Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Fresh Fig Blue Cheese Tarts #FoodieExtravaganza

Flakey buttery puff pastry is the perfect crust for these fresh fig blue cheese tarts with rosemary and honey. Crunchy, sweet and salty, these little tarts are one of my favorite recipes to make with fresh figs.

Food Lust People Love: Flakey buttery puff pastry is the perfect crust for these fresh fig blue cheese tarts with rosemary and honey. Crunchy, sweet and salty, these little tarts are one of my favorite recipes to make with fresh figs. Serve these tarts as a main course, with a lovely salad of greens tossed with a sharp vinaigrette dressing.

This month my Foodie Extravaganza group is celebrating the start of National Fig Week by sharing fig recipes. When the theme was announced a few months back I was pretty sure that I was going to have to use dried figs, which are good – I love their sticky selves as a snack.

But I lucked out! My local shop had some lovely fresh figs. With some French Roquefort cheese and a sprig of rosemary from my own garden, I was in business.



Fresh Fig Blue Cheese Tarts


If you’ve never tried the combination of figs and blue cheese you are in for a treat. This works in salads as well as baked goods. Add a drizzle of honey, some rosemary and a little heat to this special combo. I served these tarts as a main course, with a lovely salad of greens tossed with a sharp vinaigrette dressing.

Ingredients
1 package puff pastry
3 1/2 oz or 100g blue cheese
4-5 fresh figs, sliced
1 sprig rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoons minute tapioca, divided
6 tablespoons honey

Method
Preheat oven to 400°F or 200°C.  Line six small tart pans with baking parchment. Roll pastry out big enough for your six small tart pans.



Fit puff pastry into lined tart pans, and trim, leaving a little overhang. Add one more circle baking parchment and fill the tart crusts with baking beads or dried beans.


Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes or until puffed and golden.


Leave to cool for a few minutes, then remove the baking beads and parchment inside the crust.

Crumble half of the blue cheese into the bottom of the tarts.


Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon tapioca in each crust.

Top with the sliced figs. Crumble on the rest of the blue cheese. Sprinkle each tart with a few rosemary needles.


Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of honey each.


Reduce oven temperature to 350°F or 180°C and bake until cheese is melted and figs are warmed through. They get quite juicy but this is where the magic of the minute tapioca comes in, slightly thickening the fresh fig juice as the tart filling bubbles in the heat.

Food Lust People Love: Flakey buttery puff pastry is the perfect crust for these fresh fig blue cheese tarts with rosemary and honey. Crunchy, sweet and salty, these little tarts are one of my favorite recipes to make with fresh figs. Serve these tarts as a main course, with a lovely salad of greens tossed with a sharp vinaigrette dressing.

Leave to cool completely before serving. This also gives the tapioca extra time to finish its thickening process.  Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Flakey buttery puff pastry is the perfect crust for these fresh fig blue cheese tarts with rosemary and honey. Crunchy, sweet and salty, these little tarts are one of my favorite recipes to make with fresh figs. Serve these tarts as a main course, with a lovely salad of greens tossed with a sharp vinaigrette dressing.

Check out all the other delicious fig recipes we are sharing! Many thanks to this month's host, Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla.


Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

 Pin it!

Food Lust People Love: Flakey buttery puff pastry is the perfect crust for these fresh fig blue cheese tarts with rosemary and honey. Crunchy, sweet and salty, these little tarts are one of my favorite recipes to make with fresh figs. Serve these tarts as a main course, with a lovely salad of greens tossed with a sharp vinaigrette dressing.
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Monday, October 30, 2017

Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins #MuffinMonday

Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins are my hat tip to the season, made with a cup of pumpkin and lots of rich dark chocolate. The pumpkin gives the batter a beautiful orange color and makes the muffins moist but the flavor is perfectly subtle.

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins are my hat tip to the season, made with a cup of pumpkin and lots of rich dark chocolate. The pumpkin gives the batter a beautiful orange color and makes the muffins moist but the flavor is perfectly subtle. If you are throwing a Halloween party, you’ll want to mix up a batch of these. The dark chocolate swirl and the orange pumpkin batter will be a hit on your holiday table.

I tend to be one of those people who resist cooking and baking with pumpkin until I can feel coolness in the air. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting that that just doesn’t happen in Dubai until autumn is pretty much over, calendar-wise.

But when it gets to be October and almost November, I guess it’s time!

Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins


If you are throwing a Halloween party, you’ll want to mix up a batch of these. The dark chocolate swirl and the orange pumpkin batter will be a hit on your holiday table.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 190g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 200g sugar
1/2 15 oz can or almost one cup or 200g pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil
1/4 cup or 60ml orange juice
4 1/4 oz or 120g 70% cocoa dark chocolate (I like Lindt.)

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it thoroughly, spraying with non-stick spray or lining it with paper muffin cups.

Melt your chocolate gently the microwave with a few short bursts of 10-15 seconds at a time, stirring in between.


In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar and stir well.

In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, oil, orange juice and eggs.


Pour your wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold them together until just mixed.


Pour about two-thirds of the melted chocolate on top of the batter and use a spoon to fold it in so there are still pockets of chocolate, in and around the pumpkin batter.


Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.


Use a small spoon to divide the remaining chocolate to top the batter in the muffin cups. Use a toothpick to swirl that chocolate into the top of the batter.

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins are my hat tip to the season, made with a cup of pumpkin and lots of rich dark chocolate. The pumpkin gives the batter a beautiful orange color and makes the muffins moist but the flavor is perfectly subtle. If you are throwing a Halloween party, you’ll want to mix up a batch of these. The dark chocolate swirl and the orange pumpkin batter will be a hit on your holiday table.

