Ham and Cheese Pizza Pinweels

It's British Pie Week this week 7- 13 March and I've teamed up with Jus Rol Pastry who are the founders of British Pie Week to create a simple recipe. The inspiration for this idea came from wanting to use up some Serrano ham as we got a whole leg of Serrano Ham for Christmas and only unwrapped it late in January. There's a lot of ham to use up so I've been creating different recipes incorporating Serrano ham. We were invited to a get together at our neighbours and wanted to bring party food to the table. These pizza pinwheels are perfect as they are quick and easy to make and tastes delicious! All you need is a sheet of Jus Rol puff pastry, tomato puree, dried herbs, slices of ham and grated cheese. You can make this vegetarian by omitting the ham and adding in slices of courgette or have it with cheese, tomato and herbs. 

 spread tomato puree on top of the puff pastry 

 add a sprinkling of dried herbs if using 

 add a generous amount of grated cheese, followed by slices of ham. Roll into a sausage and slice with a sharp knife

 Brush with eggwash before baking 

Ham and Cheese Pizza Pinwheels

1 box Jus Rol Puff pastry
1 tube tomato puree
150g grated cheese
dried herbs (optional)
Ham slices - enough to cover the pastry
1 egg for egg wash

• Preheat the oven to 200C. 
• Roll out the puff pastry sheet on a non stick surface.
• Spread a generous layer of tomato puree and smooth with a palette knife. 
• Add a sprinkling of dried herbs if using.
• Add the grated cheese then the ham slices, covering the whole pastry sheet. 
• Starting from the shorter end of the pastry, roll into a sausage. 
• Cut into slices and place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper.
• Beat the egg in a bowl and add 1 tablespoon of water. 
• Brush the pastry with the eggwash.
• Bake for approximately 20-25 minutes but watch closely after 18 minutes or so to make sure it's not burnt. 
• Serve warm or cold.

Disclaimer : I was sent vouchers from Jus Rol to buy the pastry. I provided all the other ingredients. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Courgette, Basil, Polenta and Cheese Wedges

This is a great recipe for a simple weeknight meal. It does take a little bit of prep time but it's well worth it.  It's also vegetarian if you are looking to eat less meat of if you are a vegetarian. The recipe is quite versatile and you can add in a few extra ingredients if you wish. It's great for lunchboxes the next day and will also be good for picnics in the summer. I've made this a few times at home each time with a slight variation so I thought I'd share it with you. Mine turned out a little soft but it tasted delicious warm with the tomato sauce. You can really taste the polenta and the chili and tomatoes added an extra kick and bite to it. I loved the basil as well and used a lot of it in my recipe. I think it's going on the menu plan again this week! 

I'm sending this to a few blog challenges this month. 

Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is fruit and veg. There's courgette and tomatoes in this recipe and as it's served in wedges I hope it qualifies for the challenge!

Cooking with Herbs hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. This recipe uses a lot of fresh basil. 

Extra Veg hosted by Helen from Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. 

Tea Time Treats hosted by Janie from The Hedgecombers and Karen from Lavender and Lovage. There's no theme this month and these would make for a great tea time treat! 

Meat Free Mondays hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

 courgette and cheese mixture

 polenta 

 ready to go in the oven

 making the tomato sauce

Recipe adapted slightly from The Veg Space

For the wedges
1 courgette, coarsely grated
50g cheddar cheese, grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped

2 fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped (also works well with sundried tomatoes)
20g butter, cut into small cubes
large handful fresh basil, roughly chopped
120g instant polenta
450ml vegetable stock

For the tomato sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red chilli, finely chopped
6 pitted black olives, finely chopped
250g passata
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar

• In a large bowl, mix the grated courgette, cheese, chili, fresh tomatoes, butter and basil leaves. 
• Place the polenta in a medium sized pan.
• Add in the hot vegetable stock, stirring constantly.
• Cook the polenta and stock over a low heat whilst stirring continuously. 
• Remove from the heat and stir in the courgette and cheese mixture. 
• Pour the batter into a springform tin lined with greaseproof paper. 
• Allow to cool and then place in the fridge for about half an hour (I skipped this step once and it still turned out ok).
• Make the tomato sauce by heating the olive oil in a small saucepan. Add in the garlic and chili and cook over a low heat for a few minutes. 
• Add the passata, balsamic vinegar, sugar and olives and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes. 
• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Bake the polenta for 45-40 minutes or until golden brown on top. 
• Slice into wedges and serve with the tomato sauce. 

