Monday, October 20, 2014

Puff Pastry Pizzettes


Simple.  Simple.  Simple.  

Perfect hors d'oeuvre.

Perfect after school snack.

Perfect midnight snack. 

Easy elegance. 

That is, if you have already made the puff pastry dough or have bought some from the store/ bakery. 

Besides the above combination I also made a sweet cherry one with a plum glaze  which turned out tasty but not too pretty (thus no picture).   But the possibilities seem endless with this one too.  I can see pesto, olives, compotes…

See the posts at Tuesdays with Dorie to see how others' fared with this recipe. 



Rhiannon running...


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Sunny-Side Up Apricot (Plum) Pastries


These became plum pastries for me,  as apricots will not be found in our grocery store or markets for another nine months.  And oddly enough it has been warm enough here to keep the plum and peach season lasting a bit longer than normal. No complaints here.   Although I do lose the effect of sunny side up "eggs" as intended.  


This recipe was the first in our puff pastry month with Tuesdays with Dorie.  I had all intentions of making the puff pastry myself, especially after reading the recipe as it seemed no harder and less fussy than croissant dough.  But I decided to take it easy, stay on schedule and use some of the local, awesome puff pastry dough from Grand Central Bakery.  

Overall, this turned out well, and with a few minor changes I might make these again.  I would cut the circles larger and roll the dough out less as I feel these were rolled too thin.  I would use a smaller fruit to help the ends puff up more.  I would continue using the pastry cream recipe with vanilla beans and maybe double it as it was so tasty.  I would pull the skins off the poached  fruit to help with appearances (no effect on taste).  And I would heavily sugar the rolling surface; I only lightly dusted mine, and the pastry could have stood up to more. 

I am looking forward to the second puff pastry recipe in a few weeks.  My dough scraps are in the freezer, waiting. 


Rhiannon