47. 'Chorizo' Bakes

Well it’s been a little while since I’ve done a savoury recipe on here. So much of baking is all about sugar and spice and everything sweet tooth related aka nice, but you can’t live on that. Or you can’t live on just that. Or you can’t live on just that every day. At least…. once a week?… you should probably eat something savoury.

For those of you who feel the need to eat something savoury, have a go at these “chorizo” bakes. No chorizo involved, or meat if you use vegetarian sausages, but all the flavours of chorizo are there to be enjoyed! This recipe was inspired by one from the BBC Good Food magazine, but I found their ratios of filling to pastry to be a bit wrong, so this is my updated version.

This recipe is really easy to adapt to be vegetarian or vegan depending on the sausages and milk you use. Most puff pastry sheets you buy at supermarkets are already suitable for vegans, just make sure to check the packaging!

I made two batches of these, and Callum couldn’t get enough. Maybe I should make him more savoury stuff. More than once a week. Maybe. The leftover filling from doubling up the batch size made a great pasta sauce when combined with chopped tomatoes!

Makes 6 bakes

Ingredients

• 3 sausages, vegetarian or pork

• 1/2 onion, finely diced

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

• 1 tsp olive oil

• 1 bell pepper, finely sliced

• 2 rosemary sprigs, chopped

• 2 tsp harissa paste

• 2 tsp ground cumin

• 2 tsp paprika

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper, or chilli powder

• 1 sheet rolled puff pastry

• 1 tbsp milk, or milk alternative

• 1 tbsp sesame seeds

Method

1. Chop up your sausages into small bits. Combine with the onion, garlic, oil, harissa and spices and fry in a pan for about 8 minutes, until the sausage is cooked and the onion has softened. Allow to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 200C and take out your puff pastry sheet.

3. Cut your puff pastry (either on a lightly floured surface or on greaseproof, it usually comes rolled in it) into 6 squares/rectangles.

4. Place a heaped spoon of your filling into the centre of one half of your square/rectangle and brush around the edges of the visible pastry with your milk. Fold the pastry over your filling and use a fork to crimp it together along the edges. Transfer to a lined baking tray. Repeat for all 6.

5. Brush the tops of your bakes with more milk and sprinkle on some sesame seeds.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden.

7. Enjoy hot or cold!

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

29. Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

I’m finally settled in my new apartment, all the IKEA furniture has been built, the internet sorted, the kitchen reorganised and the oven broken in. Let’s bake.

I’d like to say I chose to make vegan cupcakes for a decent reason, but that would be an utter lie. I made vegan cupcakes because I didn’t have any butter in, so… still counts? Turns out that you can use olive oil instead of butter, swapping one fat for another. It gives you a more liquid batter, but that’s A ok. Still gives you a solid cake. The olive oil makes the chocolate taste richer than it actually is, which is extremely nice to be honest. My boyfriend had some and said they were great. Didn’t even know they were vegan. So not bad all around.

Wasn’t a big fan of the icing, but probably didn’t help that I didn’t wait for my buns to cool completely before icing. My icing melted just a little lot. Nevermind! Still tasty.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 280g self-raising flour

• 200g sugar

• 25g cocoa powder

• 150ml olive oil

• 300ml water

• pinch of salt

• vanilla extract (to taste)

• 200g vegetable spread

• 350g icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Combine the self-raising flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl.

3. Add in the olive oil, vanilla extract and water.

4. Line a cupcake tray and fill the cases about 2/3rds full.

5. Bake for 15-18 minutes until they spring back.

6. Mix together the non-dairy spread and icing sugar in a bowl to make an icing. Flavour with vanilla extract if desired.

7. Pipe your icing onto your COOLED buns and enjoy!