Sausage Apple Onion Tart #FridayPieDay

The apples and sausages go together beautifully, as pork and apples are wont to do, with the lovely added flavor of baked onions, in a crisp, golden puff pastry crust.  

The beauty of pies and tarts is that they can be sweet or savory. If you aren’t much of a dessert person, you can still enjoy a delicious pie, just add some sausage or salami. This month’s Friday Pie Day tart makes the perfect brunch, lunch or dinner fare and the ingredients are easily changed out for whatever you might have on hand.

I started by making my rough puff pastry recipe, or rather, I should say, Gordon Ramsey’s rough puff pastry recipe, cut off a little more than half and wrapped up the rest and popped it in the freezer. If you haven’t attempted rough puff before, I recommend you try it. It’s easy and way less work that actual puff pastry. In a pinch, of course, you can use store-bought puff pastry.

Ingredients
1 green apple (for example, Granny Smith)
2 teaspoons canola or other light oil
2 medium purple onions
6 fat sausages (about 14 oz or 400g)
A few fresh tender sprigs thyme – or leaves off of older sprigs
12 1/3 oz or 350g rough puff pastry dough from this recipe
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C and prepare a baking sheet by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner.

Cut the apple in half, core it and cut it into thin slices, discarding the very end pieces that are all peel. Toss the apple slices in a medium sized bowl, with the oil to stop them turning brown.

Peel the onions, cut them in half and then slices them into thin wedges.

Toss them in the bowl with the apples.

Add the thyme sprigs, ripped into smaller pieces.

Cut the sausages into bite-sized pieces with a sharp knife of a pair of scissors. Mix the pieces in with the apples and onions.

Roll out your rough puff pastry into a large rectangle and trim the edges to make sure it will puff up successfully.

Gently score a line all the way around the inside with the tip of a sharp knife. This will be your puffy, crunchy crust, so don’t be skimpy with the margin.

Spread your mustard all over inside the scored line.

Tip the sausage, apple and onion onto the pastry and arrange it as evenly as possible all the way out to the scored line.

It's a pretty tall pile but it will bake down, I promise.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden and the sausage pieces are cooked through.

Allow to cool slightly before cutting.

Enjoy!

This sausage apple onion tart is my contribution to this month's Friday Pie Day, the brilliant creation of Heather from All Roads Lead to the Kitchen. (Formerly girlichef.)

I am pleased to join her on the last Friday of each month for pie and crust recipes, techniques, tools of the trade, and other inspiration.

For more information and recipes, please check out her #FridayPieDay page!

Gouda Herb Muffins for Derkje #MuffinMonday

Loads of cheese, fresh herbs and a bit of spicy cayenne pepper make these savory muffins rich and flavorful. 

Every Monday I get together with a lovely group of ladies for Bible study. We come from many countries and varied backgrounds but we enjoy our time together trying to learn whatever God wants us to learn, whether from the Bible or each other.  And, with such a diverse group, as you can imagine, there is so much we can learn from one another. The last couple of weeks we’ve been joined by someone special, the mother of one of our little group, who has been visiting since the holidays. As you might have guessed from my title, her name is Derkje.

As I left our meeting last week, she leaned over and almost whispered, “Do you have a recipe for a savory muffin? Perhaps with cheese?”  Well, I have plenty! But most of them make 12 muffins and our dear Derkje recently lost her husband, love of her life and best friend of more than 60 years. Even though they freeze well, 12 muffins is an overwhelming number and I didn’t want to discourage her from the outset with a large batch she’d never end up baking. So I worked out a recipe for just six, baked them up, and passed them over with the printed notes. I wanted to use a cheese that was readily available where Derkje lives in the Netherlands so I made them with Gouda, but you can substitute any aged cheese you have. A nice cheddar would work just as well.

At today’s meeting, I told her that I’d be sharing the recipe with the rest of you for Muffin Monday but, not to worry, I wouldn’t use her name. Derkje replied that she would be delighted if I would. It’s a name that was given to her by her father and she is very proud of it. Isn’t that lovely? She heads home tomorrow and we are going to miss her lively contribution to our group.

Ingredients
8 1/2 oz or 240g Gouda cheese
Small handful mixed fresh herbs of your choice (green onions, thyme, basil, parsley, coriander, rosemary, etc.)
1 cup or 125g flour (or 125g + 1 tablespoon self-rising flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (Omit if using self-rising flour.)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder (Derkje says use more! And I agree!)
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1 egg
1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and generously grease your 6-cup muffin pan.  I would suggest putting the batter into a greased tin rather than muffin cups because the cheese in these makes them bake up lovely and browned and crunchy all over.  You’d miss that in a paper cup. I used non-stick cooking spray but you can use butter or a little more oil.

Grate your cheese, setting aside a generous handful for adding to the top before baking.

Pull the leaves off of any herbs with woody stems, then mince your herbs, saving a few tiny sprigs or leaves for decoration, if desired.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients, including the cayenne pepper.

