Toffee Apple Pastries

Last Wednesday was Dydd Santes Dwynwen, the Welsh equivalent of Valentines Day. As Chris is a Welshman I decided to cook us a special meal (any excuse for a celebration in dreary January). I made roast duck legs with a red wine sauce, followed by toffee apple pastries topped with toasted almonds and boy were they good. They take 5 minutes to put together if you use ready rolled puff pastry, so are perfect for a mid-week treat. If you're feeling particularily romantic you could always cut the pastry into hearts...

Serves 2
1 cox or granny smith apple, peeled, cored and sliced
Small tin of carnation caramel - trust me on this!
Ready rolled puff pastry (I used Jus-Rol)
A small handful of flaked almonds
1 egg or a little milk to glaze the pastry
Creme fraiche or custard to serve

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees and pop a baking tray in to heat up. Cut your pastry into 4 inch squares and add a tablespoon of the caramel to the middle of each, spread outwards in a circular motion
2. Peel, core and slice the apple, then fan over the caramel. Cut around the apple, leaving at least 1cm of pastry at the edge and top with the flaked almonds
3. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little milk or egg and bake for 25 minutes until the pastry is golden and the apples are soft. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche or custard

Sticky Sausage, Apple & Sage Bake

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In honour of National Sausage Week Chris made us a super tasty bake for Sunday night dinner. The recipe is from one of the excellent Waitrose recipe cards you can pick up for free in store, you can see the recipe online here. With some greens on the side, it was a speedy and cheap meal with plenty of leftovers.

We used sage rather than thyme as I have some growing on the balcony and we also added another tablespoon of the onion marmalade to make the sausages extra sticky. We bought the sausages from Meat N16; the new butchers & delicatessen on Church St. Alongside the usual pork they have plenty of more interesting options, we went for 3 pork and 3 lamb for a bit of a change. Whilst they were very nice, the lamb sausages didn't go particularily well with the apple and onion marmalade, so next time I'll stick to pork. I'd like to try this recipe with butternut squash, honey and wholegrain mustard or maybe some parsnips, yum!

Toffee Apple Bread & Butter Pudding

Due to a leaking pipe, I spent 2 days of my Easter break waiting around for the plumber. This gave me plenty of time to catch up on 90210 and for cooking tasty treats! I love traditional bread & butter pudding but this version is even better, the apples are a delicious addition and the toffee custard makes it even more sweet and moreish than usual.

I only made half the recipe below and it served 5, so unless you have lots of people coming over or you want to eat bread & butter everyday for a week, just do half the recipe!

Serves 8

50g/2oz butter

6 apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

175g/6oz golden caster sugar

568ml pot double cream

400g brioche loaf, cut into finger thick slices then into triangles

100g/4oz raisins

4 egg yolks

1. Heat the butter in a non stick frying pan until sizzling. Add the apples and 150g of the sugar. Cook over a high heat until the apples are caramelised and juicy
2. Stir in the cream, bring to boil and cook for one minute. Strain the apples and collect the cream in a jug
3. Layer an ovenproof dish with brioche, apples and raisins. Finish off the top layer with brioche and raisins
4. Whisk the egg yolks into cream and ladle over the pudding. Sprinkle over remaining sugar and bake at 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 for 35–40 minutes until crisp and golden
5. Serve with cream or ice cream

Apples cooking:

Before it went in the oven:

Cooked bread & butter pudding - tasty: