Canapé Bites
Having made Queen Anne’s Lace Jelly this year I really wanted to add this to these little cups. The flavour combination of (vegan) philadelphia, fresh lemon zest, pomegranate seeds and crunchy shortcrust pastry paired just too good with the QAL jelly. It doesn’t look particularly appetizing but the flavour was good. Since I had to cater for a vegan my choices for ready made pastry cups was minimal or stupidly expensive. I didn’t want to opt for puff pastry, thinking the filling would be too wet. So instead I opted for shortcrust pastry cause it is vegan. I should have rolled it thinner as my cups were very thick. In my defence, I had to work with an airfryer for this and was limited on space in its drawers. All in all I think it worked out really well, and I will definitely be making these for Christmas, with a few tweaks here & there.
This recipe made 20 cups.
Recipe by The Simple Things adapted by me
Ingredients
150g Philadelphia spread
Vegan or use soft goats cheese
Lemon zest
fresh
Thyme
fresh, few stalks, finely chopped leaves
Black pepper
Freshly ground, to taste
Pastry cups
about 20-24, or shortcrust pastry ready rolled with circles cut out and put in a silicon mould
Queen Anne's Lace Jelly
see recipe (this opens a new tab)
Pomegranate seeds
enough to sprinkle on top
Directions
Preheat your oven to 200°C
1 Place the pastry cases on a baking tray.
2 In a small bowl and using a fork, mix the lemon zest with the vegan Philadelphia/ goat’s cheese. Add a few twists of freshly-ground black pepper and the chopped thyme, and then mix again until thoroughly blended.
3 Fill the pastry cases with the Philadelphia/ goat’s cheese mix, leaving space on top of each one to sprinkle a few pomegranate seeds.
4 Put the baking tray in the oven and bake the bites for 10-15 minutes or until the Philadelphia/ goat’s cheese mix starts so bubble.
5 Remove from the oven and add half a teaspoon of Queen Anne’s Lace Jelly to each cup, sprinkle some pomegranate seeds and some thyme leaves on top
6 Serve warm