Imagine, in the freezer, there is a bag of sweet pastries just waiting to be baked, one by one, two by two, crumbly and delicious, marvellously better than any danish or doughnut you might be tempted by in the shops. And they are made with a ridiculously rich pastry which is also amazingly easy. Forget the calories, these are treats and worthy ones.
I found this recipe originally in a book of vegetarian cookery two of my children gave me many years ago in my 'so poor we can only eat lentils' phase. I expect they were hoping for more variety! I made it then had forgotten about it, saw a reference recently to cheese in pastry in one of the Sundays, went back to find it and now we are eating our way through those waiting delights.
Cream Cheese Pastry
8oz/225g full fat cream cheese - if you can get proper curd cheese ( which I can't up here) use that
8oz/200g soft butter
8oz/225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
If you have a processor you can put everything in at once. If not, mix the cheeses and butter roughly together and then use the rubbing method to combine with the flour. Either way you will have a soft pastry which needs no liquid to bind it. Put it into the fridge for at least 3 hours.
For individual pastries, roll out into squares about 2in/5 cm. I find I tend to make these larger and it is anyway up to you. Fill each square with a good jam, or berries plus a little jam, say raspberries or blackberries with blackcurrant jam, or finely chopped apples with raisins and cinnamon, or even more cream cheese flavoured with lemon rind and sugar, or mincemeat left over from Christmas - or do some of each.
Fold over to make triangles, or pull the opposite corners over to meet in the middle - or vary them!
Another option is to roll out the pastry into a rectangle and spread with your chosen filling, especially good with apples, then roll up to make something like a strudel.
Or use perhaps half in a rectangle, spread with dried fruit and mixed spice, roll up and then cut into pieces. Flatten each to make swirls.
If they are not beautifully exact and uniform, absolutely no-one is going to complain.
You can now open freeze all these and store in bags or boxes once hard.
To bake either from frozen or immediately, brush each with beaten egg or a little milk and cook at 180/No 4 for 30 minutes til golden and bursting with filling.
I found this recipe originally in a book of vegetarian cookery two of my children gave me many years ago in my 'so poor we can only eat lentils' phase. I expect they were hoping for more variety! I made it then had forgotten about it, saw a reference recently to cheese in pastry in one of the Sundays, went back to find it and now we are eating our way through those waiting delights.
Cream Cheese Pastry
8oz/225g full fat cream cheese - if you can get proper curd cheese ( which I can't up here) use that
8oz/200g soft butter
8oz/225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
If you have a processor you can put everything in at once. If not, mix the cheeses and butter roughly together and then use the rubbing method to combine with the flour. Either way you will have a soft pastry which needs no liquid to bind it. Put it into the fridge for at least 3 hours.
For individual pastries, roll out into squares about 2in/5 cm. I find I tend to make these larger and it is anyway up to you. Fill each square with a good jam, or berries plus a little jam, say raspberries or blackberries with blackcurrant jam, or finely chopped apples with raisins and cinnamon, or even more cream cheese flavoured with lemon rind and sugar, or mincemeat left over from Christmas - or do some of each.
Fold over to make triangles, or pull the opposite corners over to meet in the middle - or vary them!
Another option is to roll out the pastry into a rectangle and spread with your chosen filling, especially good with apples, then roll up to make something like a strudel.
Or use perhaps half in a rectangle, spread with dried fruit and mixed spice, roll up and then cut into pieces. Flatten each to make swirls.
If they are not beautifully exact and uniform, absolutely no-one is going to complain.
You can now open freeze all these and store in bags or boxes once hard.
To bake either from frozen or immediately, brush each with beaten egg or a little milk and cook at 180/No 4 for 30 minutes til golden and bursting with filling.
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