Lamb and potato pasties

Leftovers. There seems to be a lot of talk lately about using up leftover and not letting food go to waste. I come from a family that uses up their leftovers. They're reheated for lunch the next day, made into something new (bubble and squeak made from leftover vegetables is a favourite) or just used until there's nothing left (we make stock from the carcass of a roast chicken to be used for soups and broths). I like leftovers.

These pasties were made using the leftover bits from a delicious lamb roast on Sunday (thanks mum!). You could use any meat you have leftover and a mix of vegtable too. The pastry can actually be filled with whatever takes your fancy whether it's sweet or savoury.

I also cheated and used shop bought puff pastry as it was a Sunday night and it was getting late. Feel free to make your own pastry - you can use shortcrust if you want or you can make rough puff for a flakier texture. Use as much or as little of the ingredients as you want as it's all down to personal taste. If you don't like something then leave it out or substitute something else. These are bound to be delicious whatever you decide to put into them! you must make sure that the filling is cooked and cooled before you put them into the pastry. That it pretty much the only rule.
Filling ingredients
Roast lamb cut into small cubes - you might even want to mince it if you have the means.
Cold potatoes cut into small pieces
Cooked carrots finely chopped
Dried rosemary
Mint Sauce
Mustard Powder
Worcester sauce

Mix all the ingredients together until evenly dispersed.
Roll the pastry out on a floured surface and cut discs of about 12cm/4inches with either a cutter or the back of a pasty press (link below).
Place a small amount of filling into the centre of the disc or press and brush the edge with beaten egg to create a tight seal.
Fold the pastry in half over the filling and seal the edge tightly.
Repeat with the remaining mixture and pastry until it is all used.
Place the pasties onto a baking tray and brush with egg to create a golden top.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and piping hot.
Serve warm or cold with salad and pickle.

I used a dumpling/pasty press to make these which made the process quick and easy. They are available from Amazon here

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Cowboy Cookies

Bakerella. Oh Bakerella you tease me with such delicious looking, beautifully crafted treats. I really wish I had the time to make cute little sheep shaped cake pops but I just don't. I wish I could take the time out to create tiny little hamburgers from brownies and cupcakes but at the moment I'm pretty pushed. I do however have the time to chuck everything into a bowl and mix it up to make some simple and delicious cowboy cookies.

I'd never heard of them before. They're simple enough with a good mix of chocolate, oats and brown sugar. This particular recipe included M&Ms, chocolate chips and pecans (which I chose to leave out) and were the perfect mixture of chewy and crunchy and were delicious straight out of the oven. I'm amazed that when I open the biscuit tin there are still a few left! They were a real hit. The only problem I had was that my M&Ms didn't maintain their shape at all.

I was actually trying these out as a test run for making the layered mix for christmas gifts. They are definitely worth making and so simple to make. I'll pretty these up in jars just like in the original post and send them out in the holidays.

Ingredients
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
90g cooking oats
100g(ish) M&Ms
150g semi-sweet chocolate chips
50g brown sugar, packed
100g white sugar
A handful chopped pecans (optional)
1 egg
115g softened butter
1tsp vanilla

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the wet ingredients and stir until totally combined.
Roll the dough into even balls and place, well spaced, onto baking sheets.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 10-12 minutes.
Leave to cool for 2 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

I told you they were easy.

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Vegan Chocolate and Stout cupcakes

I told you to expect more vegan treats. I've got soy milk that needs using up and a baking bug that just wont go away. These cupcake were absolutely delicious. They were springy and soft, deeply chocolatey and would go great with a glass of the milk of your choice. The crumb topping adds a nice bit of texture and dryness to combat the moistness of the cakes. Oh I wish I had one fo these left...
The important thing for this recipe is finding a vegan stout. There are plenty of them available. I'm lucky enough to have the Spectrum Brewery fairly locally. All their bottled beers are totally organic and vegan friendly as are several of their cask ales. I can't really recommend them highly enough.
So once you've found your vegan friendly stout (a Google search should help you if you don't already have a favourite) you will be good to go. As with the last vegan cupcake recipe it looks like there are a lot of ingredients. They all come together very easily and the resulting cupcake is so decadent. Please give these a try. I converted the recipe into metric measures again.

Ingredients
Crumb topping:
30g all purpose flour
30g cocoa powder
55g granulated sugar
2 tbsp sunflower oil

175ml soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
200g all purpose flour
40g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
60ml stout
170g granulated sugar
80ml sunfllower oil
1 1/2 tsp vanilla


Method
In a small bowl sift together the cocoa and flour and stir in the sugar. Slowly drizzle the oil in while tossing flour mixture with a fork. Crumbs will form. Stir with fingers and make as many crumbs as possible.
In a large bowl whisk together soy milk and vinegar.
In a seperate bowl, sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and mix.
Add stout, sugar, oil, and vanilla to soy milk mixture and beat till foamy.
Add dry ingredients to wet in 2 batches, mix 2 min. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full and sprinkle with the crumb mixture. Make sure the crumbs rest on top and don't sink into the batter.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 18-20 minutes and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Once again this recipe is from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World which is available from Amazon

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