One of my favorite “hotel danishes” of all time is a hazelnut danish. Puff pastry, finely chopped hazelnut, hazelnut paste and probably a light glaze of simple sugar. I used to be able to eat 2-3 of them with a cup of hot tea whenever I ran across them at a breakfast buffet. So when I was mulling other possible puff pastry recipes, I decided to make something similar… only this time making use of the cashew nut butter I made a few days ago. This was a hit. But then again, I am a biased observer and taster! But the pictures say it all.

Thaw some puff pastry and cut them into large rectangles. Place about a tablespoon or so of homemade cashew butter off center on the rectangle. Top with a few chopped roasted cashew nuts for texture. Brush the edges of the pastry with an egg wash and fold the pastry over the filling. Seal the edges with the tines of a fork. Brush the top of the danish with the egg wash and sprinkle with some finely chopped cashew nuts. Cut three small vents in the pastry with a sharp knife so the steam can escape and stick the pastries on a silpat mat or baking paper on a baking sheet and stick in a hot oven until the pastry has puffed up and is golden brown.

In the meantime, melt a couple of tablespoons of guava jelly in the microwave and once the pastries are out of the oven, brush them lightly with some melted guava jelly so they get a nice surface gloss to them.

These were great. The puff pastry performed exactly as you would want it to, and the flaky layers are clearly visible. The cashew butter was tasty and not overly sweet at all, and the filling to pastry ratio was just right. I have to admit that hazelnuts have a stronger flavor profile so they are still my favorite, but these weren’t far behind. The glaze was just enough to provide that hint of guava flavor which was consistent with the sweetener used in the cashew butter. Yum. And yes, I am still following a fairly strict diet, though I am taking some carbohydrates now. :)

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With all of Artisan’s puff pastry in the freezer, it was inevitable that at least one apple strudel would be attempted in the Marketman household. I have never been a huge fan of strudel’s, despite my love for apple pies, but maybe I haven’t had a REALLY GOOD STRUDEL yet. I did work briefly on a project in Vienna many eons ago, and over a few weeks or so I tried several pastry shops in the city, but I can’t recall any truly memorable strudels. A strudel pastry is not actually a puff pastry, but it does trace it’s roots back to say a Turkish baklava phyllo style pastry… So phyllo is often suggested as the alternative pastry to use. Phyllo results in a lighter, airier pastry but still not quite the original strudel as the Viennese might describe it. I suppose a puff pastry is a serious departure from the original, but this was shortcut morning and was pressed to make use of an abundance of puff…

I didn’t really use a recipe, so I won’t detail specific measurements here. I took say 3 small to medium sized granny smith apples and peeled, cored and sliced them thinly. Place the apples in a bowl, and toss with a couple of tablespoons of sugar (or more), some salt, cinnamon, golden raisins, a bit of flour. I was tempted to heat this for a few minutes on top of the stove just to melt the sugar and mix up the juices, but we were in shortcut mode so I didn’t bother. I regretted this later.

I briefly thawed a sheet of puff pastry, rolled it out a bit more with a wooden rolling pin. I spread the apple mixture on about one half of the dough, with the width of the pastry facing me, not the length of the pastry. Leave about an inch of pastry clear around the edges. Brush the edges with egg wash and carefully roll up the pastry from the edge nearest you, and make sure the seam is under the rolled pastry and sitting on the pan. Tuck in the edges so the apples don’t ooze out. Use a silpat mat or baking paper to line your pan. Brush the surface of the roll with egg and place in a hot oven for say 30-40 minutes or until it gets a nice golden brown color.

Let the strudel cool and serve sprinkled with powdered sugar if desired. Vanilla ice cream or some whipped cream would be nice. As you can see from these photos, it looked pretty good, but the apples weren’t quite cooked enough. And the pastry, while good, wasn’t the texture that a hard core strudel might possess. I’m not sure if it’s the odd ratio of filling to pastry that makes this less appealing for me than say an apple pie, but I haven’t made this in at least ten years and it’s not likely I will do so for another ten more… :(

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I was in Cebu a week ago and the day before returning home, I asked Artisan C. if he would be kind enough to sell me some puff pastry if he thought it could weather a three-hour or more transit time to Manila. He said it might make it if I kept it chilled, so part of my luggage was a box filled with about 10 portions or sheets of hand-made puff pastry, chilled with frozen sisig as the “blue ice” proxy. :) The flight was a bit delayed and including transit time, the puff pastry was out of the freezer for nearly 4.5 hours, so I was expecting the worst when we opened up the boxes in our Manila kitchen. They were a bit soft, but still quite cold, so I think they made the journey relatively unscathed. If you’re wondering what the big deal is, if puff pastry warms up and the fat between the layers oozes out or mixes with the dough, it won’t puff up nicely when baked. These are the first of several recipes we made with the bounty of puff pastry (most of it with butter, but some of it an experimental batch with zubulard).

The pastry sticks were an absolute hit. So easy to make if you have puff pastry in the freezer, either hand made by someone else (trust me, I have NO desire to even attempt making my own puff pastry), or even the store-bought kind, which is consistent but much pricier. To make the sweet pasty sticks, I simply took out thawed some sheets of puff pastry and brushed the entire side with egg wash. Sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar all over (use a lot of sugar). Cover with some greaseproof paper or the plastic that the pastry is wrapped in and press lightly to help the sugar adhere to the dough. Remove the plastic, fold the pastry in half so that the sugar is “inside” and brush the exposed pastry with more egg wash and sprinkle more sugar. Cut with a pizza cutter into 1/3 or 1/2 inch strips, twist and place on a baking sheet lined with a silpat mat or baking paper. Place in a hot oven say 400F for about 12-15 minutes until puffed, golden and done. Fantastic! Could barely wait for them to cool, and they were crisp, sweet, cinnamony, and perfect. The top two photos here are the sugar/cinnamon sticks.

Thrilled with the results above, we immediately took out more puff pastry and instead of sugar and cinnamon, we put grated queso de bola (leftovers from the holidays!) and cracked black pepper. This seemed like a great idea, but I find the cheese melted and provided a bit too much moisture so the resulting sticks, while very good, weren’t as crisp as the sugary ones. Also, you have to put a LOT of cheese or season further with salt. Maybe next time I would add some dried herbs as well.

The crew are getting immune to all of my crazed experiments in the kitchen, and several are on diets after blood tests revealed we all have to watch blood numbers, so you know what you’ve cooked is pretty good when four sheets of pastry are wiped out before the end of the day… :) And they took any leftovers home to their families. These are easy yet delicious appetizers or dessert items for your family or a crowd of visitors. Definitely have to remember this for holiday entertaining. Thanks Artisan for the puff pastry… the experiments shall continue. :)

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