Then stir in the big pile of Gouda, making sure all the bits are well coated with flour. Add in herbs and mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and oil together.

Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients and fold until it is just combined.

Spoon the batter into your very well greased muffin pan.

Top with the reserved cheese and decorate with a herby leaf or two.

Bake in your preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are looking browned and crispy and delicious and you can’t wait another second to eat them.

BUT, allow the muffins to cool for a few minutes then use a non-pointy knife to loosen/remove them from the muffin pan.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other great recipes my Muffin Monday bakers are sharing today!

• Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chocolate Chip Muffins from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Cinnamon Pear Muffins from Making Miracles
• Coconut Lime Mango Muffins from The Spiced Life
• Glazed Orange Poppyseed Muffins from Farm Fresh Feasts
• Gouda Herb Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Nutmeg Banana Muffins from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Orange Muffins from Passion Kneaded

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all our of lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.


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Caramelized Pineapple Blue Cheese Corncake Bundt #BundtBakers

With just enough cornmeal to border on cornbread but almost enough sugar to be cake, this tender crumb Bundt encloses little nuggets of sweet and savory with caramelized pineapple and crumbled Roquefort cheese.

This month’s Bundt Baker challenge, set by June of How to Philosophize with Cake, was to create a Bundt with unusual flavor combinations. Fortunately, I received the perfect Christmas gift to help me out, a handy little book called The Flavor Thesaurus – Pairings, recipes and ideas for the creative cook. <affiliate link

I must admit that I don’t always agree with the author who readily admits that taste is subjective, yet gives her own as fact. She states, for instance, that coffee is used as a marinade for beef in many Latin American cultures, but she tried it once and it’s better avoided. She suggested that one might as well add lit cigarettes as a garnish. Harrumph. Well, I have tried coffee with beef  too and thought it was fabulous. So there.

But in the case of pineapple and blue cheese, she was spot on. They do go very nicely together, especially as I decided to caramelize the pineapples at the last minute and created a batter with some cornmeal and just enough sugar to make what I have christened corncake. We ate thick slices of it with big bowls of spicy beef chili! So good!

Ingredients
1 small can (4.95 oz or 140g drained weight) sliced pineapple in light syrup
4 oz or 115g blue cheese
1/2 cup or 65g fine yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup or 184g full fat sour cream
Drained light syrup from canned pineapple, topped up with milk to make 1/2 cup or 120ml
(It's going to look a little curdled. Don't let that bother you.)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup or 78ml canola oil

Method
Drain and save the light syrup from your pineapple slices. Dry off the pineapple with paper towels.

Heat your griddle or non-stick frying pan till it’s smoking hot and toast the pineapple slices till browned and caramelized on both sides.

Leave to cool and then chop into small wedges with a sharp knife. Crumble the blue cheese and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and butter and flour your 10-cup Bundt pan liberally or use a non-stick baking spray to prepare the pan.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

Whisk together your sour cream, pineapple syrup topped up with milk, eggs and oil in another bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Fold in the pineapple bits and the crumbled blue cheese.

Pour or spoon the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before turning it out on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to June for this creative challenge! Want to see what everyone else baked?

• Banana Bacon Bundt Cake by Liv For Cake
• Beet and Beer Red Velvet Bundt Cake by I Sugar Coat It
• Beet and Blood Orange Bundt Cake by Brooklyn Homemaker
• Black Pepper and Red Wine Bundt Cake by Passion Kneaded
• Caramelized Pineapple Blue Cheese Corncake Bundt by Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Banana Bacon Bundt Cake by The Freshman Cook
• Chocolate Lemon Bundt Cake by I Bake He Shoots
• Chocolate Liquorice Bundt Cake by Baking in Pyjamas
• Chocolate Potato Bundt Cake with Strawberry Glaze by Magnolia Days
• Chocolate Tomato Soup Bundt Cake by SpiceRoots
• Coconut and Rose Syrup Bundt Cake by I Camp In My Kitchen
• Coconut, Cardamom, and Orange Cake by Baking Yummies
• Dark Chocolate Beet Cake by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Dark Chocolate Stout Bundt by Living the Gourmet
• Junk Food Bundt Cake by Faith, Hope, Love, and Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Lemon Rosemary Bundt by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Lovely Fields Bundt Cake by Los Chatos Chefs
• Mini Mayonnaise and Chocolate Bundt Cakes by I Love Bundt Cakes
• Olive Oil Rosemary Bundt Cake by Tartacadabra
• Orange Bourbon Rosemary Bundt Cake by The Spiced Life
• Peanut Butter Sour Cream Bundt Cake by Basic N Delicious
• Six Flavor Bundt by Making Miracles
• Sweet Potato and Marshmallow Bundt by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Triple Rum Black Pepper Bundt Cake by How to Philosophize with Cake

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving Bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest Board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our homepage.

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