Spelt Rough Puff Pastry.

It has been a beautiful day here today.  We got a huge amount done in the garden and it's looking great for the new season.  We also had our tea out in the garden for the first time this year.

And I had a cracker of a recipe for the meal.

For Short and Tweet, I made Dan Lepard's spelt rough puff pastry and I made it into chorizo and tomato tarts.  Dan gives a few ideas for really stunning sounding tarts in his book.  I will try to make more of them especially as the pastry was such a success.

How lovely to have a bit of extra flavour and goodness from the spelt flour.  I really wasn't expecting to be able to make a successful puff pastry so easily.  There is a bit of rolling and folding but I just let the pastry rest in the fridge each time and got on with whatever else I was doing so, in the end, it really felt I had done virtually nothing.  The pastry puffed up brilliantly.  Just as good as the ready-made stuff.  The taste, however, was far better.

The recipes for both the pastry and the tart are in Short and Sweet by Dan Lepard.  I can't find this recipe on the Guardian website but if others from Short and Tweet find it and link to it, I'll let you know.  Otherwise, buy the book.  

Individual Warm Chocolate Puddings.

Sorry, I'm one day late with posting this month's Cake Slice Bakers entry.  I had made my choc pudds well in advance - I mean, how could anyone resist? - but was too busy to post yesterday.

These are a flourless pudding served warm with the gooey middle flooding out onto the plate.  Unfortunately I slightly overdid my ones so not so much a flow of molten chocolate but the middles were still lovely and gooey.  

The recipe is from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.  Have a look at Katie's blog to see her beautiful molten ones and the recipe. 

The best thing about this recipe?  Licking the bowl after filling the ramekins!  Am actually tempted to make this and not bother baking it next time - that chocolate mousse is amazing.

RR 14 - Oatmeal And Garlic Bread.

Dom's Random Recipe Challenge enters its second year and we were randomly asked to select our 17th cookbook on our shelves.

My 17th book is The Claire MacDonald Cookbook.  It is signed inside, "To Louise, With best wishes from Claire MacDonald of MacDonald March 2004".

Steve and I spent an amazing three days on Skye staying at Kinloch Lodge with the very charming MacDonalds and we spent one of our mornings watching her give a cookery demonstration.

I have wonderful memories of that trip.  The food in the hotel was wonderful and we spent the days walking on the beautiful and empty beaches of Skye with our dog at the time, Che, looking forward to our dinners.  

I see they have a Michelin star now.  I think that must be recent, don't think they had it when we stayed although I couldn't have faulted the food or service.

Have a look at the link above for Kinloch Lodge - the scenery is out of this world.  We really did have all the stunning, rugged beaches completely to ourselves.

Anyway, back to the bread.  I completely forgot to take any decent photos.  I served the first loaf with a bacon and avocado salad as recommended by Lady MacDonald and they went together beautifully.  The bread has the great rustic texture provided by the oatmeal and a lovely subtle taste of garlic.  I froze one of the loaves and I am convinced that when defrosted and used, the garlic taste was more pronounced.

My 5 year old bemoaned the fact I gave him non-home-made bread with his soup yesterday.  These kids must be spoiled!  I agree, though, the bought bread is nowhere near as interesting as home-made.  I love wholesome breads and I love quirky variations like this one.  Another successful random recipe.