Tesco Recipe Card - Stilton & Walnut Puffs

They don't look too pretty, but they are pretty tasty!

This was one of three recipe cards I picked up last time I was at Tescos.

I decided to make these because I bought a cheese selection pack and I don't really like Stilton unless it has been cooked.

The first thing I noticed about the instructions was that it tells you to preheat the oven, then make the puffs, then chill the puffs for 15 minutes and then cook them. This means your oven could be on for well over 30 minutes before you even use it! Not very good for the environment or your gas/electricity bill. I preheated my oven 5 minutes after I started to chill the puffs.

Then, I only had 93g of Stilton (recipes stipulates 100g). I decided this probably didn't matter too much. Turned out I was right as I had too much filling left over as it was.

Next, I didn't read the instructions properly and I used the white and the yolk of the egg (mixed) to brush the pastry with. This also had no effect on the finished product.

I got a lot more circles out of my pastry than the recipe stated. I made about 30 and the recipe says the yield is 16-20.

The 3" pastry circles are quite small so it's difficult to "brush around the edges with the egg". I just brushed the whole area with egg.

You only need about 1/2 teaspoon of the cheese filling otherwise you can't fold the pastry over without it all oozing out. Despite having about 10 more pastry cases to fill out than the recipe states, I still had a good dollop of the cheese mixture left (which I used later in an omelette for my lunch).

I felt that simply sprinkling the walnuts on top of the enclosed pastry puffs wasn't a very good idea because you would end up eating them without the walnuts if you picked up a puff and the nuts fell off. I added a piece of broken walnut in with the cheese for each one.

It's easiest to fill the circles if you place them in your hand, rather than trying to fill them on the tray.

I don't have room in my fridge for a large baking tray (who has at this time of the year?!) so I carefully placed a tea towel over them and put the baking tray outside. They were guarded by the rabbits :-)

You are supposed to bake these for 12-15 minutes. Mine were still quite doughy after15 minutes and then needed at least another 5 minutes baking.

Overall, I would recommend this recipe. Although it is part of Tesco's Christmas collection, these would be suitable to make any time of the year, either as a snack for your family or as nibble for guests. Nice hot or cold and the option to freeze them pre-baking stage could be quite handy if you wanted to prepare them in advance....and of course walnuts and Stilton are made for each other.