Bake in the preheated oven about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins are my hat tip to the season, made with a cup of pumpkin and lots of rich dark chocolate. The pumpkin gives the batter a beautiful orange color and makes the muffins moist but the flavor is perfectly subtle. If you are throwing a Halloween party, you’ll want to mix up a batch of these. The dark chocolate swirl and the orange pumpkin batter will be a hit on your holiday table.

Cool for a few minutes and then remove the muffins and put on a rack to cool completely.

Word of warning: Depending on the temperature of your kitchen (still pretty hot here in Dubai!) the chocolate may come off a little onto your fingers as you handle the muffins. Lick it off and carry on. In a colder kitchen, the chocolate should set.

Enjoy!

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins are my hat tip to the season, made with a cup of pumpkin and lots of rich dark chocolate. The pumpkin gives the batter a beautiful orange color and makes the muffins moist but the flavor is perfectly subtle. If you are throwing a Halloween party, you’ll want to mix up a batch of these. The dark chocolate swirl and the orange pumpkin batter will be a hit on your holiday table.


Check out all the lovely October muffins my Muffin Monday group have baked for your today. It’s so hard to choose which to make first!



#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.

Pin it! 

Food Lust People Love: Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Muffins are my hat tip to the season, made with a cup of pumpkin and lots of rich dark chocolate. The pumpkin gives the batter a beautiful orange color and makes the muffins moist but the flavor is perfectly subtle. If you are throwing a Halloween party, you’ll want to mix up a batch of these. The dark chocolate swirl and the orange pumpkin batter will be a hit on your holiday table.
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Sunday, October 29, 2017

Sincere Pumpkin Patch Spicy Cheese Ball

Extra sharp cheddar and cream cheese can be flavored with a variety of herbs and spices and rolled up ball- or log-shaped for a savory appetizer that will be a welcome addition to any party table. For added interest, roll your cheese ball in chopped pecans or walnuts.

Food Lust People Love: This pumpkin-shaped spicy cheese ball is a great addition to any Halloween or Thanksgiving party table.


If you’ve been reading along for a while, you might have noticed something.  I didn’t have a single Halloween post until last week’s Muffin Monday.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy Halloween.  In fact, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, when my girls were little, I was chief organizer and instigator of Halloween celebrations in our little neighborhood in the small oilfield town of Macaé, Brazil.

When we lived in Kuala Lumpur, we took part in trick-or-treating by joining another neighborhood’s festivities since no one went door-to-door in our mostly local area.  We parked on the route, decorated the trunk of our car and gave out candy.  But since the girls left home for university and I started the blog, my Halloween decorating and baking has dropped off significantly, although I still join my friends to give out candy if I happen to be in KL for Halloween.  It’s such fun to see the children in costumes.

Trunk-or-Treat - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia circa 2010


This week’s Sunday Supper theme is Halloween Finger Foods and since I don’t have little ones at home, I decided to go savory instead of sweet by making a spicy cheese ball that would be a great addition to any Halloween party table.  Goodness knows there will be enough candy already.

Like Linus from the comic strip Peanuts, I like to think that the Great Pumpkin will come to the most sincere pumpkin patch (or buffet table) and bring gifts for everyone.  He might even be tempted by this cheese ball.  It is most sincerely cheesy.

Ingredients
13 1/4 oz or 375g extra-sharp orange cheddar cheese
8 oz or about 225g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 small bunch chives (Mine was about 1/2 oz or 15g)
1 jalapeño (Mine was about 3/4 oz or 20g)
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon smoked paprika plus extra for decorating, if desired
2 tablespoons plain yogurt

For decoration: One broccoli stalk - with leaves, if possible
To serve: Crackers of your choice or bread

Method
Grate your cheddar cheese into a large mixing bowl. Finely mince your chives and garlic. Cut the stem end off of the jalapeño and remove the seeds, if you want to add just a little spice. If you like spicy food, by all means, leave the seeds in. Mince the jalapeño finely.



Add the softened cream cheese, the chives, garlic, jalapeño, smoked paprika and plain yogurt to the cheddar cheese.


Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon.



Line a small round bowl with cling film and heap the cheese mixture in it.  Press down with a spatula so the cheese fills the bottom of the lined bowl completely. Cover with the cling film and round out the top with your hands.  It’s like playing with Play-Do again.


Set the covered cheese ball in the refrigerator for several hours so it will stiffen back up.  I ended up leaving mine overnight because I got busy with other projects.

Remove the cheese ball from the bowl but leave it covered with the cling film.  Press the ball into a pumpkin-like shape.  Remember that pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes so don’t get too hung up on complete roundness or perfection.

Use your thumb to make grooves in the ball from top to bottom.



When you are satisfied that it looks like the best pumpkin you can manage, unwrap the cling film and use a soft paint brush to brush a little smoked paprika in the grooves to enhance the look.


Cut the stem off your broccoli, keeping a couple of leaves attached, if possible.  Cut what will be the top of your pumpkin stem at an angle.  Set the stem on top of your cheese pumpkin ball and push it in just a little.   Is that not the cutest thing!?



Serve with crackers or bread, and don’t forget to put out a knife so that folks can cut a piece off and spread the cheese ball.

Food Lust People Love: This pumpkin-shaped spicy cheese ball is a great addition to any Halloween or Thanksgiving party table.

Enjoy!


Still wondering what to make for your Halloween party? Sunday Supper is here to help with a great list of finger food recipes!

Spooky Snacks and Starters

Tasty Trick-or-Treats


Pin it! 

Food Lust People Love: This pumpkin-shaped spicy cheese ball is a great addition to any Halloween or Thanksgiving party table.
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