Camembert Cranberry Puffs - Recipe

Time to get your santa hats on because it's going to get a bit festive in the kitchen. 

I made these little bites of scrumminess for the Christmas meal I went to recently and they went far too quickly. I was very glad I doubled up!

So you will need (this is the double up version and makes about 50):

Ingredients

For the chutney

1tsp olive oil

1 small red onion

1tbsp balsamic vinegar

3tbsp red wine

5tbsp sugar 
100g (3½oz) cranberries

For the puffs

1 egg

250g (8oz) puff pastry

125g (4oz) Camembert, sliced and cut into 16 squares

Method to the madness

Preheat oven to 200°C, fan180ºC, Gas 6  and line a baking tray with baking parchment and grease. Heat the olive oil and gently cook the red onion until softened. Add balsamic vinegar, red wine, sugar, cranberries and cook till jammy - about 10 mins.

 It looked so twinkly when it was heated!

Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface and either use a little star cookie cutter like I did or just cut into squares about 2.5cm. Brush with egg and then bake these for about 10 minutes until golden and risen.

Whilst those are in the oven cut Camembert into 50 little pieces and then taking the puffs out of the oven top each square with a small slice of Camembert and a spoonful of chutney. 

Return these to the oven for about 2 mins or until the cheese melts.

Try not to burn your mouth as you pop them in your mouth. Oh and try and save some for others. Or not.

Happy Eating :)

xxx

A catch up moment

I feel recently that my blog has become quite the cooking blog and I haven't really talked about much else at all, so I thought I would do a little update post about what's been going on this month.

In November it was my best friend's birthday and she had a mustache themed party so we all decked our furry undernose accessories and played a few rounds of beer pong (I won my go I might add) and had a cracking night.

 
I have had my work Christmas party which was a lot of fun - I wore this dress from New Look which was sparkly, twinkly and lovely.I teamed it with this gold tassel necklace (also from New Look) and I was good to go.

We went to a bar/club by St. Paul's called Patch which was really good, there were little mini burgers and little mini mince pies being taken round on platters and we were allowed 5 drinks vouchers which helped the Christmas spirit along nicely. I do love a Christmas party.

In non festive news I have just finished my second essay of the course which was on Jane Eyre. For my sins I had never actually read Jane Eyre before and I have no idea why because it was quite brilliant.  I really recommend it, some times you just need to get back to the classics because (and I know this is often said) they just don't make them like that anymore. I have just ordered the 2011 film to watch as well and I am quite looking forward to it.

It was my favourite person's birthday this month and we went out to Wagamama's for dinner. I do enjoy a wagamama's, it's all so tasty and it was nice to get out of the kitchen and have someone else cook the meal! 

I have been a little bit clumsy this month and I fell down the stairs. I was wearing some new cozy socks and I slipped at the top of my stairs and fell down all 14 of them, which means I am in quite a bit of pain  when I try to sit down. I've been to the doctor and they told me that I haven't broken my coccyx but I have really badly damaged the muscle so they have signed me off work for a week which means I don't have to go back into the office until the 2nd January! Which seems like a long time off but it mean I will have plenty of time to rest it which it needs.

This weekend it was the 'Friends Christmas Lunch', I get together with my best friends and we pick a name out of a hat and they get to host the evening, which we all contribute to. This year my friend Callum was hosting and I was in charge of pigs in blankets, canapes and parsnips! I made some scrumptious Camembert puffs which I will be posting about very soon. It's lovely to to take the time to sit down with the people that are important. I am aware that sounds about as cheesy as a Christmas cheese board but I don't care because it's true.

It's so close to Christmas now!

xxx