Transform leftover pastry scraps into deluxe cheese Christmas snacks
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Christmas, Leftovers | 5 comments
Homemade cheese snacks
If Danny loads the dishwasher when I get back from work and the cycle finishes before supper has reached the table, I know that I’m running a bit late. The cycle is 108 minutes.
This morning I discovered some chicken and ham pie filling in the freezer – all that I had to do was make the pastry. Anne Mary’s recipe for Magimix pastry works perfectly each time. Danny was amazed that I had made pastry in five minutes in the food processor. It normally needs to rest and chill in the fridge for an hour but I decided to speed up the process. This evening’s pastry was fast tracked in the freezer for just ten minutes. It rolled out well and tasted great. So you can be topping a pie with your own pastry in fifteen minutes, start to finish, despite the advice from the big chiefs!
As my rolling pin eased the pastry to the sides of the board, I remembered this wonderful recipe for transforming pastry scraps into delicious cheesy biscuits I’ve blogged the recipe before but with Christmas approaching fast, these little snacks freeze well and are invaluable if friends drop by for a drink. They are far better than most cocktail snacks that you can buy. They also make a great impromptu mini Christmas present. Delicious and very easy on the wallet. In early December, I set aside a morning to make these treats from scratch. They are frozen in batches and crisped in the oven before delivery. They always go down well.
Tonight I wanted to experiment with these dinky snacks. As well as cheddar and parmesan, I sprinkled on some cayenne pepper. They were scrummy. I was hard pressed to leave just the one for Danny – I hate to admit that I actually made six.
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The absolutely best thing about making pastry is the left over bits that get made into cheese straws. Gorgeous! Why waste them on visitors?
thanks for the reminder Fiona, I know how nice these are, but somehow I always forget to make them when I have pastry scraps! Excellent idea to freeze them too, as it’s not unusual for us to have unexpected visitors around aperitif time :-).
I have never thought of making little savoury pastries with left overs but what a great idea – I think I would enjoy these much more than the obligatory jam tart that I make if I don’t, like you Fiona, finish up with festering bags of pastry in the fridge. I’m going to try these out with a view to making them for Christmas at home. I might add poppy seeds to the cheese as I sometimes buy Sainsbury’s cheese straws with poppy seeds and I love them. On Magic Cochin’s pie dilemma, I would say that for us it depends on what kind of pie it is but that I would prefer no pastry underneath to soggy pastry. As it is apple season my mum has been making tarte tatin recently which, as we like crispy pastry, we haven’t bothered to turn upside down before eating.
Hi Fiona, I was just looking at the Categories list, top right on you blog – Recipes 269, Comfort Food 104 LOL!
Can I get you going on the upper crust/bottom crust debate. In my family a ‘pie’ was contained in a deep ceramic ‘pie dish (no pastry on the bottom. Pie funnel or upturned cup in the centre. Short crust pastry over the top. I’m married to a man who insists that pies should have pastry on the bottom as well as the top. This results in heated debates, so I rarely make pies!
Is it a regional thing? a class thing? or what?
Celia
Sunch nice idea. I will try to make them. No doubt.