. With my mother's wheat intolerance we never had anything pastry-based growing up, and as a result it's not something I ever think of making.

But you had me at chocolate and banana and cinnamon.

Amy said...

Mmmmm I adore anything with pastry but that tarte tatin is calling my name!!!!

urban vegan said...

looks fabulous! i have to remember to use this stuff more often. how are you?!?

Mihl said...

Those oven meals do all call my name! It's supposed to be spring, almost summer here, but I'm still wearing my winter jacket.

mr. pineapple man said...

the pears look delicious!

Vaala ◪ said...

Do you have any good recipes for sausage rolls? The boys absolutely love these ones they sell at one of the vegetarian restaurants near us but they're not vegan so I've never tried them. But I've been on the lookout for a good recipe and wondered if you had one 'cause those ones look divine.

Theresa said...

Hi Vaala -- this was really just about 1 1/2 cups of leftover baked beans (tomato, onion, beans, and spices) blended up. Then we mixed in enough oats until it was thick -- maybe 1/2 cup. Cut a sheet of puff pastry in half, and run a line of filling down the middle before folding it up. We baked at 200 for maybe 30 minutes, flipping them over after 20 minutes. That way they got brown on both sides. I actually thought these were nicer the next day, reheated in the oven. The filling was firmer. Or you could add some gluten flour into the filling for a meatier texture.

Vaala ◪ said...

Cool, sounds like a super easy recipe. Will give it a go this weekend or next week. It's my flatmate's birthday next Wednesday and he basically goes to this restaurant and buys all the sausage rolls they have left. It's hilarious so I was thinking I could make some for his birthday.

dreaminitvegan said...

Great pastry desserts. I have yet to make and apple tatin.

x said...

Those sausage rolls look awesome. I attempted some the other night but I wasn't happy with the flavour, will try out yours - sounds so much better!

Your tarte tatin looks brilliant!