A super fun, super delicious & highly nutritious Hallowe’en recipe – which can be adapted to suit your taste. We’ve used pumpkin since it’s seasonal & topical but any veggie/non-veggie mix would work. They taste great full of leftover bolognese/chilli or even a sweet option with cinnamon spiced apple…..

You can find a video of the recipe on Instagram if you prefer.

Ingredients (makes approx. 10 small pasties)

• 375g puff pastry – I buy the ready made, ready rolled for convenience
• ¼ medium sized pumpkin – roasted/microwaved until tender and mashed – lumps & bumps are fine (check out our reel for a SUPER easy way to microwave pumpkin on Instagram!)
• 5 cherry tomatoes
• 50g courgette
• 25g carrot
• 50g cheddar cheese, grated
• A little flour
• Egg/coconut oil to brush the pasties with before cooking 
• Tomato puree (optional)

To decorate:

• Edible eyes – available from all main supermarkets OR other edible items (I used a range of things from our kitchen when I realised we only had one ‘proper’ icing eye!)
• Edible glue/royal icing sugar

You will also need a cookie cutter – approx 9cm in diameter. If you don’t have one you can use an upside down bowl/mug/similar to cut the circles.

Method

For the mix:

1. Heat the oven to 200^oC and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
2. Put the pumpkin into a large mixing bowl.
3. Cut the tomatoes into quarters and add them to the pumpkin bowl (Diddies can cut tomatoes using a regular butter knife – just remind them to use a ‘bridge’ or a ‘claw’ grip to keep their fingers safe.)
4. Grate the courgette & carrot and stir into the pumpkin mix too – alternatively you could use a blender to micro-chop your veggies.
5. Finally, stir in the grated cheese and a squidge of tomato puree (if you like).

For the pasties:

1. Lay out the puff pastry on a lightly floured baking tray. (If you are rolling your own try to get it to 4-5 mm thick) TIP: handle the pastry as little as possible to protect the structural layers that will create the ‘puff’.
2. Use your cookie cutter (approx 9cm diameter) to cut circles out of the pastry, keeping the circles close to one another to minimise waste
3. Put a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre of each circle and fold in half. Pinch around the edge to seal. (The monsters at the end look better if the pastry is quite full!).
4. Brush a little whisked egg/coconut oil over the top (this makes them golden and shiny once cooked). 
5. Bake in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes or until turning golden
6. Allow them to cool completely, then use edible glue/royal icing to stick on the edible eyes.

Extra tips/ideas

Once cooked, the pasties will last for a couple of days if stored in an airtight container in the fridge. If you would like to keep them for longer then wrap them in a double layer of foil and freeze them BEFORE brushing egg/oil & cooking. They can be cooked straight from frozen when you want to use them – just add an extra 5-10 minutes cooking time. 

I would love to know if you make these – please do leave a comment and share with anyone else that may be interested.

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