Easter Bunny Pie

It was a very lovely weekend, doing just what was needed and nothing more. The weather was quite mild for Australia, beautifully Autumn with browned leaves being blown about; waking up to rain pouring outside the bedroom window. I look forward to Easter for many reasons, but one of the most delicious is Easter Bunny pie...

Caramalised Onion and Chedder Savoury Muffins - Sweet Melissa Sundays

I love savoury muffins, one of my favourite weekend cafe breakfasts is nothing more then a flat white coffee and a freshly baked savoury muffin! This weeks Sweet Melissa recipe was simply delicious, what a better pairing for savoury muffins then a gourmet twist on the old favourite combination of cheese and onion.

The caramalised onions are naturally sweet, but I added a spoonful of treacle to enhance the sweetness and also add a nice earthy flavour. Luckily I had some lovely purple sage growing in the garden I was able to add to the muffins.

I took these tasty treats with me to a friends birthday BBQ and they seemed to go down quickly.

Thanks to Hanaa from Hanaa's Kitchen for picking this weeks recipe, you can find the rest of the bakers at Sweet Melissa Sundays.

Bacon, Egg and a few secret ingredients Pie

Growing up watching my Dad make rows and rows of pies in the Bakery, I never really thought about making them that much, it seemed like such a natural thing, I never really put too much stock in recipes. Dad used to make amazing Bacon and Egg pies, which I loved to eat some mornings with a good squirt of Tomato Sauce on top!

I have made my own changes to the basic recipe, I have put the tomato sauce in the form of tomato chutney and used fennel seeds to give it a pleasant hint of aniseed.

1x 25x25cm Square Tin
400g Short Pastry
1x Sheet Puff Pastry (enough to cover top of pie)
1x Onion, diced
1 Cup Tasty Cheese, grated
1/2 Cup Vinegary home-made Tomato Relish (if using store brought, tip into a bowl and mix with malt vinegar until nice and tangy)
9x Eggs
500g Smoky Bacon, large dice (Kelburn Butcher do the best bacon I've ever tasted)
1/2 Cup Cream
Fennel Seeds
Salt
Pepper

Roll short pastry out to cover the bottom of the greased pie tin.
Sprinkle with fennel seeds.
Spread onion and cheese over pie base, top with tomato relish.
Break six of the eggs over the base of the pie, leave whole, salt and pepper to taste.
Spread bacon over the eggs.
Mix remaining eggs with cream, salt and pepper and pour over bacon.
Add puff pastry to top of pie and seal edges.
Make cuts in the top of the pie to allow steam to escape.
Brush pie shell with milk and sprinkle fennel seeds over the top.
Bake at 190C for 30-40min until golden and knife comes out clean.

Easter Bunny Pie with Walnut Pastry

My other entry into the work Easter Cooking competition, I thought cooking the easter bunny would be very tasty, if not a bit sad that there would be less chocolate going around.

1x Wild Rabbit, chopped into four pieces
2x med Onions, diced
220g smokey Bacon, diced into 2.5cm pieces
2x Apples, peeled and sliced
275ml Cider
425ml Chicken Stock

1 Bay Leaf

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40g Flour
40g Butter
Salt and Pepper
1/2 whole Nutmeg, grated

110g Prunes, pitted and chopped
Caraway seeds to sprinkle on top

Place the rabbit pieces, onions, bacon, apples, cider, chicken stock, salt and pepper and bay leaf into the crockpot, cook on low for 8 hours or overnight.
When cool remove bones from rabbit.
Drain liquid from crockpot into a pot and heat gently on stovetop.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and cook for a minute.

Add the liquid and bring to the boil to thicken.
When thick turn off heat; add nutmeg, prunes and rabbit mix. Season to taste.
Pour mix into lined pie shell, top with walnut pastry and caraway seeds.
Bake for 30min at 220C

Pastry
300g Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
200g cold Butter, cubed
1/2 cup Walnuts, finely chopped
4-6 Tbs cold Water

Sift flour and salt into a bowl and rub in the cold butter until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Stir in the chopped walnuts.
Make a well in the centre, add the cold water and mix to form a dough.
Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30min.
Take 2/3 of dough and roll out to line 25cm diameter, 5cm deep pie dish.