Ricotta and Spinach Slice
I have probably made this slice for every gathering we've had in the last few years...except once...and then I was asked if it was still in the oven!  It seems to be universally popular, which is somewhat surprising given that most people wouldn't eat spinach on its own.  It is one of the most versatile dishes too: you can cut it into 25 dainty 'entertaining-the-mother-in-law' pieces, into 4 'hungry fella' slabs...or anything in between; serve it hot with vegetables for dinner, warm with a salad for lunch, or cold and on its own in a lunchbox.  And it's very forgiving: you really don't need to be exact with the measurements and you can substitute ingredients quite happily if you need to.  For example: you can take it in a Provence-ish direction by using silverbeet (chard) leaves and a sprinkling of thyme, you can take it to Greece with filo pastry and a smattering of fetta, you can even go all Espanol with manchego cheese and a few chopped olives.  And I've seen big burly blokes go for seconds and thirds when I've served it piled on platters as part of a buffet.  Not only do "real men eat quiche", they eat this too!

Ingredients:
2 sheets puff pastry thawed
400g Ricotta (smooth or lumpy, it makes no difference)
2 bunches of fresh spinach, or 1 package of frozen spinach thawed and well squeezed!
50g /2oz good hard cheese such as Cheddar or Jack, grated
25g / 1oz freshly grated Parmesan or Grana Padano or similar
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 nutmeg grated (or 1/4 tsp of ready ground nutmeg)
2 eggs
1/2 tblspn milk
1 tsp sesame seeds

1. Preheat the oven to 200 C / 400 F.  Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper or baking parchment and place one sheet of pastry on it (remove the plastic backing of course!).
2. If you're using fresh spinach, wash it well and cook it in a dry pan for a few seconds until it is JUST cooked, remove it to a chopping board and chop well with a mezzaluna or heavy bladed knife. 
3. In a large bowl mix together the spinach, the cheeses, the pepper and nutmeg.
4. Break the eggs into a cup and beat fairly well.  Pour most of the eggs into the spinach mixture - you need to reserve about 1/2 tblspn in the cup.  Mix everything together really well with a fork (it helps to break up any lumps on spinach).
5. Pile the mixture onto the pastry sheet and spread to within 1cm / 1/2 inch of the edges.  You need to make it as even as possible and avoid a dome in the middle.
6. Mix the milk with the reserved egg and use it to moisten the edges of the pastry.  Place the remaining pastry sheet on top and seal the edges by pressing down with a fork.  Brush the egg & milk mixture over the top of the slice to glaze it then sprinkle the sesame seeds over.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and shiny.
8. Allow to cool a little before serving, or completely before wrapping and storing.

Icing Options
My last post was a recipe for orange nutmeg cookies (you can find it here) and I used some of the dough to make lambs and chicks for my little lamb and chick...and I promise this will be the last cutesy posting for a couple of months!  I also promised I'd post a recipe for royal icing which I have combined with ready to roll fondant on the lambs, and used 'neat' on the chicks.  It has taken me quite a while to settle on the recipe that works best for me and the local climate and I still need to adjust the amount of water if it's a particularly hot, dry, or stormy day...so don't worry if you need to make small adjustments too.  Also, most recipes I have read talk about 'meringue powder' which I haven't been able to find locally.  But, I did find something called Pavlova Magic (well of course, it's practically the national dish!) which seems to work just fine.  Now, there are several videos on You Tube if you're new to piping, and this one is my favourite for basic technique.  Oh, and please don't think you have to do any of that origami business to make your own piping bags...get a pack of disposables from the supermarket or a cake decorating shop.  Lastly, please don't freak out that the lamb and the chick are the same size, this is not some scary steroid experiment...they're just cookies!!

