Beef & Caramelised Onion Sausage Rolls with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

A savoury recipe! What in the world is going on? It must be opposites day. I was in a baking funk this weekend. There were about 10 bazillion different dessert ideas whizzing around my head but nothing was inspiring me enough to make it a reality. So I went in an entirely different direction and made some homemade sausage rolls. I find it hard to believe this was my first time making them at home. They are so easy and such a classic. You can't go wrong with a bit of meat wrapped in puff pastry, though it's not the most photogenic of dishes!

To mix things up a little, instead of serving them with tomato sauce (the default condiment for all sausage rolls) I got a little bit weird. I made these delicious beef and caramelised onion sausage rolls (my sweet tooth still manages to rear its ugly head) and served them with a blue cheese dipping sauce. Don't freak out. It totally works. I knew it would, because one of my favourite dinners is this grilled steak with onion-blue cheese sauce. Even people who don't usually like blue cheese enjoy it. So keep an open mind.

Sausage rolls might be one of the few times where I have no issues with using store-bought pastry. It's one of those crowd-pleasing party snacks that you want to be able to make on the day, and making puff pastry from scratch (as amazing as it tastes) can be quite time consuming. So this weekend I cheated and used the frozen stuff. Still deliciously buttery and flaky.

I would definitely urge you to try it with the blue cheese sauce at least once. The sausage rolls are actually not very salty on their own because of all those lovely caramelised onion bits, so it really needs the saltiness from the blue cheese to balance it out. If you can't bring yourself to do it, make sure you add extra salt or some cheese to the rolls themselves. Almost cruelly, the one weekend where I decided to make savoury baked goods for my dessert-averse husband, he suddenly had a craving for chocolate. Bugger.

Beef & Caramelised Onion Sausage Rolls with Blue Cheese Dipping Sauce

(adapted from this Taste recipe, makes 24 mini sausage rolls)

For the onions:

3 red or brown onions, peeled and thinly sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

15g (1 tbsp) salted butter

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Place butter and olive onion in a large frying pan or pot on medium heat until butter has melted. Add onions and stir regularly until softened and just starting to colour. Add sugar and balsamic vinegar and stir until combined. Continue cooking, stirring regularly until onions are a deep brown in colour, about 15 mins. Transfer to a dish and set aside to cool.

For the sausage rolls:

Caramelised onions, prepared above

500g (about 17.5 oz) beef mince

1 carrot, peeled and finely grated

1.5 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 tbsp dried thyme

1.5 tbsp freshly cracked pepper  

Small pinch of sea salt

3 sheets butter puff pastry, partially thawed (if you have the time to make yours from scratch you can try the recipe at the bottom of this post and roll thin sheets approx 25x25cm)

Egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tbsp milk whisked together

Note: If not using the cheese dipping sauce, add a generous pinch of salt to the mixture or you can crumble some of the cheese to the mixture (the rolls are quite sweet without the cheese sauce)

Preheat oven to 220°C (430°F) and line 2-3 baking trays with baking paper. Place beef, carrot, parsley, thyme, pepper in a bowl and add the cooled onions. Mix until well combined. Cut pastry sheets in half. Prepare egg wash and brush egg wash along one long edge of each piece of pastry. On the opposite long edge, shape a 3cm diameter sausage of the beef mixture (about 1/6th of the whole mixture). Starting from the long edge with the beef, roll pastry up so that it seals along the edge with egg wash. Cut roll into four equal pieces and place equally spaced on the lined baking trays, seam side down. Brush tops with egg wash. Repeat with remaining pastry and beef mixture. Bake for 20-25 mins or until golden brown and puffed. (You can prepare the dipping sauce below while waiting for them to bake.) Don't worry if moisture/grease leaks out the sides a bit, it doesn't really affect it but you can mop some if it up with a paper towel if necessary. Remove from oven and use tongs to carefully transfers to a wire rack to cool. Best served while still warm and fresh from the oven, but can be refrigerated in an airtight container for several days reheated in the oven or microwave.

