Monday, April 23, 2012

Home Made Puff Pastry


We have an abundance of cherry tomatoes and basil at the moment, so Alannah suggested we make a recipe out of her cookbook (Tomato, basil and Ricotta Tart).
We set about getting everything ready and realised we had no puff pastry! Unperturbed we continued and made our own... Quite simple really, 250g flour, 200g big chunks of cold butter and 100ml water and a pinch of salt. In the thermomix for 10 seconds on pulse, just long enough to mix everything together into a dough, but short enough to leave the butter in chunks. Roll out the dough into a rectangle, approx 400x150mm, fold it into a third of the original size, roll it out, fold it, roll it, fold it about 5 times, let it rest for about 20mins in the fridge and roll it out to about 3mm thick, spread it thinly with natural yoghurt mixed with lemon juice, ripped up basil and an egg, spread out handfuls of cherry tomatoes, top with a small amount of grated cheese, in a hot oven for about 20mins and there you have it! No need to buy puff pastry anymore, this is really so simple...


Monday, April 2, 2012

I've got piles..


Of wood that is....... What were you thinking????
Would you believe? 25 Tonnes of wood cut and split and its only just April! I'm impressed!!