Royal Icing: enough for at least 36 cookies
3 tblspns Pavlova Magic or meringue powder
500g / 1lb 2oz icing or confectioners sugar
5 tblspns water (which should be hand hot)
Upto 2 tsps of flavouring (vanilla or almond essence, lime juice etc)

1. Place the Pavlova Magic or meringue powder in the bowl of a free standing mixer and add the hand hot water.  With the paddle attachment, beat on slow for about 30 seconds until it's dissolved then increase the speed to medium and beat for about a minute until the mixture is nice and frothy.
2. Add the icing or confectioners sugar all in one go and beat on slow - to avoid getting covered in sugar - until everything is well mixed.  Increase the speed to medium and beat for about 6 or 7 minutes.  The mixture should be very white and very stiff.  If you remove the paddle attachment and run it through the icing, you should be able to turn the paddle upside down and the peak of icing will stand straight up.
3. At this point, I usually divide the icing between a number of smaller plastic boxes or bowls, according to how many colours I need, cover each batch with a piece of cling wrap - and make sure the wrap is touching the entire surface of the icing to ensure that no air gets in - put the lids on, and stash the whole lot in the fridge until the next time I get an opportunity to potter in the kitchen! 

For the Lambs:
Pre-baked and cooled cookies
A small amount of light corn syrup (such as Karo) or runny honey 
White ready to roll fondant icing
White royal icing
Black sugar beads
Disposable piping bag fitted with a coupler and PME 1.5 piping tip

1. Dust the kitchen bench with a little cornflour / corn starch.  Roll out the fondant to approximately 3mm or 1/4"  thickness.  Using the same lamb cutter you used for the cookies, cut out as many shapes as you need.  You can re-roll the scraps of fondant a couple of times, but after that there's usually too much cornflour incorporated and you need to use a new piece.
2. Brush the surface of the cookies with a little corn syrup - don't go right to the edges of the cookie as they will have spread during baking and the fondant shape will be slightly smaller.
3. Place a fondant cut out on top of each cookie and press lightly all over.  Push a black sugar bead into the fondant for the eye.
4. Next, take a couple of tablespoons of white royal icing and place in a small bowl.  Add a teaspoon of water and beat really well with a spatula.  Pour the icing into the prepared piping bag.  Lift the bag and shake the icing down to the tip then twist the top part of the bag to make a seal.  (See the Sweetopia video link in the top paragraph for the visuals).  Now, pipe a line all round the body of the lamb and around the edge of the face.  Pipe some spirals and "C's" on the body - and there you have your woolly little lamb!

For the chicks:
Pre-baked and cooled cookies
Royal icing
Black sugar beads
1 disposable piping bag fitted with a coupler and a PME 1.5 tip (for the orange)
1 disposable piping bag fitted with a coupler and #2 plain tip (for the yellow)

1. Colour a portion of the royal icing yellow - I used Americolor's Egg Yellow - and just add one drop at a time until you have a colour just a shade lighter than you would like.  Now, you want to create what I call 'all purpose' icing.  That means an icing you can use to outline AND flood a cookie at the same time.  So, when you draw a knife through the bowl of icing you want the gap to close and for there to be no trace of the knife mark in about 10 seconds.  So, add about a half teaspoon of water and mix well with a spatula.  Try the knife test.  If it takes 15 or 20 seconds for the mark to disappear, add another half teaspoon of water and beat again then re-test it.  Cover the icing and set it aside for about 30 mins, the colour will develop further.  Take a tiny amount of royal icing and colour it orange - I used Americolor's Electric Orange.  Just add a couple of drops of water off the end of your finger to thin this tiny amount.  Beat it well after the water is added.
2. Pour each batch of icing into their respective piping bag, shake down and twist to seal.
3. Take the yellow icing and pipe an outline around the body of the chick (not the beak).  Immediately flood the shape by piping inside the outline until the body and head areas are filled.  Gently shake the cookie left and right on the work surface to make sure the icing is even and levelled.  With a pair of tweezers, drop a black sugar bead into the wet icing as an eye.  Leave the icing to set for about 30 minutes.  Next, outline and flood a little wing shape on top of the piped body - it will look very dimensional!
4. Finally, outline and fill the tiny beak and pipe on the legs and feet.  Leave the cookies to dry completely for 4-6 hours then place them in an airtight box and they will keep prefectly well for about a week.

