We are all finally allowed to begin to meet together again and with in person events beginning to reappear, here are some easy to make canapés to wow your friends. 2 out of these 3 recipes don’t even require any cooking, just a layering of ingredients which together, taste incredible.
Cheese is pretty versatile in a canapé and with so much local cheese on offer, it would be shame not to make the most of it in these recipes. You can buy a soft goat’s cheese from just across the border in Salisbury from Rosary Goats Cheese. You can find soft cheese and blue cheese from The Book & Bucket Cheese Company as well as some blue cheese from Dorset Blue Vinny.
I would highly recommend getting hold of some local honey if you can, the more local to you the better. You can find local honey in most farm shops across the county, as well as delis and even in some local coffee shops too. It tastes like the countryside and helps to make these canapés really sing.
Tomato & Goat’s Cheese Canapé
1 packet of ready rolled puff pastry* 1 small punnet of cherry tomatoes 1 packet of soft goat’s cheese
1 tube of tomato puree
a little honey
some egg or milk to glaze the pastry.
Preheat the oven to Gas 5/180 fan.
Grease and line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.
Whilst you are getting the ingredients ready, cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place onto one of the baking trays. Drizzle with olive oil and roast in the oven for 20 minutes.
Roll out the puff pastry and cut into 1-2 inch square pieces.
Place the pieces onto the baking trays and space out a little.
Spread a little of the tomato puree onto each square, leaving a little border of pastry around the edge. You can also add a tiny drizzle of honey here to mix into the tomato puree as you spread. Glaze the edges of the pastry with a little egg or milk so that they turn golden in the oven. Place a small piece of the goats cheese onto the pastry square, along with one of the roasted cherry tomato halves.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked.
*This recipe also works well with homemade pastry if you have the time to make your own. You can also use gluten free puff pastry if required.
Grapefruit and cream cheese Canapé
1 grapefruit
100g soft cream cheese 1 packet melba thins
a little local honey
black pepper
Cut the grapefruit in half and then remove the segments of the fruit as whole as you can.
Lay out the melba thins out so you can easily top them. You can break them in half if you would like smaller canapés.
Top the melba thins with the cream cheese (using teaspoons or a piping bag).
Grind some black pepper over the cheese.
Top with a grapefruit segment.
Drizzle the whole canapé with some local honey.
Apricot and blue cheese Canapés.
Soft dried ‘ready to eat’ apricots. Some local blue cheese.
Some local honey.
Walnut halves.
Layer together the ingredients; starting with the apricots, then some blue cheese, a walnut half and topped with a generous drizzle of local honey.
This might sound ridiculously simple but the combination of these 4 flavours is incredible all together. I would recommend getting local blue cheese and local honey as they pack much more flavour than a supermarket brand.
By: Heather Brown
