Pastry that went wrong - and then more right

As you all know I am sponsored by Healthy Supplies and due to the adverse needs of my grandson I pick my own ingredients but generally round a theme or idea supplied by them, usually to tie in with their newsletter for the next month.

Just before Christmas Tina sent me a link to a gluten free puff pastry recipe and asked me if I fancied trying it, so eventually I have got round to it.I have had to adapt the butter for a dairy free option, so harping back to my schooldays I used half soya margarine and half trex. I also made up 50% more of the doughy mix than she has to allow me to experiment with a level playing field.

 So on Friday I gave it a go,  I made up the batch of "doughy" stuff ready for the rolling and folding process, and so I took 1/3 of doughy mix and and decided to make mincemeat pies for after the tea, so according to the instructions I mixed and I rolled, and I rolled, popped it back in the fridge for about 30mins to recover, then I cut, lovingly added the mincemeat, popped the lids on and came up with........well it had pastry and it had mincemeat......but it was certainly not a mince pie as we know them. Not to bad when warm, but hard and tough and as you can maybe see from a separate piece I cooked no lightness or layers at all.

apple and plum tart

So not one to be beaten I went back and reread the post again, and thought if she can do it so can I - so I took another 1/3 of the doughy mix, added an extra ounce of fat, and did 4 roll, add fat, fold and rolls instead of 3. I then left it in the fridge for a few hours as I made it before I needed it. What we got this time was much more an acceptable pastry, and as you can see from some of the tarts I made it did seem to layer up.

the cheese and mustard roll

I also used a few bits and offcuts of the pastry left so I spread a bit of mustard on it, topped with a bit of grated cheese (no longer safe for Bob but he not here) , rolled up and popped in the oven, and it came out ok as well, certainly very nice whilst warm. Again you can see an attempt at layers.







Lastly I used the final piece to make some fig rolls, again same pastry as above. I had previously boiled some figs in orange juice, left them to soak overnight and pureed as I needed it, and again these turned out very nice, although the layers not as obvious it tasted light and more than edible. Will certainly make more of these.

fig rolls

This is a review post but the findings are my own