Deci-Dela-Delicious
Many years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I used to wear a perfume called Deci Dela.  And (call me an Ad Man's dream) I originally bought it because I LOVED the packaging, there's a link to it here so you can see - a hot pink matte glass bottle with gold embellishments.  And there was a hot orange matte bottle too...but I don't remember what the differences were between the two options.  Anyway, I have always carried the design around in the junk drawer that is my right brain.  Today, I opened the junk drawer...and some decorated cookies fell out!  Now, the cookies themselves are truly delicious, you could easily enjoy them without the decoration.  But I can't leave well alone and had to whip up a batch of royal icing.  I'm including the cookie recipe today and will endeavour to blog the royal icing bit tomorrow...or the next day.  Believe me, it's important to be precise with the icing part so I'd rather devote a whole post to it!  It's perfectly OK to allow these cookies to sit in a tin for a few days (or the freezer for a few months) before you decorate them, so there's no rush to complete them all in one go.  Oh, and the smell of these cooking is divine.  Divine I tell you.  Try it, and tell me I'm wrong!

Orange Nutmeg Cookies:
120g / 5oz unsalted butter, softened
100g / 4oz Trex or Cookeen or Shorteen or Crisco (butter flavour is the best option)**
250g / 10oz caster or superfine sugar
1 large egg
1 tblspn runny honey
Zest of 2 medium oranges (use a microplane, and only get the orange part)
1 nutmeg grated (or 1 tsp of ready ground)
3 cups plain or all purpose flour + 1 tsp baking powder

1. Beat together the butter, shortening and sugar until it is very light and fluffy - about 3 minutes.
2. Add the egg, honey, orange zest and grated nutmeg.  Beat again for about 1 minute until everything is very well combined.
3. With the mixer on slow, gradually add the flour and baking powder.  Mix only until everything is combined and the dough starts to clump around the paddle.
4. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, wrap each piece in cling wrap, squash down into a fat disc shape, then refrigerate for at least 30 mins.
5. Preheat the oven to 170 C / 350 F.  Line at least 2 baking sheets, maybe 3 with baking paper or parchment.  Remove the dough from the fridge and its wrapping.  Scatter some plain or all purpose flour on the kitchen bench. Knead the dough lightly but firmly.  This will be tricky at first and the mixture may be quite crumbly.  Don't worry, keep going until everything comes together.  
6. Roll the dough out until it is roughly half a centimetre / quarter of an inch thick.  Using your cutter of choice (mine are eggs because it's nearly Easter and that cutter was on the top of the pile!!) cut out as many shapes as you can from the first piece of dough.  Lift them onto the baking sheet with a bench scraper or palette knife.  
7. Wrap the dough scraps in a piece of cling wrap and set aside.  Repeat steps 5 and 6 with the second piece of dough.  Now, combine both lots of dough scraps, lightly knead them together, re-roll and cut out as many shapes as you can.  Any scraps left over from this cutting should be binned, the dough will be too tough if you roll and cut it again.  Bake the trays of cookies for 10-15 minutes depending on your oven, the cookies should be just golden around the edges.
8. Allow them to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.  They can be stored in an airtight tin for a week quite happily in their un-iced state, though if it's going to be longer than a week before you get to them I would recommend that you wrap them in cling wrap (in little piles of 5 or 6) and freeze them.

**  Since moving to Australia I haven't been able to find Trex, Cookeen, Shorteen or anything similar...until...I found Crisco in the USA Foods shop.  Can you hear angels singing??  No...it's just me then.  Finally my cookies are light and crisp, just as they should be.  USA Foods offer a delivery service, and the website can be found here.