For the blue cheese dipping sauce:

250g (about 9oz) sour cream

100-120g (3.5-4oz) your favourite blue cheese, finely crumbled (adjust to taste)

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Place sour cream and blue cheese in a large mixing bowl and whisk together until smooth then stir in parsley. You can adjust the amount of cheese to your liking, I used 120g because I like it strong-flavoured. You can also prepare this in a blender or food processor to save time and ensure smoothness. Serve together with sausage rolls, and extra celery sticks for any leftover dip.

Kalamata Olive Savoury Shortbread

At first glance you might mistake these for chocolate chip cookies. If you did, you'd get a bit of a rude shock when you tasted it. Savoury shortbread might sound like a strange idea, but this is more of a savoury cracker but with lots of butter to make it melt in your mouth. It's actually quite lovely. I first tried something like this at Maggie Beer's farm shop in Adelaide. I have very fond memories of that whole trip, especially the amazing kalamata olive biscuits I bought there. I decided that I had to try and make them for myself but with an extra hit of black pepper. I love eating my cheese with black pepper water crackers, so I had a feeling these savoury shortbread biscuits would work very well with some triple cream brie. I wasn't wrong.

I've never been too fond of olives, but I really loved the way the little chunks of kalamata olives worked in these buttery biscuits. There's not too much of it so the flavour is quite mild, and it gives them a unique taste that seems to work really well with soft mild cheeses. I started off with my regular sweet shortbread recipe, but added pepper, olives, a lot of sea salt flakes and took out most of the sugar. Making up a recipe out of nowhere usually has its problems and this first batch turn out way too salty, and a little too crumbly and dry. So I tested a different recipe, which was a little richer and less floury thanks to the addition of an egg yolk and took out half the salt. And they turned out pretty fantastic.

Yep, with a smear of triple cream brie these were incredibly moreish and great for an afternoon snack with a cup of tea. I thought A would be over the moon since I was baking something savoury, which you can probably tell is a bit of a rare occurence. But he's not a fan of shortbread and not that keen on olives either. Oh well, more cheese and biscuits for me! Though if you're really not an olive person you can definitely replace them with something else, maybe some crispy bacon? Damn, I definitely should have tried making a batch of these with bacon. Mmm bacon shortbread...

Obviously there's no need to get cheese involved, these biscuits taste perfectly good on their own. Don't be deterred by the sugar in this recipe, it's just there to balance out the flavour. This is definitely not a sweet cookie. I might even add even more pepper the next time I make them, I can never have too much pepper. These would also be great with some of that roasted garlic I raved about not too long ago. The reason I made these shortbread biscuits this weekend was because they were so quick and easy to whip up, and I needed something like that with the limited free time I've had recently. It's a great little snack to make at the last minute and I'd definitely recommend it even if you're not super keen on olives.

Kalamata Olive & Black Pepper Savoury Shortbread
(makes about 60 biscuits, loosely adapted from this cocoa nib shortbread recipe)
1/3 cup (about 100g) well-drained, pitted and finely diced kalamata olives (if you're not a fan of olives you can replace with an equal amount of crispy bacon)
2 1/2 cups (approx 300g) plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp salt (can be substituted with crushed sea salt flakes)
3 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
280g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 tbsp white sugar
1 large egg yolk

Prepare the dough ahead of time, it will need to chill for a bit. Sift flour, bicarb, and salt into a medium bowl, mix in pepper and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 mins. Add egg yolk and beat to combine, scraping sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure it mixes evenly. Beat in dry ingredients at a medium-low speed and then fold in chopped olives. The dough should be fairly easy to handle, but if it's a little sticky you should dust your hands with flour before handling. Turn out mixture on to a lightly floured surface and pat dough to bring it together. Split into two and roll them both into logs, about 4cm diameter. Wrap well in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour. You can refrigerate this dough for up to a week, or freeze it for up to a month (defrost overnight in the fridge).

