Sweet and Savoury Puff Pastry Bites

Puff pastry is always a great thing to use if you want to whip up a really tasty, quick and easy bite to eat. Its a good idea to have a roll of ready made puff pastry in the freezer so you can make something last minute.

My friend Rosie had some puff pastry that she needed using up, so we made these little puff pastry bites. We made both sweet and savoury ones, and they're good as you can put pretty much whatever takes your fancy inside!

We made a selection of, Banana with chocolate chunks/ peanut butter, raspberry with chocolate chunks, and Gouda cheese with spiced chutney.

Recipe: (makes 14)

- 1 pack of ready rolled puff pastry

- Little bit of milk for glazing

Fillings:

(You can choose any combinations you like, or whatever you have in the cupboard/fridge!)

- 1/2 Banana

- Chocolate chunks

- Nutella/ Peanut Butter

- A few Raspberries

- Chocolate chunks

- Gouda cheese, cut in to little cubes

- A few tsp of Chutney/ Pickle

To make:

- Lay out the puff pastry and cut the pastry in half and then in to strips. You should have 14 rectangular shapes. Lightly score a mark to half the rectangles so you can see where to fold them in half. 

- Put your chosen fillings on to one side of the pastry and then fold over the pastry to make a little parcel. With the back of a fork press down along the edges to seal the parcel. Brush with some milk.

- Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200c, until they are golden brown on the top and bottom. Allow them to cool a little before serving as the filling will be very hot!

- Enjoy the sweet parcels with ice cream or custard as a pudding. And the cheesy parcels work well with a little salad as a starter or light main course.

- Enjoy!

The puff pastry cut in to 14 rectangles

Two of the fillings

The finished golden brown parcels

xXx

Chocolate chip banana ice cream

Like a lot of other people, I have become rather partial to banana ice cream all of a sudden! I first made it about 6 months ago when I came across it on Pinterest. I have up till now been making the plain banana flavour with a spoon or two of nut butter in, but I thought it was about time I tried a chocolate version. And I am pleased to announce that this chocolate chip banana ice cream is utterly delicious and creamy just like dairy ice cream! Aaaaand it is the easiest recipe EVER!

Recipe: (makes a large tub)

- 10 very ripe bananas

- 1 1/2 tbsp Green and Blacks unsweetened cocoa powder

- Dark chocolate chips/ bar chopped in to small pieces

To make:

- Chop the bananas in to rounds, put in to a freezer bag and then in to the freezer. Freeze them overnight or for several hours until completely frozen.

- Pop the frozen banana pieces in to your food processor and whizz. This will take quite some time, so dont be alarmed if it seems slow. You will need to scrape down the sides and stir the mixture quite often.

- Once the mixture becomes smooth and creamy, this is when you add the cocoa powder. Whizz again to combine, and then add the chocolate chips and whizz again. 

- Now you can either eat the ice cream straight away as a soft serve ice cream, or as I do, pop it in to an air tight container and back in to the freezer to become more solid.

- Enjoy! - I like to top my ice cream with more chocolate chips/ chopped nuts or crumbled Amaretti biscuits for a delicious healthy treat!

Note: You will need to take the ice cream out of the freezer about 20 mins before you want to eat it to unthaw a little as it is quite hard, or pop it in to the microwave!

Enjoy!!

Pippa 

xx