Quick and Easy Pizza Dough

I love how you can connect with others on social media particularly on twitter. A recent follower on my twitter account is David from Old Fat Guy (@DiscoDavid9)  He lives in Canada and likes to cook. He has lots of great recipes on his site but the one that caught my eye recently was this recipe for Quick Pizza. I'm not a huge lover of pizza and will almost always choose pasta over pizza if we eat at an Italian restaurant. Over the Easter weekend, we did a lot of work around the house and wanted something quick and simple for dinner. Instead of ordering a takeaway pizza, I decided to give David's recipe a try as it seemed so quick and simple. 

It was also a good chance to make use of ingredients in the fridge to use as pizza toppings. I was terrible at shaping the pizza so mine looks quite 'rustic'. Let's just say that was how I intended it to look in the first place :) I rolled out the dough quite thinly as I prefer a thin base pizza and made 2 different ones. The first had a tomato and pepper pesto as a base and was topped with pepperoni, mushrooms, tomatoes, grated cheese and mozarella cheese. The second one had a bbq sauce base and was topped with ham, cheese and tomato. I baked them on my pizza stone and they tasted absolutely delicious! The pizzas were ready in about 35 minutes from start to finish! That's quicker than some pizza deliveries particularly on a busy weekend. This is definitely going on the regular menu plan and it would be great for parties or when I have guests round. 

I'm sending this to Bready, Steady, Go! hosted by Jen from Jen's Food and Michelle from Utterly Scrummy Food For Families. Both Jen and Michelle are keen bread bakers so they've decided to host this challenge together. 

I'm also sending it to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes. I bookmarked this and a few other recipes whilst going through David's blog.

It's also perfect for Credit Crunch Munch guest hosted by Michelle from Utterly Scrummy. The challenge is run by Camilla from Fab Food 4 All and Helen from Fuss Free Flavours. Making your own pizza is definitely more cost effective than ordering one for delivery even if you bought all the ingredients from scratch. Hopefully you will have some of these ingredients at home. The bonus is you can custom make your own pizza and not have to pay extra! As mentioned I used up leftovers from the fridge for toppings. 

 

 mix until the dough starts to clump on the hook

 almost ready - you can see that the dough is smoother and sticks to the dough hook 

 my 'rustic' pizza 

 spread base of pizza on dough 

 add your toppings and bake 

 first pizza - tomato and pepper base with pepperoni,mushroom, tomato and cheese 

  second pizza - bbq sauce base with ham, tomato, mushroom and cheese 

Recipe adapted slightly from Old Fat Guy

I used bread flour instead of plain flour as I'd run out of plain flour (shocking but true) 

My pizzas only needed 8-9 minutes to cook as the dough was very thin and I used a pizza stone. 

240g bread flour (or plain flour), divided into 120g x 2

2.25 teaspoon easy bake yeast 

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

160ml very warm water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Pizza toppings of your choice 

• Place a cold pizza stone in the oven and pre heat the oven to 220C or as high as your oven will go.  
• Mix 120g flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer.
• Add the water and oil to the mixture. 
• Give it a quick stir then add the remaining 120g flour and place on the stand mixer with a dough hook.
• Mix until the dough starts to clump on the hook and continue mixing for another 7 minutes. Set a timer and let the mixer do all the work! 
• Leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes. 
• Roll out the dough in a circle and toss the pizza if you know how! Otherwise, roll it out thinly into a rustic shape like mine.
• Transfer the pizza to the hot pizza stone and spread pesto sauce, bbq sauce or pizza base on top of the dough then add the toppings. I found it easier than transferring a ready made pizza to the hot pizza stone. Alternatively you can use a cake lifter or pizza paddle to transfer the ready made pizza to the hot pizza stone. 
• Bake for about 8-9 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and the dough is brown on the edges. You may need to bake it longer if your dough is thicker. 
• Slice and enjoy! 
• Note: If you don't have a pizza stone, you can bake this on a pizza pan which has perforations to ensure a crispy base.