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line two (or 3-4 if you have them) baking sheets with baking paper. Take dough out of fridge and unwrap. Use a sharp knife to cut rounds, about half a centimeter thick. Place cut dough on prepared baking sheets (leave about 1.5 cm space for the cookies to expand), keep prepared sheets chilled while you cut the remaining dough and while you are baking the other trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. (If baking two trays at once, make sure you switch the top and bottom trays around half way through the baking time) Leave on the tray for 5 minutes to cool and then gently transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days.

Roasted Garlic & Gruyere Cheese Toasties

I don't have a proper recipe post for you today. I seem to be suffering a bit of baker's block again, and I didn't want to force the issue by baking something when I didn't feel like it. So yesterday, instead of baking, I woke up super late and I made myself a cheese toastie (aka a grilled cheese sandwich to those in the US) for lunch. I recently had an eye-opening experience with a cheese toastie at the Gazebo Wine Garden and I have been craving them ever since. So I made a very simple sandwich with bread, butter, cheese and garlic. In case it's not obvious from 99% of my blog, I love my sugar. But I love cheese and garlic nearly as much. I'm sure everyone has their own favourite way of making a grilled cheese sandwich, and this is now officially my favourite version. I fried this baby up in butter (wishing I had invested in a cast iron griddle), using a nifty trick I read about online to cover the pan with a lid to help the cheese melt faster before the bread burns. It was golden and crunchy on the outside with a perfectly melted inside. This cheese toastie was good. Effing good. Like the combination of a regular boring cheese sandwich and garlic bread plus a sprinkling of fairy dust. So good that I made another one straight away. And I made one for A and took a photo of it because sharing is caring. Then I ran out of cheese and weeped silently to myself.

Roasted garlic is something truly magical, it's sweet, soft, buttery and mild enough to eat on its own, and doesn't give you anywhere near as crazy garlic breath as the garlic sauce from El Jannah (not that the death breath ever stops me from eating it by the bucketload). It might look like a lot of garlic to be eating on its own but the way it's cooked means it's much easier to eat. The caramelisation makes it lovely and sweet, which is the perfect addition to that beautiful melty, creamy gruyère cheese in this toastie. It's something so easy and uncomplicated, but your tastebuds will be so freakin happy they might get up and do a little dance. So this isn't really a recipe as it's just a humble grilled cheese sandwich, more like a public service announcement; if you love cheese and garlic as much as I do, you want to be eating this right now. Sometimes it's best to keep things simple, to go back to the basics. Of course gruyère isn't exactly cheap, but it is so worth splurging for it every now and then.

Roasted Garlic & Gruyère Cheese Toasties (Grilled Cheese Sandwiches)

Per sandwich:
1 head of roasted garlic (I prepared it using this recipe from Simply Recipes)
30g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter
2 slices white bread (I grew up with the regular, super processed full of sugar bread so I love it but you can use another bread if you want)
1 fairly thick (about 4 mm or 1/6 inch) slice of Gruyère cheese (or any other good melting cheese you prefer)

Remove the roasted garlic cloves from the head and mash in a bowl. Place cheese on top of one side of bread and spread the mashed roasted garlic over the cheese, top with other slice of bread. Using a non-stick pan or a cast iron griddle, place on medium-low heat with a 15g (1 tbsp) butter and heat until the butter completely melts. Place sandwich in pan, so that the cheese is closer to the bottom of the pan, then cover the pan with a lid or a piece of foil. Fry until the cheese melts and the bread has turned golden brown, about 3 minutes, and then add the same amount of butter to the pan, flip the sandwich over and fry until golden. Eat immediately, try not to make any excessive moaning noises while enjoying the melted cheesy goodness.

I was in such a good mood after eating these that I got back in the kitchen and baked something equally simple and satisfying. I guess you just have to stick to the basics every now and then. So I'll be back with a proper baking post in a couple of days.

