fancy cheese on crackers

Cookie Press Cheese Appetizers

Cheese Appetisers, originally published in the Mirro Cooky Press instruction and recipe booklet c1950 (I figured I’d spell appetisers both ways to keep everyone happy :P)

Ingredients

Cream cheese, at least 250gm or 8 1/2oz

Crackers or toast cut into fancy shapes

Optional decorations – food colouring

stuffed olives

paprika

 Method

Mix the cream cheese until it’s soft. Add a few drops of food colouring if you like.

Put the cheese into your cookie press and add the disc of your choice.

Press the cheese shapes onto a baking tray that is not non-stick and sprinkle with paprika.

Put in the fridge for a couple of hours to set.

Using a flexible knife, remove the cheese shapes from the tray (see the video for the technique) and put each one on a cracker.

Garnish with a slice of stuffed olive or dried fruit.

A tray of pumpkin pasties cooling down.

Pumpkin Pasties

This week’s recipe is for pumpkin pasties, a savoury pastry that’s also great for hallowe’en and I even teach you how to do the pastie tap :-)

Ingredients

1/2 a small pumpkin/orange fleshed winter squash or 2 1/2 cups canned mashed pumpkin

2 1/2 cups of chopped mushrooms of your choice

1 cup of chopped bacon or ham

1 tablespoon of minced onion

2 eggs

salt & pepper

10-12 sheets or flaky or puff pastry

This recipe makes 45-50 pasties. Halve or quarter the ingredients to make fewer pasties

Method

Dice your pumpkin and boil or steam it. Mash and measure out 2 1/2 cups.

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees C or 425 degrees F.

To make the filling for your pasties take your pumpkin, and season with salt and pepper.

Add the mushroom, bacon, minced onion.

Beat one of the eggs and mix everything well.

Beat your remaining egg.

Take your pastry and cut it into small circles about 4 or 5 inches across.

Place a spoonful of filling on one side of each circle.

Brush the edges of the circle with the beaten egg and fold over.

Press firmly all the way around with a fork then fold the edges over to seal.

Make a few holes in the top to let the steam out.

Brush the top with beaten egg.

Place on a tray covered in baking paper and bake in the over for 15 – 20 minutes. You can tell if they’re cooked if they sound hollow when you tap them on the bottom.

Place on a wire rack to cool.

Nom yourself silly.