Cream horns are ideal for tea but equally good with a savoury filling, especially for a party or buffet supper.
ingredients
makes 12
puff pastry made with 8 ounce flour (see Below)
2 small egg yolk, beaten
4 heaped tablespoons raspberry or strawberry spread
1/2 pint heavy cream, whipped
method
1. Preheat oven to hot, 230°C (450°F).
2. Wet a baking sheet but don't grease it. Grease six cream horn tins.
3. Roll out pastry into a thin, neat oblong. Cut 12 neat strips and wet these lightly.
4. Starting at pointed end of tin, and overlapping pastry as you work, wind pastry strip around each tin. Seal with a little egg yolk and brush rest over pastry.
5. Bake in centre of preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes or until pale golden. Remove tins. Allow to cool.
6. Fill first with spread, then cream and eat within 2 hours.
PUFF PASTRY
Makes 8 ounce pastry
Keep everything including hands very cold for this pastry.
2 1/4 cups plain flour
1/2 level teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter in a block or 1/2 cup cooking fat and 1/2 cup margarine mashed and formed into a block
2 teaspoons lemon juice
6 - 8 tablespoons very cold water
1. Sift flour and salt into a bowl.
2. Chill the fat if soft. Rub 1 tablespoon fat into flour.
3. Mix to a dough with lemon juice and water.
4. Roll out dough to twice the length of the block of fat. Place fat on dough and fold dough down over it, sealing edges well with a rolling pin.
5. Give pastry one half turn and roll gently out into a long strip.
6. Fold dough in three, envelope style, and leave, covered, in a cold place for 30 minutes.
7. Repeat turning, rolling and folding six times.
8. Leave pastry to relax for 30 minutes between rollings and before use.