Ginger Beer Pulled Pork on Brioche Buns

Are you ready for this? I've been slaving away in the kitchen all the weekend so I could bring you this amazing meal. Hah! I lie. I've actually been lazing around watching TV while I let all my kitchen appliances do the work for me. I'm in love with my slow cooker and the dough hook attachment on my stand mixer because it means I get to eat 10-hour slow cooked Ginger Beer Pulled Pork on buttery Brioche Buns and served with a spicy, colourful coleslaw. I love my kitchen appliances.

This pork is magical. The smell is unbearably mouth-watering as it cooks, the meat is so fall-apart tender and juicy, and the sauce makes you want to weep with happiness. I might be exaggerating a bit but it's still pretty effing good. An entire pork shoulder (or pork butt to US readers) rubbed in a wonderful spice mix and then slow cooked in a bit of ketchup, onions, mustard, Worchestershire and lots and lots of ginger beer. I just kept adding things to the mixture until I was happy. It tastes so good AND it involves ginger beer. I still blame Lisa for my ginger beer obsession. And my pulled pork obsession. So you can blame Lisa for this post :)

The ginger beer isn't particularly strong so you can't really distinguish its flavour in the pork or the sauce, but it adds a lovely sweetness and a little kick. If you wanted to up the ginger flavour you could probably add a small piece of fresh ginger into the cooking liquid or add some ground ginger to the spice rub. When you eat this pulled pork mixed up with the sauce on top of buttery, eggy, slightly sweet and freshly baked brioche buns you end up with flavour perfection. There's such a great balance of sweet, salty, spicy and sour.

I used my usual recipe for brioche that I've blogged about previously. Even though I kept putting off this recipe idea because I kept thinking that the brioche was painfully complicated, I was surprised to find that the recipe was very straightforward; there's just a lot of waiting time while you while the dough is proving. It's definitely worth the wait, the end result are these pillow-soft, rich and buttery rolls that are perfect for eating with the pork. Or with burgers. Or shaped into hotdog buns. Or eaten with strawberry jam. Or kaya and salted butter! It's good with everything and it's good on its own.

I served these pulled pork buns with a Vietnamese-inspired red cabbage coleslaw with pickled carrots, red onion and coriander and a fish sauce, vinegar, lime and chilli dressing. I love the bright purple colour of this salad and the light dressing that's packed full of flavour. These days I love to make this coleslaw recipe as an alternative to the heavier, creamy mayo coleslaws. And can you believe it, two savoury recipes in the space of one month after a year of no savoury recipes! I need figure out where I left my sweet tooth. While I'm doing that, find some free time to make this recipe. I know the ingredients list looks long but you can adapt the pork depending on what you have available - try it with dijon instead of wholegrain mustard, or cook it in ginger beer and add whatever sauce to the pork later if you're feeling lazy.

Ginger Beer Pulled Pork
(serves 6-8 people)
1 pork shoulder, about 1.5-2kg
2 small-medium brown onions, diced
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp hot chilli powder (I love it spicy so I doubled this amount)
3 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp salt (I used sea salt flakes but not necessary)
1 tsp Wholegrain mustard
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
2 cups ginger beer plus extra if needed (Replace with ginger ale if you can't get ginger beer)
To serve: Warm brioche buns (recipe below) and spicy coleslaw (recipe here)

You will need to begin this recipe (and the brioche) a day in advance. Place cumin seeds in a mortar & pestle and grind well. Add chilli powder, paprika, salt and pepper and mix together. Rub mixture all over the surface of the pork, you may end up with excess depending on the size of your pork shoulder. Place onions, mustard, apple cider vinegar, ketchup, Worchestershire sauce and ginger beer in your slow cooker pot and add pork. Cook on low for about 9-10 hours or medium for about 6-7 hours. You may want to flip the pork over halfway through, but it's not necessary. (If you don't have a slow cooker you could try placing the ingredients in a cast iron pot with the lid on and baking in the oven at 150°C (300°F) for around 5-5.5 hours (Thanks V!), you may need to top up the liquid in the pot with extra ginger beer every couple of hours, until the pork is tender enough, but I haven't tested this method so no guarantees!)

