Cranberry and Camembert Quiche

We had a work Christmas lunch last week and everyone was asked to bring something. Initially I planned to bake a cake or a sweet treat but I thought I'd surprise everyone with a savoury treat. Plus I had quite a lot of leftover ingredients from my recent Christmas party so I decided on a cranberry and camembert quiche. I made 2 quiches - 1 vegetarian (cranberry, camembert and rosemary) and a non-vegetarian (cranberry, camembery, bacon and thyme). Most people preferred the vegetarian quiche including self confessed carnivores. I have to admit that my general motto is that everything tastes better with bacon but not on this occasion! Personally I preferred the vegetarian option as well although the cranberries were a little tart for me. Nevertheless everyone enjoyed the quiches and they didn't last long! They are really quick and easy to make and would for a stunning plate at the Christmas table. 

I'm sending this to the Fresh Cranberry Recipe Link Up 2014 hosted by Jen from Blue Kitchen Bakes. 

It's also perfect for the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary as I made use of leftover ingredients.  I had initially planned to bake a Christmas wreath bread with baked camembert in the centre for my party but didn't get round to it. The cranberries were for a sauce and garnish and I had cream leftover from myo other recipes.

 vegetarian version

 place fresh cranberries on pastry that has been blind baked. Scatter the chopped camembert cheese 

 add the cream mixture and some fresh herbs

 fresh from the oven

 I love the colour of the fresh cranberries 

 the non-vegeratian version with bacon and thyme

 add chopped cooked bacon to the quiche 

 You can clearly see the bacon pieces

For the pastry - makes 1 quiche
280g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
140g cold butter, cut into pieces
8 tablespoons cold water

For the vegetarian filling

150g fresh cranberries

1/2 box of camembert cheese,cut into cubes

2 eggs

300mls cream

fresh rosemary 

salt and pepper

For the non vegetarian filling 

150g fresh cranberries 

1/2 box of camembert cheese, cut into cubes

2 eggs

300mls cream

7 strips of streaky bacon, cooked and chopped into small pieces

fresh thyme

ground pepper 

• To make the pastry using a food processor - place the flour and butter and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add the water one tablespoon at a time until a dough forms. 
• Alternatively, rub the butter and flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add water one tablespoon at a time until a dough forms. 
• Roll into a ball, wrap with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before baking. 
• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and line your tart tin. 
• Use a small ball of pastry scrap to press the pastry into the corners of the tin. 
• Chill in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Line the tart case with kitchen foil or baking paper and fill with baking beans. 
• Blind bake for 20 minutes, then remove the beans and foil/paper and continue baking for 5 - 10 minutes until the pastry is light brown.
• For the vegetarian filling, place the cranberries and cheese on top of the pastry.
• Whisk 2 eggs into 300mls of cream and add a little seasoning.
• Pour this mixture over the pastry and add some sprigs of fresh rosemary.
• Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and the quiche is set.
• For the non-vegetarian filling, cook the bacon under the grill or in an oven. Cut into small pieces.
• Place the cranberry and cheese on top of the pastry followed by the cooked bacon and fresh thyme.
• Whisk 2 eggs and 300mls of cream and add some pepper (I didn't add any salt as the bacon is quite salty).
• Pour this mixture on top of the quiche and bake for approximately 45- 50 minutes or until golden brown and the quiche is set. 

 

Christmas Tree Brownies

Are you ready for Christmas? If you need a quick and easy dessert to impress both children and adults alike then this is a definite winner. It's really quick to put together, does not require any fancy equipment and they keep well for a few days so you can easily make this ahead of the big feast. I used my favourite chocolate brownie recipe and baked it in a round tin. Slice it into 8 equal pieces so you get a nice triangle wedge. Push a mini candy cane on the rounded edge to create the tree base. You can decorate these trees as you like. I've used glitter writing icing for ease - you can of course use melted white chocolate or make royal icing. Drizzle the icing in a squiggly line to resemble tinsel and add some festive sprinkles. It really is that easy. 

 bake your brownie in a round tin 

 Christmas Tree Brownies

Makes 16 Christmas tree brownies

For the brownies
200g butter,
375g sugar
170g chocolate, roughly chopped
165g flour
80g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs

