Pickled Walnut Creepy Crawlies

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
2. If making vol au vents from scratch, place the pastry onto a lightly floured surface then using an 8cm round cutter cut out 24 circles. Place 12 of the circles on the baking tray and prick their centres several times with a fork.
3. For the remaining circles use a 4cm cutter to cut out the middle, creating a ring ‘doughnut’ shape. Place each ring on top of the whole circles on the baking tray, and brush with the beaten egg.
4. Place the vol au vents in the oven for 15 minutes, until puffed up and golden. Remove from the oven and fill each with goats cheese, filling each halfway up. Place back into the oven until the cheese is melted (cover with tin foil if the pastry is going too dark) then remove and cool.
5. Meanwhile break apart the pretzels to make semi circles to use as spider legs. Carefully slice your olives in half lengthways, and then each half into quarters. Next halve the pickled walnuts (some of the bigger ones may need to be cut down further) and put everything to one side.
6. Once the vol au vents are cooled, top them with a teaspoon of chutney until level with the top of the case.
7. Hang eight pretzel legs on each case for the spiders legs, then place a pickled walnut half on top, cut side down. To make the ‘beetles’, place six olive “legs’ around the outside of the vol au vent in place of pretzels, and top with the pickled walnut half.