Puff pastry spread with goat’s cheese whipped loose with lemon and garlic, then laid tight with whole asparagus spears and baked until the border puffs up deep golden. The spears go tender but keep their bite, and the cheese sets just enough to hold a slice together. It looks like far more work than it is, and it cuts into neat pieces that travel well on a picnic rug. Grab your asparagus and goat’s cheese at Queen Victoria Market, delivered straight to your door or via Click & Collect!
Serves 6. Cooking for 3? Use half a sheet of pastry and halve the topping.
Ingredients
- 1 sheet (about 400g) frozen puff pastry, thawed in the fridge
- 120g goat’s cheese, at room temperature
- 2½ tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 teaspoon olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- ¼ teaspoon salt, plus extra for sprinkling
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 bunch (about 300g) asparagus, woody ends snapped off
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon milk
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
- Blitz the goat’s cheese, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper in a food processor until whipped and spreadable. Add a little more lemon juice if it’s stiff, it needs to spread without tearing the pastry.
- Roll the thawed pastry out slightly on a lightly floured bench to roughly the size of your tray, then transfer it across.
- Prick the pastry all over with a fork, leaving a 2cm border untouched. The pricked centre stays flat while the untouched border puffs up into a rim.
- Spread the goat’s cheese over the pricked area, keeping the border clear.
- Lay the asparagus spears across the cheese in tight rows, alternating the direction of the tips so they sit snugly. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and lemon zest.
- Whisk the egg and milk together and brush the border. This is what gives you a glossy, deep-golden edge rather than a pale one.
- Bake for 25–30 minutes, until the border is puffed and golden brown and the asparagus is tender to the point of a knife.
- Cool for 10 minutes before slicing. If it’s going to a picnic, let it cool completely on a rack. Trapped steam will soften the base.
Adapted from Brunch & Batter
