When you cut a round piece out of a rectangular puff pastry, there are leftover pastry chunks on the table.
Most people would throw them out. I rolled them up and placed them in their packaging again.
Tomorrow is Halloween. I took out the rolled up pastry bits and pieces and used some chicken wieners as filling.
Not having enough large dough in one piece, I improvised and it was fun.
Some ghosts, some fingers, an octopus, some eyes and some mummies. Not too good to look at, but tasty.
My friend developped a gluten intolerance this year. For her birthday in Summer I ordered some flours and bake mixes from a gluten free bake shop: Hammermühle
Last night I thought about the bake mix and decided to give it a try in the morning.
If it is a failure, we have organic waste trash day tomorrow.
The ingredients to add were simple, just a sachet of dry yeast, some oil and water.
I decided to prepare the dough in my Thermomix. After 2 minutes the dough was ready and I placed it in a loaftin. It needed 45 minutes to rest under a cover.
The oven was preheated to 210 C.
I brushed the bread with olive oil and cut it open on top. It baked for 53 minutes.
The crust is firm, the bread itself is a bit dense. But it is tasty and has a chestnut undertone.
I purchased a silicon mold in a Salzburg supermarket. They had a "scary" Halloween table set.
Nice spiders to serve some cold butter in.
I decided to prepare a flavoured butter and added black sesame seeds for look and taste. Spices, yuzu peel and dark brown glitter.
I only softened 60 g of the butter and tossed the other 40 g in cold. That made it easier to mix and the consistency stayed like creamy butter.
The filled molds are sitting in the fridge over night to get the butter firm again. Now ready for some steaks.
Ingredients:
100 g unsalted butter
2 tsp black sesame seeds
Salt, pepper, green paprika powder, yuzu peel, Café de Paris seasoning
Glitter
Our supermarket had a treat: French pink onions from Roscoff in Brittany, Departement Finistére.
They were big and braided, but not cheap. But I was in Brittany and stood in fields were they grew.
The upside down onion tart is one of the most well known recipes. I did a smaller version.
Recipe for 2:
3 big onions and if there is 1 not so good one, peel back the bad layers and use up the inner parts to close the gaps
Some twigs fresh tyme
20 g butter
2 tsp muscovado sugar
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp water
Salt and pepper
1 round butter puff pastry
Goat cream cheese topping
Cut through the middle of the onions and make sure they stay whole. Melt the butter in an oven proof pan and set the onions cut side down.
Cook for 5 min on medium heat, then add thyme. Dissolve the sugar in vinegar and pour that over the onions. After 2 min add the water.
Preheat the oven 200 C fan.
Close the lid, reduce the heat to medium and cook 25 min. Cover with puff pastry and tuck the edges in. Bake for 25 min
Turn over immediately on a plate. Eat hot or warm with a topping of Goat cheese.
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On a stormy and rainy Sunday a pot of soup is comfort food. While I was busy baking my Halloween cookies, I wanted something quick.
4 chicken thighs were in my fridge. I cut out the bone and some of the fat and tossed it together with some veggies in a pot and cooked chicken broth. Waste not!
Recipe for 2:
4 boneless chicken thighs
2 packs of soft Udon
4 large green onions
1 tsp grapeseed oil
2 tbsp Sake
2 tbsp Mirin
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 sachet Hondashi powder
500 ml chicken broth - fresh or stock powder
Salt, pepper, shimishi togarashi
The large green onions are seperated in 1 inch white parts for cooking and chopped green parts for later garnish. The chicken thighs are cut in bigger size chunks. In a wok heat up a little oil and place the chicken skinside down. Let it sit for 4 min to get some color, then flip.
Add the chunky white parts of the onions. Cook for 3 min. Now in with the chicken stock and all the condiments and the Dashi powder.
Check for salt and add some pepper. Cook for 5 min. In this time cook the Udon. They are ready in 2 to 3 minutes. Place them in a bowl and pour chicken soup over them. Finish with a generous helping of chopped green onions.
It's the season to be haunted.
I bought some cookie cutters on Amazon and was surprised how good they were. No flimsy plastic, but sturdy metal.
I used my usual butter cookie recipe, but exchanged the vanilla for grated tonka bean. Now the cookie taste in between vanilla and almond flavour.
It works best with fridge cold butter and the dough should sit in the cold for a while. Off cuts until further use should go back in the fridge. That prevents that the cookies spread out while baking.
Recipe:
250 g AP flour
125 g cold butter
90 g sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 grated tonka bean
1 medium egg
Cut the butter in slices. I've used my Thermomix for the dough. Toss everything in and set the timer to 20 seconds, speed 6
Bring it together on some baking paper, wrap it in it and put it in the fridge for 30 min. Cut in 2 dough balls and get one back in the fridge.
Preheat the oven 175 C.
Roll it out on baking paper 0,5 cm and use the Halloween cutters. Transfer to a baking sheet with more baking paper. Use the second dough.
Bake for 11 min and cool them out completely.
Use Icing sugar and lemon juice to make a thin paste. Liquid food coloring next, then have fun with it
Spending a Saturday morning with 2 different electric performance cars is a good way to start the weekend.
We had a storm last night mixed with some rain. Lots of leaves and twigs on the road. But all of us wanted to test the performance of the HYUNDAI IONIC 5 N and 6N.
During a break and a drivers change we had some sweets, but got hungry when we came back.
The foodtruck offered 2 kinds of burritos, one with chicken and the other with beef. French fries on the side and as an appertizer some chicken tacos.