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

Cheddar, Cranberry and Honey Beer Bread

Recently I was invited to the BBC Good Food Show by Barber's Cheesemakers. I had the opportunity to meet with Charlie Barber where he told us about the history of Barber's cheese, how to judge a cheese award and anything you want to know about cheese but were too afraid to ask! 

The Barber family have been farming and making cheese at Maryland Farm in Ditcheat, Somerset since 1833. AJ & RG Barber is run by cousins Anthony, Chris, Charlie and Giles Barber, the sixth generation of the Barber family, and many other family members are still involved. Today the Barber farms comprise 2500 acres of prime Somerset dairy land and are home to some 2,000 dairy cows.

Charlie told us how they created their own specialist laboratory with their own microbiologist to grow their own natural starter cultures. These cultures are the friendly bacteria added to the milk to start the cheesemaking process and are the most important ingredient in creating the flavour and character of the finished cheese. Most cheesemakers nowadays use freeze dried starters and they are the only cheesemakers that currently make their own natural starters. They also supply the starters to artisan cheesemakers. They believe that it's the natural cultures that give their cheese a unique complexity of flavours and it's honourable that they are keeping this tradition alive.

We got to taste their signature cheddar cheese, cave aged cheddar, smoked cheese and goat's cheese. We were also introduced to his cousin who gave us a sample of Black Cow Vodka - vodka made from milk of their cows. It has a clean taste at the front and a subtle dairy taste at the end.

cheese awards 

 supergolden cheese awards table - one of their cheeses made it to this table! 

Before I tell you about my recipe, I'd also like to mention a honey beer that I tasted at the BBC Good Food Show. It's made by Hiver who source raw honey from independent British Beekeepers. I'm not a huge fan of beer but this is aboslutely delicious! Don't just take my word for it, try it for yourself and tell me what you think. At present, it's only available through Ocado.

Barber's gave me a block of their vintage cheddar to sample and to create a recipe with. I had a few ideas to start with and after tasting the honey beer, I decided to make a Cheddar and Honey Beer Bread. As it's approaching Christmas, I decided to throw in some cranberries for a festive touch. I based it on an old recipe that has been passed on from a friend who got it from another friend and so on. I've not used this recipe in many years and had to hunt for it! It's a very simple mix all in one recipe. No need for a yeasted dough, kneading or fancy equipment. I added in dried cranberries and chunks of cheddar cheese. 

This bread is best eaten fresh on the day it's baked. The crust was my favourite part and I could have eaten the whole crust in one go! You can definitely taste the beer in the bread but the honey notes were subtle. You can clearly taste the cheese as it has a rich and strong flavour which is not masked by the honey or bread. It also adds a lovely saltiness to the bread and the cranberries add a burst of sweetness and texture. You also get bits of crusty melted cheese on the outside. We couldn't finish the whole loaf between us in one sitting so I toasted a few slices 2 days later and it was still very good. In fact, I think I prefer the toasted version as you get lots of crispy bits. Make sure you turn your toaster on a low setting as you don't want to burn the cheese!  

 Barber's Vintage reserve Cheddar

 Pour beer into the batter in one go 

 add dried cranberries and chunks of cheddar 

add melted butter before baking 

 fresh from the oven 

 serve warm with butter 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

470g plain flour

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 tablespoon honey (you can add another tablespoon if you want a sweeter bake) 

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 bottle Honey Beer, unopened and at room temperature

60g melted butter

60g dried cranberries (could add a bit more)

180g Barber's Vintage cheddar cheese, roughly cut into chunks

• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• In a large bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. 
• Add in the honey.
• Open the beer and all it all at once to the batter - it will foam up.
• Stir briskly until just combined - be careful not to overmix.
• Add in the dried cranberries and cheddar chunks and stir a few more times to incorpate it.
• Pour into a loaf tin and drizzle with the melted butter.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to rest in the pan for 5 minutes before serving.
• Best served warm with butter. 

Disclaimer: I was invited to the Cheese Awards by Barber's Cheese at BBC Good Food Show. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions are my own. This is not a sponsored post.