Chicken, Mushroom and Leek Pie

Do you know one of my favourite things about Winter? Pies! I love the tummy warming, delicious fillings and the flaky pastry. I especially love a homemade pie and that's what I have for you today. A very easy Chicken, Mushroom and Leek Pie in a creamy sauce for you to make this week.

Ingredients

Shortcrust pastry:
450g plain flour
200g butter, chilled
Water

Pie filling:
300g diced chicken
500ml chicken stock
1 garlic clove
100g creme fraiche
1 large leek
Handful of mushrooms

Putting it all Together

Make up the pastry by sifting flour into a bowl and adding the butter. Rub together to form fine breadcrumbs. Add a little bit of water until the mixture forms into a firm dough. Pop in the fridge to chill until you are ready to use.

Lightly fry the garlic and meanwhile chop the onions. Add the onions to the pan, cook until soft and remove from pan.

Add the diced chicken to the same pan and cook until golden. Add the mushrooms and cook through before adding the chicken stock.

Allow to simmer for 20 minutes until the liquid has reduced.

Whilst the mixture is reducing, remove the dough from the fridge and halve it. Roll one portion of the dough out and line a pie dish. Cut a circle of baking paper and place over the pastry before filling with baking beads. Blind bake for 15 minutes in the oven (180c/350f). Take out of the oven and remove the baking beads and paper.

After 20 minutes add the creme fraiche and stir through. Leave the mixture on the heat to bubble and thicken. Slice the leeks and add before pouring the whole lot into the pastry case.

Roll out the remaining pastry and cover the dish, forming a lid. I used my new decorative rolling pin for this one!

Brush the pastry with egg or milk and put back in the oven to cook for 25mins or until the pastry is golden brown (180c/350f). Serve with mash potato, carrots and peas and enjoy feeling warm in these winter months.

Partridge in a Pear Tree

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me....

It feels so good to be cooking again after such a long hiatus. I a, of course spoiling you with another Christmas themed bake, it is my favourite time of year! This tart could use up any left over Christmas stilton you have lying around, or if you have none left (likely), it gives you an excuse to buy more, because as I've said before Christmas is really all about cheese. This pear, stilton and walnut quiche is a lovely vegetarian option to a Christmas feast.

Ingredients

375g shortcrust pastry
50g walnuts
4 shallots
Thyme leaves
100g Stilton
3 pears
6 eggs
Salt and Pepper

Putting it all Together

Preheat the oven to 200c/180fan/gas mark 6

In a food processor, whizz the walnuts until they are broken up to a crumb. Keep a little of the pastry back and then add the remaining shortcrust pastry in chunks. Blitz together until the pastry has broken down and then come back together with all the walnut crumb, giving you a lovely walnut pastry.

Using the pastry, line a fluted tart tin, pressing gently into the sides and allow the excess pastry to hang over the edges. Cover this with clingfilm and pop in the fridge to chill.

While the pastry is chilling, heat a frying pan with a little oil add in the sliced shallots and thyme with salt and pepper. Cook these on high until the onions sizzle and then turn down to low. Cook the shallots for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they are softened and golden. Set aside.

Remove tin from the fridge and remove the cling film. Fill the tin with baking paper and baking beans and place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the baking paper and beans before baking for a further 5 minutes or until golden.

Reduce the temperature to 160c/140fan gas mark 3 and take the tart out of the oven.

While the pastry is still hot, use a sharp knife to cut the pastry flush to the rim of the tin and then fill the pastry with the caramelised onions.

Cut two of the pears into cubes and slice one of the pears lengthwise. Top the onion with the cubed pear and sprinkle over the stilton. Decorate the top with your sliced pear. With the pastry you saved earlier roll out and cut out a little partridge to sit on top.

Whisk the eggs and season before pouring around the sliced pears to cover the ingredients underneath. Pop bake in the oven to bake for around 20 minutes until golden.

This can be eaten straight out of the oven or served cold. A gorgeous quiche that mixes the sweetness of the pear with the savoury of the stilton and walnut. A very Merry Christmas indeed!

Terry's Chocolate Orange Cheesecake

What better way to restart the weekend blog posts than with a festive Terry's Chocolate Orange Cheesecake!

This is a no-bake cheesecake so really does require minimal effort but will wow dinner guests or family this Christmas because its big on flavour and full of all the fun things in life. I recently made this for the second year running for my #friendmas and it went down a treat yet again.

Ingredients

Cheesecake Filling:
500g full-fat cream cheese
85g icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon orange extract
2 x 175g Terry’s chocolate orange (1 normal & 1 dark chocolate)
300ml double cream


Biscuit Base:
600g chocolate digestive biscuits
280g unsalted butter
Decoration:
Terry’s chocolate orange segments, mix of normal and dark

Putting it all Together

To prepare the base: Melt the butter in the microwave. Whizz the biscuits in a food processor to a fine crumb. Add the melted butter and mix until well combined. Tip the mixture into a 23cm springform cake tin and press down until firm smoothing over with the back of the spoon. Pop in the fridge to chill and get started on filling.

Melt the chocolate orange over a bain-marie and leave to cool slightly. In a mixing bowl beat together the cream cheese, orange extract and the icing sugar until softened. In another bowl whisk the cream until soft peaks form.

Fold the cream cheese and cream together and then pour in the chocolate and fold through.

Get the tin out of the fridge and then spoon the chocolatey cheesecake mixture over the biscuit base and smooth over with a spatula. Pop the orange segments on in an alternating pattern, cover and pop back in the fridge to chill for around 6 hours, or if you can overnight.

When you are ready to serve to all those hungry people, remove the cheesecake from the tin and decorate.

Serve with some cream and you are good to go. Christmas in a cheesecake!