Remove the pork from its juices, but keep the leftover liquid. Using two forks, shred the pork meat, it should fall apart easily. If not you may need to cook the meat for longer. Either by turning on the slow cooker on medium with the lid open or placing the leftover liquid in a saucepan on medium heat, reduce the liquid until it starts to thicken slightly. At this point you can add any extra condiments to taste, I added about 1/3 cup extra ginger beer to give it a bit more sweetness. You could also add some barbeque sauce if you like. Add the pork back to the reduced sauce and mix together. Serve warm on brioche buns (recipe below), ideally served with a spicy slaw (recipe here)

Brioche Buns
(makes 12 buns or 24 mini buns, adapted from my previous recipe here)
7g (1 packet) active dry yeast
2 tbsp sugar
1/3 cup lukewarm milk
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs, beaten
200g butter, cut into small pieces and softened
Egg wash: 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp milk
Optional: Sesame seeds to top off buns

Mix the yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar and the milk in a small bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes until frothy. Combine the flour, remaining sugar and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour the eggs, milk and yeast mixture.

Knead the dough with an electric mixter fitted with a dough hook for 8-10 minutes, until smooth. Beat the butter, one piece at a time, into the dough with mixer at low speed. Mix for 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic (it will be quite soft). Place in an oiled bowl, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and leave to rise at room temperatre for 2-3 hours, until doubled in bulk. (The temperature should be about 24°C (75°F), no hotter, as the butter will melt and separate out from the dough)

Punch the risen dough down, turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for 2-3 minutes. Return to the bowl and place in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight.

Split dough into 12 equal portions for regular sized buns, 24 portions for miniature buns (I did half-half). Roll into neat balls and flatten slightly. Place on two baking paper lined baking trays, equally spaced apart. Cover and leave for an hour at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 220°C (428°F). Lightly glaze the buns with egg wash and sprinkle a pinch of sesame seeds on top of each. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 190°C (375°F) and bake for another 10 mins (only 5 mins for the mini buns) or until golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. I baked one tray at a time in my small oven, but if you're baking two trays you will want to switch the top and bottom tray around halfway through. Remove the brioche from the tray immediately and let cool on a rack.

Wasabi Cheese Crackers

Wow. It's been over a year since my last savoury recipe. I guess it's pretty obvious I have a raging sweet tooth! But all this healthier eating has left me craving all kinds of naughty snacks, not just cake and lollies, but cheesy and salty snacks too. I had this sudden urge to make cheese crackers, ones that were like goldfish crackers or dixie drumsticks. A little bit of google searching and I found the perfect recipe - it's super easy and you basically throw everything into a food processor. Then I decided to add a little twist by making it wasabi flavoured, because I love the tingly heat of wasabi flavoured snacks (wasabi peas OMG...).

So these are my Wasabi Cheese Crackers. Aren't they so cute??? I am in love with how they look. They're so dinky, puffy and golden crisp and they taste awesomely light and cheesy. They're the perfect TV snack and it would be so great to serve a big bowl of these at a party. The only part I was disappointed with was the strength of the wasabi heat in the end product, it tasted super strong when I taste-tested the dough but after baking the heat was almost completely gone, except for the tiniest afterburn. We ended up eating them dipped in extra wasabi paste, which made them perfect! So I've adjusted the amount of wasabi in the recipe below, as well as adding that you can roll the crackers in extra wasabi powder after baking if you like your wasabi snacks super strong-flavoured like me.

It would have been even better if I had some real wasabi root to add to the mixture, I was at least hoping to buy a block of the cheese I always get that has wasabi root added to it which has a great, distinct flavour of wasabi. Unfortunately it wasn't available at my supermarket anymore :( I ended up using a bright orange coloured Red Leicester cheese because I figured it would give the crackers some extra colour, and that worked really well.

