FOUR HOMEMADE PASTRY RECIPES

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Posting last week’s recipe for the Hot Chicken & Asparagus Roll started me thinking about Mum’s recipes for homemade pastry.  The first one that came to mind was one that I’ve used many times.  At some stage I must have gotten the recipe from Mum and typed it up, it appears in my recipe folder as ‘Biscuit Pastry’ I’m not quite sure why as I’ve always used it as a sweet pie or tart base.  It is really good with lemon meringue pie and lemon tart .

Biscuit Pastry cropped

Looking through Mum’s handwritten recipes I found these three oldies as well.

PASTRY FOR PASTIES

Pastry for Pasties cropped

The family loved homemade pasties.  Mum would have made the pastry, rolled it out, cut it into circle shapes, (probably using a bread and butter plate or a saucer as a template) filled them with finely chopped steak, onions and potato and then folded them over and sealed them.

Pastry recipe:

  • 2 cups Self Raising flour
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 125g lard
  • 125g dripping
  • 1 cup water

 

QUICK PASTRY

 

I’m not completely sure what Mum used this for, but I like the simplicity of just using flour and cream to make the dough.

Quick Pastry cropped

 

ROUGH PASTE

Rough Pastry cropped

I always thought Rough Pastry was a form of puff pastry, but this recipe seems to be something else again, maybe the rough just means that it’s easy to make?  It should have a lovely butter flavour though and now I’ve found it I’ll have to give it a try myself to how it works.

  • 250g plain flour
  • 90g lard
  • 90g margarine
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 egg yolk
  • ½ cup water
  • Squeeze lemon juice

 

HOT CHICKEN & ASPARAGUS ROLL

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This recipe comes from the back of the Pampas Ready Rolled Puff Pastry pack. Originally Mum had to hand make any pastry she used, so the advent of prepared pastry was almost as good as sliced bread. The first type of prepared pastry came in a block and still needed rolling out which was a bit of a chore, then someone had the great idea of ready rolled sheets and using pastry became a lot easier.

Chicken & Asparagus Roll

CARAMEL FUDGE FINGERS

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The old no bake slices were a quick and easy way to make something sweet for the family or visitors, especially in summer when you didn’t want to heat up the kitchen by using the oven. This one uses condensed milk and Marie biscuits and has flaked almonds on the top. If the almonds are a problem for you I’m sure you could use dried fruits or even choc chips instead.

Caramel Fudge Fingers

BAKED STEAK CAKE

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I’ve no idea why this is called a cake, if anything the finished dish looks more like a pudding as it has a lovely brown crust on top. It makes an economical family meal that tastes great.

Baked Steak Cake

BAKED STEAK CAKE

  • 750g minced steak
  • 60g chopped bacon
  • 1 medium onion finely chopped
  • 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
  • 1 dessertspoon tomato sauce
  • 1 dessertspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon pepper
  • Pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt (optional)

Topping

  • 1 cup self raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • Pinch cayenne pepper
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 30g melted butter
  • 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
  • 1 heaped tablespoon chopped parsley

In a basin, place the meat, bacon, onion, cheese, sauces and seasonings. Mix and spread evenly in a 20cm x 20cm casserole dish. Pour topping over meat and bake at 180º for 1 hour until top is set and browned. Cut into squares and serve with mashed potatoes and buttered spinach or other green vegetable.

For topping – sift dry ingredients into a basin. Make a well in the centre and add beaten eggs, milk, melted butter, cheese and parsley. Mix and beat until smooth.

HEALTHY FRUIT LOAF

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Mum made lots of different types of fruit cakes, loaves and slices and adding pumpkin to the mix wasn’t that unusual. The only unusual ingredient in this recipe is the apricot nectar, not something that you’d normally put in a fruit cake and not something you’d usually have in your cupboard. If you wanted to you could easily substitute it with fruit juice or water.

 

Healthy Fruit Cake

BAKED BERRY CROISSANT PUDDING

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A favourite family dessert was always Bread & Butter Pudding served with cream, this recipe is an updated version of that using croissants and blueberries. Mum cut this out of the Herald Sun, but I’m not really sure if she ever actually made it, I suspect she stuck to her well loved version.

Baked Berry Croissant Pudding

LAMB & VEGETABLE HOT POT

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Lamb and vegetable casseroles have always been a staple dish in Australian households. From early on lamb was readily available and any vegetable could be added to bulk the dish out to feed a family. Originally it probably came to Australia as a Lancastershire Hot Pot, but whether you call it that or like this recipe Lamb & Vegetable Hot Pot it is always a hearty dish topped with potatoes.

Lamb & Vegetable Hotpot

RHUBARB & CUSTARD CUP CAKES

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When I was growing up the one thing that that Dad always had growing in the garden was rhubarb. Its giant green leaves and red stalks filled one corner of his veggie patch and never seemed to die off. Luckily Dad liked eating it so Mum stewed it up with some sugar and served it with custard for dessert – quite often. I don’t know about my brothers, but it was never one of my favourites and I’ve been greatly surprised to see that it has come back into fashion – who would have thought? I think this recipe at least would be sweet enough to counteract some of the tartness I didn’t like.

Rhubarb & Custard cup cakes

PECAN CHOC-CHIP SLICE

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Using condensed milk to make slices was a lot more common back 1980s than it is today, but it certainly makes a nice slice. The first time I cooked with pecans was around that time as well. I made an ‘exotic’ American Pecan Pie, using pecans and the hard to obtain ingredient, corn syrup. I think this slice recipe probably dates from a little later than that, especially as it comes from an ad for Riverside an Australian company which urges readers to join the All Australian Pecan Club.

Pecan Choc-chip Slice