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. 

Apple Rose Tarts

Yesterday we celebrated a month of marriage. It seems silly I know but I thought it would be nice to mark the occasion with something special. In my world that usually means cake or chocolate. However, I've been wanting to bake apple rose tarts for a while now particularly as my mum and aunt made it recently with huge success. It's normally very popular around Valentine's Day and Mother's Day so I decided to give it a go. It really is much easier than it looks. This makes for a very impressive dessert with a little effort. Plus roses traditionally symbolise love. J was well impressed as was I! 

There are lots of recipes and videos available online and this is my interpretation. A little clumsy but still pretty and delicious. You can get 6 tarts out of 1 sheet of puff pastry but I made mine extralarge and only made 4! Most of the recipes used jam but I decided to go with melted butter and cinnamon sugar. Apologies for the poor quality photos but it was very late at night! 

 ready rolled puff pastry, 2 red apples, butter, cinnamon sugar and egg wash

 Slice the apples thinly and arrange on a plate. Makes sure you keep the skin on. Microwave it gently for 1-2 minutes until the apples are soft and pliable. 

 Cut the puff pastry into 4 using a pizza cutter (cut into 6 strips for smaller, neater tarts) 

 Roll each sheet slightly to widen and flatten it. Spread some melted butter on top

 Add a generous sprinkling of cinnamon sugar

 Arrange apple slices, overlapping the ends on top of the puff pastry sheet 

 fold the bottom part over and add more melted butter and cinnamon sugar. Starting at one end, roll it up and the apple slices will look like rose petals

 How pretty does that look? I baked mine in a buttered ramekin dishes in a 220C oven for approximately 40 minutes. You can also use a muffin tin if you are making smaller roses.

 They turn out beautifully from the ramekin 

 serve with a dusting of icing sugar 

Cinnabunnies for Easter

Another quick and easy recipe for Easter. This will be a hit with both adults and children alike. The kids will have fun making and eating these and there's still time to get the ingredients before Easter Sunday. I saw this reipe online from Pillsbury. It's an American brand and I wasn't sure if I would find the equivalent here so I was really pleased when I saw this Jus Rol Cinnamon Swirls in the supermarket. One box makes 6 swirls which is 3 bunnies as you need 2 per bunny. You also need some raisins and almond flakes for decoration. It's really simple and looks so cute! The pastry was really flaky and you can definitely taste the cinnamon. It also comes with a little tub of icing sugar - just add water and drizzle over the pastry. This is brilliant for when you don't have time to make cinnamon buns from scratch.

 flaked almonds, raisins, box of Jus Rol cinnamon swirls 

 It comes in a can and the dough looks like this. Cut into 6 even slices. 

 You need 2 swirls - one for the face and one for the ears. Place one swirl on your baking tray then unravel the second swirl as shown. Turn it around so the cinnamon filling is facing downwards. 

 Push the middle of the top pastry on to the swirl and tuck both ends under to look like bunny ears. Pinch the adjoining ends to ensure that it bakes in 1 piece. 

 add 3 raisins per bunny - two for eyes and one for the nose and 2 almond flakes for the teeth. Press firmly in the dough before baking. 

 Bake in the oven according to the box instructions. 

 I tried drizzling the icing and only putting the icing on the ears - which do you prefer? 

I'm sending these super cute Easter Cinnabunnies to a few blog challenges this month...

AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and myself on alternate months. The letter ths month is B for Bunny!

Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Eplorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is Hello Spring. 

Food Year Link Up hosted by Charlotte from My Recipe Book.

Cook Blog Share hosted by Lucy at Supergolden Bakes

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. This recipe uses ready made ingredients which cuts down on time. It's also quite cost effective as I bought the box of cinnamon swirls for £2 and it makes 6 swirls which is a cost of 33p each or 3 bunnies at 66p each. The raisins and almond flakes were store cupboard ingredients.

Mini Peanut Butter and Chocolate Croissants

These are ridiculously easy to make and yet oh so delicious and sinful. Life's too short to make your own puff pastry so I cheated and used a pack of ready rolled pastry! I added a combination of dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. Some were just chocolate, just peanut butter or a combination of peanut butter and chocolate. The peanut butter one was the clear winner and I'm sure I'll be making a lot more of these. 

I'm sending this to The Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... which has the theme of 'fun' this month. These were fun to eat especially since you don't know what the filling is until you bite into it!

I'm also sending this to  Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from the Baking Explorer. The theme this month is 'Spring into Easter' and although this is not a traditional Easter bake, I think it would be perfect for Easter breakfast or brunch as it's quick and easy to make and you can use any leftover easter egg chocolates instead of chocolate chips. 

puff pastry, 1 egg, chocolate chips and peanut butter chips 

 roll out the puff pastry and cut into 8 rectangles 

 cut each rectangle into triangles 

 fill with chocolate chips or peanut butter chips or both 

 roll them up starting with the longer end and pull the ends down on each side so it forms a crescent shape 

 brush with eggwash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water) before baking for about 30-35 minutes in a preheated oven of 200C until golden brown

Cheese, tomato and herb twists

Following the success of my chocolate and cheese twists, I decided to make some more traditional cheese, tomato and herb twists. They are really easy to make and are quite addictive to eat! They are great as party foods or a snack. Best eaten fresh from the oven but still tasted good the next day. The smell of the cheese and herbs are amazing. You can make so many different variations - bacon and cheese, bacon cheese & tomato, ham and cheese, tomato and basil ..... whatever you fancy! 

If you live in the UK, Jus Rol pastry are offering a free Le Creuset stoneware dish with 4 tokens (1 pack = 1 token) plus p&p. A pretty good deal so I thought I'd share it with you (I have not been paid by them in any way, I just wanted to share the news in case you were interested) So this is my second roll of puff pastry, look out for at least 2 more recipes featuring puff or shortcrust pastry! 

I am entering these to Herbs on Saturday hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. 

 roll out a sheet of puff pastry. Brush beaten egg on one side, turn it over and spread tomato puree on top as shown. 

 sprinkle liberally with grated cheese 

 add dried herbs and a little bit of cracked black pepper 

 slice into strips 

 twist and bake according to the packet instructions 

 enjoy!