I believe I have e already mentioned the fact that the trimmings from ready rolled short crust pastry cannot be re rolled to make more tart bases as for some reason it puffs up and all the mince meat of jam is pushed out. I often use ready made pastry these days,its inexpensive,save a lot of mess and tastes almost as good as the home made sort.
Having made three dozen mince pies this afternoon I had quite a lot of oddments and corners of short crust so I decided to make some cheese straws and a few savoury nibbles.
I am certain I do not have to tell you how to make mince pies so we will skip that part and come to the cheesy straws.
scraps of ready rolled pastry
strong cheddar finely grated
sesame seeds
dried Italian herbs
garlic
salt
freshly ground black pepper
Gather the scraps of pastry roll into ball and then roll out to about a quarter of an inch thick. I always save the blue wrapper that the pastry comes rolled in as it prevents ans sticking to the rolling pin. Scatter the cheese,herbs and garlic salt over the pastry then form in to a sausage shape ,fold into a square and roll out again to the same thickness as before.
Next scatter with the sesame seeds and cut in to strips,twist and transfer to a baking sheet.
Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes a 200oC, when crisp and golden remove from the oven and cool on a wire tray. Store in an air tight container.
Pastry treated in this way can also be cut in to small circles with a biscuit cutter, sprinkled with a little more cheese and cooked in the same way.
For a different flavour try adding some sun dried tomato pieces well drained and finely chopped, a little dried basil and some finely grated cheese.
. They are great with sherry although I prefer mine with a pint of Guinness!
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