I'll definitely be making these again, either with heaps more wasabi or with some other flavours. Maybe some chilli and pepper ones, or ones with chicken salt or other types of cheeses. It's a great, simple recipe and they look great. A was gobbling them up by the handful and kept cursing me for making them when he's trying to be good with his diet, they are so addictive that it's really hard to stop at one or two!

Wasabi Cheese Crackers
(based on this recipe from Home Cooking in Montana)
1 cup plain flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2-2 tbsp wasabi paste (can be substituted with wasabi powder or grated wasabi root if you can get it)
55g (4 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
225g (8 ounces) grated cheddar cheese (I used half regular cheddar and half Red Leicester cheese, but a wasabi root flavoured cheese like Ashgrove Tasmanian Wild Wasabi is ideal for this recipe)
2-4 tbsp water (less if you're using wasabi paste, more if you're using the powder or not adding wasabi)
Optional: extra wasabi powder or paste

In a food processor, pulse the flour and salt, then add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add grated cheese a little at a time until the mixture again resembles coarse meal. Mix together wasabi with 1-2 of the tbsp of water and then pulse in, one tablespoon at a time. You can adjust the amount of the wasabi to your liking, but remember the flavour will be significantly dulled in the baking process. You may need to add another tbsp of water after this, and pulse until the dough forms into a ball. It will probably take a minute or so.

Remove, wrap in plastic (I split the dough into 4 separate portions to make it quicker to chill and easier to roll out later) and chill for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours. The longer the better, but mine worked fine after chilling for about an hour until the dough was nice and firm. Roll the dough out to 3mm (1/8th-inch) thickness between two pieces of baking paper. You don't want to roll them paper thin, neither do you want to roll them too thick. If they are too thin, they will not puff up as much. If they are too thick, they will not be as crispy. Using a knife, pizza cutter, or cookie cutter cut 1 inch shapes and transfer to a baking paper-line baking tray. I chilled the prepared trays in the fridge while rolling and cutting the rest of my dough. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crackers are golden brown. Watch them after the 10 minute mark. Because I was only using the bottom coils of my oven, I found it was best to flip them over after 10 minutes so they browned evenly on each side. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. If the wasabi flavour is not strong enough for you at this point then you can toss the crackers in extra wasabi powder or serve with extra wasabi paste to dip it into. Can be stored in an airtight container for several days.

Maple Custard Pie & Candied Bacon

I know. I didn't think I'd ever go there but I did. I've always been very apprehensive about the whole bacon in desserts thing. But that was before I made candied bacon. And this Maple Egg Custard Pie. Each thing on its own is perfectly respectable, and quite delicious. But put them together and omgholyshizzwhatisthisamazingness?! I didn't expect the addition of the candied bacon to make such a difference to this pie, but I was slightly underwhelmed after trying a slice of the pie on its own and then completely amazed by the effect of the crunchy, salty and caramelised bits of bacon. It made all the difference.

What is candied bacon exactly? It's very simple; thin strips of streaky bacon, slathered in a layer of brown sugar or maple syrup and baked to a crisp. It reminds me of Bak Kwa, the thin Malaysian Grilled Honey Pork that I love so much. The sugar gives the bacon this amazing toffee sheen and mellows the saltiness of the bacon, making it perfect for adding to very sweet desserts. Just like this pie. I adapted an American-style Egg Custard Pie (sort of like a huge custard tart for Australians), switching the sugar in the pie for some pure maple syrup. This gave the filling a jolt of extra flavour and a lovely golden colour. I've always been a big fan of the maple syrup and bacon combination. Some people might think it's pretty disgusting but I'm definitely in a sweet/salty combination phase. I'd say this recipe is about on par with the Popcorn Fudge for weirdness. But I think I like this one better because it's not quite as sweet, and I love bacon so friggin' much. Bacon is the thing I turn to when I'm feeling really, really rotten. For example, when I stabbed a hole all the way through my finger (don't worry I didn't post a photo of it) the first thing I did after getting stitched and drugged up was get myself a BLT. It has magical restorative powers you see.

