It puffed It puffed It puffed

Was what I chanted to our unexpected lunch guests as I jumped up and down excitedly. What was all the fuss about? My first ever home made puff pastry worked!!!

My morning started early – 2am to be exact as the kitchen was meant to be cool. However I discovered that the kitchen was still 27 deg at that time of morning so I went back to bed. I was interested to find that at 7am the kitchen was actually a lot cooler (22deg) so I could try the September daring bakers challenge. As of this week, I’m now in the daring bakers group officially so can participate in the October challenge actually in October!

I didn’t risk melting the butter, so only did one turn each time. This was interrupted by a lovely visit to the local park with my friend and godson. The pastry was easy enough to pick up after a couple of hours and continue the process. The initial plan was to continue making the dough and then the Vols-au-vents and make up a filling for dinner. However suddenly finding ourselves with house guests at lunchtime, I put together a quick filling and hoped that it would all just work. It was really yummy and enjoyed by all. The puff pastry was lovely, light and crisp. It is kind of hard to explain, but lighter and fresher than store bought pastry.

Here is my one pan, ‘ummm what to make’ for the filling I came up with…
Cut the chicken up into pieces, put them in the frying pan to cook. Cut up some garlic and add it to the pan. Grate the cheese and cut up the mushrooms and some baby spinach. Once the chicken is cooked, turn the heat down to medium and add some milk, stir and then some flour and a bit of the egg used to wash the pastry to thicken. Then add some salt/pepper. Take off the heat and add the cheese till mixed through. Then mix the mushrooms and spinach through. Spoon the mixture into the vols-au-vents and serve.

The photos were taken pretty quickly as I actually wanted to serve and eat
I have some left overs to make something special for my workmates who have been testing a major project for the last few days. We will see how it goes as I also have to be up at 2:30am for an international meeting and then at work at 6am for a deployment. This week is looking very ‘interesting’.