To decorate

16 mini candy canes

Glitter writing icing 

Sprinkles

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a medium sized pan, melt the butter and chocolate.
• Then whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla extract. 
• Continue mixing until you get a smooth mixture then remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes.
• Whisk in the eggs one at a time and then the flour and cocoa powder until you get a fudgy mixture as shown. 
• Pour the mixture into a 2 x 18cm round sandwich tins.
• Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes until the top is crisp and the edges are cooked. 
• Allow to cool completely before turning out to decorate.
• Cut the brownie into 8 equal pieces.
• Push a mini candy cane into the rounded edge of each brownie slice as shown. 
• Decorate with writing icing and sprinkles as shown. 
• Enjoy! 

Broccoli and Red Pepper Quiche

As mentioned I had a Christmas party last weekend and made lots of festive food. This is one of the savoury vegetarian options along with a pesto, cherry tomato & pine nut pasta salad. I chose broccoli and red pepper mainly for the festive colours and it worked beautifully. I also made a fig, lardon and dolcelatte tart (recipe coming up soon) but quite a few preferred this vegetarian quiche. I'm not a huge fan of peppers but I have to say that this was delicious. I loved having the cheese at the bottom as it melts into the pastry and adds to the flavour. Instead of using double cream, I used Carnation's Cook With It which I received in my Degustabox. It made the quiche healthier than using double cream but it did not detract from the taste. 

I'm sending this to the Vegetable Palette hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. The theme this month is Festive and Christmas Vegetables and I think this red and green quiche looks very festive indeed! 

I'm also sending it to Eat Your Greens hosted again by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. The idea behind it is to encourage you to use a green vegetable in your cooking. I rarely get a chance to enter as I mostly bake sweet stuff so I'm really pleased to join in this month. 

 My Barber's cheese is still going! 

 cook the broccoli and red pepper first 

 add a layer of grated cheese on the cooked pastry  

 add the sauteed vegetables and cover with the egg/cream mixture 

 It disappeared quite quickly at the party! 

For the pastry 
280g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
140g cold butter, cut into pieces
8 tablespoons cold water

 

For the filling

100g grated Cheddar cheese 

1 large broccoli with stems removed

1 red pepper, de-seeded and sliced 

4 eggs

300mls Carnation Cook with it or double cream

4 eggs

seasoning - salt, pepper and garlic or onion powder if you have them 

• To make the pastry using a food processor - place the flour and butter and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add the water one tablespoon at a time until a dough forms. 
• Alternatively, rub the butter and flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly add water one tablespoon at a time until a dough forms. 
• Roll into a ball, wrap with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before baking. 
• Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and line your tart tin. 
• Use a small ball of pastry scrap to press the pastry into the corners of the tin. 
• Chill in the fridge for 15-20 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Line the tart case with kitchen foil or baking paper and fill with baking beans. 
• Blind bake for 20 minutes, then remove the beans and foil/paper and continue baking for 5 - 10 minutes until the pastry is light brown. 
• In the meantime, heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a frying pan. 
• Add the broccoli and red pepper and cook until just soft.
• In a large bowl, beat the eggs and add in the Carnation cook with it and seasoning. 
• Once the pastry is ready and slightly cooled, pour the grated cheese on to the pastry and level it. 
• Add the cooked vegetables.
• Finally add the cream mixture
• Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and set. 

SRC Cookie Carnival: Savoury Cheese and Paprika Biscuits

December is a holiday month for me for Secret Recipe Club. Luckily Sarah from Fantastical Sharing of Recipes ...and More who is the owner, writer and Group D hostess of the Secret Recipe Club has created a Secret Recipe Club Cookie Carnival. It's similar to our usual Secret Recipe Club assignments where we each get assigned a blog in secret. The only difference is that we have to choose a cookie recipe to post today. 

My assignment is Searching for Spice which is written by Corina who loves cooking, reading and writing about food. She loves using spices which is how her blog name came about. She has a wide range of recipes on her blog from sweet to savoury and most of them include spices. Luckily she has quite a few cookies recipes on her blog to choose from including Nut and Cranberry Biscuits, chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies.