I didn't use any ordinary pie crust for this recipe, I finally tried out an adaptation of the rolled oat crust that Momofuku uses for its infamous crack pie. It's so buttery and addictive, with a lovely crisp texture from the oat cookies that you bake and then crush into the crust mixture. It might seem like a lot of extra effort to make this two step crust, but it is worth the extra time investment.

I love the fact that this dessert is filled with some of my favourite breakfast ingredients - bacon, eggs and oats. My only gripe was that because I used a biscuit-based crust, the custard made the base a bit soggy after it was in the fridge overnight. So I would suggest serving it on the same day you bake it, because it was so beautiful when it was fresh out of the oven. Or you can use whatever crust you want! But please don't forget about adding the bacon, it's just not the same without it. I served mine up as thin strips so people could take as much as they wanted, but you could chop it up into smaller pieces and then sprinkle it over the top.

Maple Custard Pie & Candied Bacon
(Makes one 25cm pie, crust adapted from Linda's pecan pie crust based on Momofuku's crack pie, filling adapted from this recipe)
For the oat cookies:
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (85g) plain flour
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (115g) softened butter
1/3 cup (71 g) brown sugar
3 tablespoons (35g) sugar
1 egg
Scant 1 cup (100g) rolled oats

For the pie crust:
Crushed oat cookies from ingredients above plus
1/2 cup (115g) butter, softened
1 1/2 tablespoons (21g) brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) plain flour

For the custard filling:
3 large eggs, whisked
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg white
2 1/2 cups scalded milk
a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

For the candied bacon:
175g thinly sliced streaky bacon (or the fattiest bacon you can find =D)
1/3 cup (71 g) brown sugar
(but don't do it until you serve it or the bacon will go soggy)

Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F) and a baking sheets with baking paper. Prepare the oat cookie crust; sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium, add the egg and beat until combined. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture until combined. Stir in oats and spread mixture as flat and even as you can on the baking sheet. Bake until golden brown and set, about 20 mins, then cool on a wire rack until cool to the touch.

Break up cookie layer into smaller pieces and place in a food processor with butter, sugar and salt and pulse until they combine evenly. Add flour and pulse until just combined. Press mixture into a 25cm diameter pie dish that has been well-greased, preferably with a removable base (lined with baking paper if is not removable). You should have enough for a nice thick crust, perhaps with a bit leftover. This crust crumbles quite easily so try not to make it too thin.

Preheat oven to 205°C (400°F) and prepare the pie filling. In a large mixing bowl, mix together eggs, vanilla, maple syrup, nutmeg and salt. Prepare the scalded milk in a medium saucepan and then gradually add to the egg mixture, using a whisk to combine. Brush bottom and sides of the prepared pie crust with the extra egg white to help prevent a soggy crust. Pour custard mixture into crust. Carefully place in oven and bake until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Prepare the bacon; preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) line a baking sheet with baking paper and pat your bacon strips dry with paper towels. Lay bacon strips in a single flat layer on sheet and then sprinkle brown sugar or equal amount of maple syrup over the top of the bacon. Bake until crisp, around 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack, use paper towels to dab off any excess bacon grease. Can be stored in an airtight container overnight. Pie is best served on the same day it is baked but can be refrigerated overnight. Do not place bacon on surface of pie until ready to serve.

Duck & Cherry Pastries

Here's my savoury recipe for the season, you know that I don't get the urge to bake anything without sugar very often. But I have had these duck & morello cherry pastries on my mind for a long time. I got swept up by this idea of making duck pies, and I couldn't let it go. Finally, I decided to get off my lazy behind and make these. They might not be the prettiest pastries you've ever seen, but they are mouth-wateringly delicious.

