Author: Alex Prichard

Cheese Twists

- Alex Prichard 2 Comments

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Party season is yet again upon us (in our household, it starts early, thanks to the toddler’s December birthday) and it’s time to start thinking of nibbly things to have with drinks.

This is a super easy cheese twist recipe that you can make ahead and have stored in the freezer (uncooked) ready to go in case of expected or unexpected guests. It’s also versatile – experiment with your favourite cheeses or add in herbs or spices. I made these for a children’s party, so just stuck with cheese, but if I were to make them again I’d definitely add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper.

My approach is a slight variation on an Australian Women’s Weekly recipe. I think that folding the pastry onto itself makes it a lot easier to handle when it comes to twisting.

For freezing – freeze the twists on baking paper lined baking trays initially. Once frozen you can bag them up and then just cook straight from the freezer.

Perfect!

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Cheese Twists

Ingredients

  • 2 sheets of puff pastry (frozen is fine, if you can find butter puff, that's great!)
  • ½ cup of grated parmesan
  • ½ cup of grated cheddar
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • flour for the board

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 220°C (conventional, 200°C fan).
  2. Defrost the pastry. Lightly dust your worktop with flour and roll out the pastry a little, retaining the shape.
  3. Brush the entire sheet with the egg wash.
  4. Generously sprinkle half the sheet with the mixed cheeses. At this stage you could also sprinkle over some cayenne or paprika, or herbs.
  5. Fold the pastry over and press down.
  6. Slice width wise (that is, cut along the short edge).
  7. Take a piece and press down along its length and then twist, placing it on a baking paper lined baking tray.
  8. Repeat until all the pastry is used up.
  9. If freezing - freeze at this point. Otherwise, brush with egg wash and bake for 10-15 minutes until puffed and golden.
  10. Serve immediately.
https://eatingadelaide.com/cheese-twists/

Meal Planner 6

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Chettinad Fried Chicken

Some of this week’s recipes are accompanied by less than stellar photos, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are some really tasty, household favourites here.

I spotted some new season asparagus in the grocer’s yesterday, so there’s a bacon and asparagus tart to celebrate, and both Chettinad fried chicken and Vietnamese shaking beef are two very popular recipes in our family. And if you need something sweet, there’s the family banana cake recipe too.

As always, we have a pretty version and a print friendly version (no background image).

A Little Light Cake Decorating

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before … all nice and tidy!

Disclaimer: Appliances Online invited me to the cake decorating class. However, having bought a new dishwasher from AOL earlier this year, I’m happy to say that I’d shop with them again. And if you fancy free delivery and free removal of your old appliance, then it’s worth your time to check out their prices.

date of class: Thursday 21 November 2013

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that cake decorating is not my thing. Making cake, eating cake – absolutely. Making cake look pretty? I get as far as slapping some ganache on it. This weekend we’re hosting the toddler’s third birthday party so when Appliances Online invited me to a cake decorating class to celebrate the company’s eighth birthday I was hardly about to say no.

The morning was held because it’s Appliances Online’s eighth birthday and to celebrate the company is running an appliance themed cake decorating competition. If you’re a fiend with the fondant or a marvel at modelling, or if this post inspires you, then get your cake decorating head on and head to the AOL blog to find out how to enter.

A group of Adelaide bloggers and media gathered at the Adelaide Chocolate School on Melbourne Street to be taken through our cake decorating paces by the very helpful Belinda of Metro Designer Cakes. The timing was perfect for me – I’ve had a practice run of Master Almost-Three’s cake so I turned up full of questions (and thanks, Belinda, for all the answers!).

After a bit of socialising (and a coffee, I’m full of head cold at the moment and am needing super human quantities of caffeine to work my way through the mental fug!), we split into small groups and set to work on our cakes. The basic cakes were all set up for us, ready to go. On our bench, we had a two mini Tefal food processors and a Morphy Richards toaster all assembled and covered with basic fondant. With images of the ‘real’ things to hand, we set about completing the cake-appliances and then decorating them as we fancied.

With our toaster we played it relatively safe – although Camellia’s jar of Vegemite was fantastic and drew a lot of admiring glances.

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We were a bit more creative with the first food processor – I’m particularly proud of this because not only did I roll a couple of the coloured ropes of icing, but I also made the carrot top! Yes, those slightly uncertain green fronds are all my own work!

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The final food processor – well, we almost didn’t start on this one and I’m not sure whose idea it was (certainly wasn’t mine!) but … look! Santa’s been grated! More rope work by me – and I also did the ribbon and bow on the parcel (and dusted it with silver).

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So I’m not going to be stealing anyone’s job any time soon, but I did have a great morning and Appliances Online and the small appliance sponsors (Breville, Tefal, Sunbeam and Morphy Richards) put together some very generous gifts for us all. I’m now the proud owner of a very shiny new Breville juicer. The lime, pear and apple trees had better deliver!