As I usually make sweet cookies, I decided to opt for something a little different and chose a savoury recipe. I was also intrigued by the flavour of her savoury cheese and paprika biscuits. I'm so glad I decided to make these as they were absolutely delicious and everyone kept asking for more. The cookies really puffed up and tasted very cheesy. The paprika was mild and I would suggest adding more if you prefer although it may detract from the cheese taste. As it's close to Christmas, I decided to use my festive cookie cutters and they turned out beautifully.

 paprika, cheddar cheese, flour, butter and egg 

 lots of grated cheese 

 add egg yolk and paprika 

 the dough is quite crumbly to start with - don't worry just roll it into a ball and refrigerate for at least 60 minutes

 festive savoury cookies

 The penguin is my faovurite 

100g plain flour
50g unsalted butter
150g Cheddar cheese, grated
1 tsp paprika
1 egg yolk

• Blitz the flour and butter in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Add in the grated cheese, egg yolk and paprika.
• Mix until it comes together and forms a dough - it's quite crumbly at this stage.
• Roll into a ball and wrap in clingfilm. 
• Refrigerate for at least an hour.
• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Sprinkle flour on a suitable surface and roll out the dough.
• Cut out shapes using a pastry cutter and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
• Bake for 10 minutes then turn the cookies over and bake for another 5 minutes.
• Allow to cool on a wire rack. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Tiramisu Trifle

I had a Christmas party yesterday and made a lot of festive food for the table which I will be blogging about throughout the week. Every party needs a dessert centrepiece and this year I decided to make a trifle. It was mainly inspired by the Waitrose Christmas Dessert Campaign. Their research shows that the top 5 desserts that people enjoy as a tradition in households at Christmas are the following:

• Christmas Pudding
• Christmas Cake
• Mince Pie
• Chocolate Yule Log
• Trifle

Which one is your favourite and what are you making this year? Personally I'm not a fan of the first 3 so my plan was to make either a chocolate yule log or a trifle. I'm planning to make a yule log for Christmas day so I started thinking about how to put a twist on the traditional trifle. Italian cuisine is ony of my favourite cuisines and if I eat at an Italian restaurant I will almost certainly order tiramisu for dessert. Hence my tiramisu trifle. Waitrose kindly sent me a gift box which included a gift voucher to purchase the ingredients for this recipe. 

This trifle is made with pears poached in marsala wine and mulled wine spices, chocolate panettone soaked in marsala wine, traditional custard and Baileys infused cream. This is topped with Christmas sprinkles from Waitrose. I debated about making a coffee jelly but sadly ran out of time. The trifle was absolutely delicious and really was the star of the day. It's quite boozy but not overly so and anyway it just isn't Christmas with a tipple of alcohol in your dessert! 

I'm sending this to Baking With Spirit hosted by Janine from Cake of the Week. The theme this month is Christmas and this trifle definitely says Christmas!

 Baileys, Marsala wine, Chocolate panettone, double cream, custard, pears, mulled wine spices 

 I've never tried a chocolate panettone - I have some leftover to make panettone bread and butter pudding - look out for the recipe 

 waitrose sells mulled wine wpice packs which contains everything you need to make your own mulled wine

 pour about 3/4 bottle of marsala wine and 100g caster sugar into a pan. Add the mulled wine spices.

 Peel the pears and cut the bottom of so that it can stand upright.  Place the pears in the mixture on a low to medium heat. Cover and allow to cook, turning the pears ocassionally.  Finally stand them up so that the whole pear is infused with the wine and spices. 

 Slice each pear in half and layer the pears on the outside of the dish

 they look really pretty from the outside

 add chocolate panetoone and fill the gaps with more panettone

 pour the rest of the marsala wine on top of the panettone and leave to soak 

 add a layer of vanilla custard - I love how it fills the gaps between the pears 

finish with a layer of Baileys infused cream just because it's not Christmas without Baileys! 

 with Christmas sprinkles. Looks good on the festive food table

 Here's what the rest of the table looks like. The Christmas banner is from Waitrose

Disclaimer: I was sent a gift voucher from Waitrose to buy ingredients for this recipe along with the Christmas decoration and Christmas sprinkles. All opinions expressed are my own.