I decided to try using Bourke St Bakery's savoury shortcrust pastry, since I had so much success with their sweet shortcrust in the past. And though it definitely did not disappoint in flavour, it didn't hold it's shape as much as I had hoped, probably because it is quite a flaky pastry with big streaks of butter through it. But it tasted so rich and divine that I didn't really care how it looked. I tried to do some parcels with nicely pleated edges (we call them pasties here), but gave up halfway and made other half as little gallettes, and in the end the pasties didn't even hold their shape so the gallettes looked much better. The main thing that stopped me from doing this recipe sooner was the fact that I needed an extra day's preparation, and it's very hard to find the free time to do that when you work fulltime. But it turned out to be quite stress-free and it was easily completed on two weeknights. You could even complete it all in one day if you have the motivation, the only thing that makes this recipe long is the time you need to leave for the pastry to chill.

These definitely aren't going to make the healthiest dinner of the week, but when it's miserably cold you crave a bit of indulgence. The combination of the strong flavour from the duck meat and the crisp, buttery pastry is gorgeous, and then there is the added sweetness from the cherries. I cheated a little bit and bought half a roast duck from the local Chinese BBQ store, rather than cooking the duck meat myself, but I think that it saves a lot of time while still tasting great. I always use store bought roast ducks when I make red duck curry, it is a bit of a pain to peel the meat off the bones but no where near as much effort as cooking it yourself. Plus then the meat is already infused with so much flavour from the sauce and spices. Try to chose a red wine that is not too sweet when cooking the filling, as there is already a lot of sweetness from the cherries, orange zest and carrots. And don't be scared off by the prep time needed, you can make the pastry dough and the filling the night before and then roll, fill and bake them for dinner the next day. They are so worth it!

Duck & Cherry Pastries
(You will need to start this recipe a day ahead, shortcrust Pastry from the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook, makes 14 medium pastries)
For the pastry:
300g cold unsalted butter, cut into 1.5cm cubes
600g plain flour, chilled
1 tsp (5g) salt
3 tsp (15ml) white vinegar, chilled
170ml (2/3 cup) water, chilled
Eggwash, to brush

For the filling:
1/2 cooked duck, meat removed from bones and shredded (I bought a 1/2 roast duck from a Chinese bbq store)
1 brown onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1/2 cup red wine
1 cup jarred morello cherries or fresh pitted cherries
Zest of 1/2 an orange
1 sprig of fresh thyme, chopped
Salt and pepper to season

Prepare the pastry dough; Remove the butter from the fridge 10 mins before starting, so that it has softened a little but is still very cold. Place butter, flour and salt in the food processor and pulse 3-4 times in 1 sec bursts to partly combine. (If no food processor available, use your fingertips to rub dry ingredients partly into butter) Empty out on to a clean surface and gather together. Combine water and vinegar and carefully sprinkle over the flour mixture. Using the palm of your hand, smear the mixture away from you on the bench. Gather dough together and repeat smearing process a few more times to bring it together. You should still be able to see streaks of butter through the dough. Divide into two flat disks, wrap in clingfilm and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

To make the filling, sweat onions and carrot on medium heat with a bit of olive oil. When carrots and onions are tender, add wine and simmer until the liquid has reduced. Add duck, thyme and orange zest and simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Generously season with salt and pepper to taste. Gently fold in cherries, trying to keep them intact. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Can be stored overnight in the fridge.

When ready to assemble pastries, remove dough from fridge 20 mins before starting. Also take duck out of fridge if it has been chilling. Sprinkle a light dusting of flour on a clean workbench and flour your rolling pin. Roll out the dough until it is 3mm thick, then using a 14-15cm diameter bowl/plate/cutter as a guide, cut out circles of dough. Alternatively, separate the two disks into 14 equal balls of dough and roll them out into circles individually. Place on lined baking sheets and chill for at least an hour to allow the gluten in the dough to relax.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Split duck mixture into 14 even portions, about 1/4 cup of filling for each pastry. Place filling in the middle of the pastry, then brush egg wash around the edge of the dough. To make the parcels, bring edges together at the top of the pastry and pinch together firmly to form a crinkled edge. To make galettes, simply fold all the edges in over the filling.

Place on lined baking tray and bake for around 20 mins, or until pastry is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks, serve warm. Can be stored in the fridge for several nights and reheated in the oven.