Baked anything tasty lately?

Flapjacks.

To shift some half used Christmas Dried Fruit packages that will sit in the press for........

Sure, but it's not much of one. They're really, really simple.

You'll needs :

1 sheet of ready-made puff pastry

150 - 200g crunchy peanut butter (I used ca 4 tbsps, so I'm guessing the weight)

100g xylitol, powdered (if you don't need to worry about sugar, you could use icing sugar)

handful of chocolate chips

1 egg

Mix the xylitol with the peanut butter. I had to add a bit of water, too, you want a spreadable, thick paste.

Roll out the puff pastry. If you bought a rolled out sheet, roll it out a bit more to made it more of a square than a rectangle.

Spread the peanut butter mixture onto half of the pastry, then fold the other half over. Press down or give it another roll with the pin to flatten it all down a bit more. Then cut the pastry into 12 strips, from the fold down.

Next, slice each strip into two until just before the fold, but leave it together at the fold. Twist the strip and form it into a ring or know. Place on a baking tray or in a muffin tin and brush with some egg wash. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Let them cool down and dust with a little more powdered xylitol or icing sugar.

I saw a quick video on how to make this on instagram and figured why not? I substituted the sugar for xylitol, which worked really well. But my first attempt at the choux pastry failed at the last hurdle - it collapsed completely while cooling down. But I'm nothing if not stubborn, went out for more supplies and tried again - and that one turned out rather well.

The thing's called a Paris-Brest 😅

For the Choux pastry, it's :

100ml water

100ml milk

120g flour

4 eggs

pinch of sugar

Flaked almonds

For the filling :

500ml of milk

150g sugar or xylitol

2 eggs

60g of cornflour

Vanilla essence

Making the choux pastry: Bring the milk, water, sugar and butter to the boil then incorporate the flour and salt. Using a rubber spatula, work the paste over a medium heat until it is quite dry and coming away from the edges of the pan. Once the paste has cooled down, add the eggs one by one whilst continuously whisking. Scoop into a piping bag, and pipe two rings onto a sheet lined with baking paper, then pipe a third ring on top. Sprinkle with the flaked almonds.

Bake at 180 for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 160 and bake for another 25 minutes. Leave to cool completely.

To make the filling, mix all the ingredients in a pot, bring to the boil while stirring continuously. Once it thickens, take off the heat and let cool down a bit.

Slice the ring down the middle using a serrated knife. Pipe the filling onto the bottom, then carefully lift the top on again.