This week’s Great British Bake Off wasn’t particularly inspiring, but I had a whole load of other baking to do anyway. This week is the Above and Beyond Bake Off week, and we had decided to have ours today. Which meant lots of baking.

I thought I would give puff pastry another go, and also try and make some savoury options. It also gives me the excuse for some proper pictures!

I made a couple of batches of rough puff before work yesterday morning, then once I got home I made them into sweet sugary Palmiers and Cheesy Twists!

Rough Puff Pastry Recipe – this is the same recipe as the Banana Tarte Tatin I made from the Great British Bake Off book, but is also available here.

Ingredients

225g/8oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting

pinch sea salt

190g/6¾oz unsalted butter, cold, cut into 2cm/¾in cubes

½ tbsp lemon juice

Method

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and add the butter. Move the butter around until coated in the flour.

Mix 125ml/4fl oz of water and the lemon juice together in a jug and pour into the flour and butter. Using a butter knife, mix in the liquid and chop the butter slightly as you go, turning the bowl round, until the ingredients have combined into a dough.

On a floured work surface, tip the dough out and quickly shape it into a block.

Roll out the dough into a rectangle roughly 35cmx20cm/14inx8in in size.

With the short side of the pastry rectangle in front of you, fold the top third of the pastry to the middle…….

…….then fold the bottom half up to cover it.

Roll the pastry out into a rectangle again and repeat the folding process. Turn the pastry a quarter turn……..

…….and roll out and fold again. Repeat this 4-5 times.

After the last folding, wrap the pastry in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for a few hours, or preferably overnight. When the pastry has chilled, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

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To make the Palmiers, you will need about 100g of caster sugar.

Take a sheet of baking paper and sprinkle with sugar, then roll out the pastry into a rectangle.

Then sprinkle the surface with sugar, and fold the edges to the middle:

(note: you could trim your pastry to a neat rectangle for a neater finish)

Then sprinkle the surface again, and fold into the middle again:

Then fold in half, and you are left with a sausage of folded pastry:

Wrap tightly in the paper, and chill for 15 minutes, then slice into 1cm-ish thick slices and lay out on the baking paper, leaving space between each slice for them to expand.

Bake for 12 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn over and bake for a further 7 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy on both sides!

Done!

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To make the Cheese Twists, finely grate 100g strong cheddar (or any other cheese you fancy), and proceed as follows!

Roll out the pastry into a rectangle, then scatter half with some of the cheese:

Fold over, then add more cheese in the centre:

Fold again as described above for the layers, then roll out into a long rectangle.

Cut strips of 1-2cm wide:

Twist the strips and lay out on a tray lined with baking paper:

Scatter with more grated cheese:

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown…..

Boom!

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So who wants one?

Both went down really well at the bake sale, I have made Palmiers with shop bought puff pastry before… These were way better!

I also made some:

Apple Cake

Lemon and Ginger Applesauce Softies (The Vegan option, based on this recipe)

(while they were cooked fine, I think they could have done with a few minutes more)

Oh and these bad boys – Lemon Squares…..(recipe here)