Vegemite cheese straws

2 sheets puff pastry
1 tablespoon vegemite
2/3 cup Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 220 C. Line oven tray with baking paper.

Spread one pastry sheet with half the vegemite then sprinkle with half the cheese. Top with remaining pastry sheet and spread vegemite and remaining cheese.

Cut pastry stack in half, place one stack on top of the other and press down firmly. Cut crossways into 24 strips. Twist each strip, pinching the ends to seal. Place on tray and bake 12 minutes.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

2 cups of plain flour (sifted)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinammon
6 tbl butter or 4 tbl olive oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Splenda
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
2 to 3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup of sour cream or vanilla yoghurt
60 grams dark chocolate bits

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Spray mini muffin tins (will make approx 32).Sift flour, mix with baking powder and cinamon. Set aside.Beat butter/oil, brown sugar, fake sugar and vanilla essence. Add eggs one at a time to this mixture and beat. Add flour mixture.Beat in bananas, sour cream (or yoghurt) and optional dark chocolate bits.Scoop mixture into muffin tins. Bake for around 15 minutes.

Spinach & Feta Scrolls

• Smear sun-dried tomato pesto all over a sheet of Puff Pastry, leaving a little gap at the top.
• Add lots of chopped up spinach and feta
• Put a little of water on the free edge of pastry, roll it up and join together the join to stop it springing open.
• Cut into pieces and arrange on a baking tray. Cook for 15-20 minutes at 175 °C or until brown.

Recipe from Beth at BabyMac: http://littlereginald.blogspot.com/

Soft Pretzles

1/8 cup hot water
1 package active dry yeast
1 1/3 warm water
1/3 cup brown sugar
4+ cups flour
Coarse kosher salt
Baking soda
Butter or shortening (to generously grease cookie sheets)

In a large bowl mix together hot water and yeast until the yeast dissolves. Stir in the warm water and brown sugar and stir until the brown sugar dissolves. Slowly add 4 cups of flour, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the mixture is smooth and does not stick to the sides of the bowl.

Lightly flour counter. Dip your hands into extra flour. Knead the dough until it is stretchy and smooth. (Push it down and away from you with the palms of your hands, turning the dough as you work) Grease cookie sheets generously with butter or shortening. Sprinkle greased cookie sheet(s) with kosher salt. Preheat oven to 475. (It is very important that you grease the cookie sheets very well)

Using liquid measuring cup fill a large saucepan at least 1/2 full of water. For each 1 cup of water, add 1 tbls baking soda. Divide the dough into equal sized pieces. Using the following 4 steps shape each dough ball into a pretzel shape...

1). Roll the dough into a rope 14" long and as thick as your thumb. Bend the dough into a U shape. (if you have trouble rolling the dough into a rope slightly wet your hands and try again).
2). Cross one end of the rope over the other one. The ropes should cross about three inches from the tips.
3). Twist the crossed ends, making a full turn. Fold the ends back, towards the middle of the U.
4). Open the ends slightly to form a pretzel shape. Press the ends into the dough firmly. Bring water into saucepan to a gentle boil (not to many bubbles) Use pancake turner to lower each pretzel into the saucepan. Count slowly to 30. Then lift the pretzel onto the greased and salted cookie sheet (shaking off excess water back into the saucepan). Repeat until all the pretzels are done. Sprinkle some kosher salt on top of the pretzels and put them in preheated oven. Bake for 8 minutes or until the pretzels are golden.

Variation Recipes:
Garlic Parmesan Pretzels
Add 4-6 cloves pressed garlic and 2/3 cup Parmesan cheese into the liquid ingredients before adding the flour.

Sun-dried Tomato and Basil Pretzels Add 4-6 chopped sun-dried tomatoes, 1 tsp basil and 2 tsp parm cheese to the liquid ingredients before adding in the flour

Recipe notes:
* You can make the dough up to 24 hours in advance, just cover the bowl and store in refrigerator.
* These also freeze very well. Just pop them into the microwave for a few seconds to reheat.
* This recipe will yield 20-24 shaped pretzels depending on the size you make them.
*You can also make pretzel sticks with this recipe. Instead of rolling dough into pretzel shapes just roll into 2-3" long ropes a little thicker than your thumb.

recipe from Amber's Delectable Delights, obviously I love her blog.

Oven Baked Monte Cristos

Serves: 6

4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp sugar (I usually leave this out)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
12 slices rye bread, lightly toasted
8 oz Gruyere cheese (or Swiss)
8 oz thinly sliced good quality ham
Non stick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 450F. Place a baking sheet with rim in the oven to heat. Whisk eggs, milk and sugar (if desired) in shallow bowl until well blended. Spread Dijon mustard on each slice of toast. Layer with cheese, ham and another slice of cheese. Remove baking sheet from oven, spray with non stick spray. Dip each sandwich into egg mixture, coating both sides and place on baking sheet. Bake 5 minutes.

Cheese Straws

I've only made these once with D's mom's help. I am not used to making pastry and needed some guidance, it's not easy to understand from a recipe if you've never done it before. At D's parent's house, the cheese straws usually come out at Christmas time and they are EXPENSIVE! So I tried making them. They aren't that hard and a lot cheaper to make rather than buy. I would try spicing these up more next time with either jalapenos in the mixture or more cayenne pepper or sprinkling them with paprika. Oh, and I never said these were healthy!

14 tbsp butter. room temperature
3 cups sharp cheddar cheese
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour, plus some for rolling
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

*Apparently the trick to pastry is incorporate the flour as quickly as possible into the butter. *

Put the butter in a bowl and cut to pieces using a knife. Quickly work the flour, cheese, Worcestershire, salt, and cayenne pepper into the butter by rubbing the mixture between your thumbs, middle and ring fingers, using only fingertips and being as gentle as possible. Lift it up high while doing this and let the mixture fall back into the bowl to incorporate air. Do this long enough to make the mixture crumbly with a few odd lumps here and there. Chill mixture for at least an hour.

Roll small amounts of dough into a long tube about the width of a straw and cut into desired lengths. Gently twist. Arrange on ungreased baking sheets and bake at 300F for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.