Heart Pastries 4 My Valentine

We typically don't do much on Valentine's Day. I usually make dinner and this year I made a pepper-crusted filet mignon with veggies for dinner. And for dessert...I made these heart pastries because it's obligatory to make something heart-shaped on this "holiday." I filled them with peaches and brown sugar, popped them in the oven until they were golden and he ate them up. I have to admit, I did also cut his apples into heart shapes for breakfast - and yes, he enjoys these things...that's why I do them!

* These photos were taken on my phone because I'm not using the DSLR when I'm working with flour!

Leek & Gruyere Pastries

I made these pastries twice this week. I made it twice because it was delicious. J really liked it and sent me this email while he was at work today:

Subject: Thinking about...
Message: ..my breakfast pastry w/ bacon thingy.  Can't wait to eat it tonight.  Haha.. ;)

Yeah. He already had breakfast with his mom when I pulled these out of the oven this morning. Needless to say he had two after work today.

This recipe is also from Food & Wine Fast. Which, I love - because the recipes really are fast and don't take much effort and will turn out delicious.

Ingredients:
Frozen Puff Pastry (thawed)
1 Leek
Shredded Gruyere cheese
3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto (in my case, cubed ham - it's what I had in the fridge)
1 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. On a floured surface, roll out the pastry puff. Cut into 4 equal squares. Fold the corners and edges.
2.  In a skillet, heat the olive oil until shimmering. Add the leeks and thyme, season with salt & pepper and cook over moderate heat, stirring until softened (about 5 minutes).
3. Sprinkle half the gruyere cheese over the pastry, spread the leeks over the cheese. Cover with proscuitto (or ham, whatever); sprinkle the remaining cheese. Season with s&p.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden or bubbling. Blot any excess fat with a paper towel. Enjoy!

Peach & Cheese Danish

It's summertime, and I get a lot of free fruits from people. I love it! But, a (good) problem I have is that I get so many that I can't finish. So, I make fun things like this danish. It was so good and easy for a Friday night. Easier because I used store-bought puff pastry.

Caramelize the peaches:
2 peaches sliced (I had white peaches)
3 tablespoons butter
1.5 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Melt the butter over low heat. Add sugar and peaches. Turn up heat slightly and cook peaches about 5 minutes or until caramelized.

Make cream cheese filling:
4 oz. light cream cheese (room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
sugar (I don't remember how much I used, maybe 2 tablespoons)

Thaw the puff pastry according to the instructions on the box. Dunno why, but I had some problems separating the sheet (first time ever). So, I threw some flour on it and rolled it out. I cut them into 6 pieces (2 large pastries and 4 smaller pastries).

I formed the pastry shapes by pulling the edges up for the filling.

Top with the caramelized peaches:

Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden.

Let cool and enjoy with your favorite beverage.

Peach Tartlets

I've been getting so much free fruit this summer that it's becoming a challenge for me to eat them all. In this case, it would be some super ripe peaches (I used 2 for this recipe). I try my best not to waste good food, so I decide to make some peach tartlets.

They turned out really good, like something you'd pick up at a bakery - yum. The boyfriend-wouldn't-even-share-his-last-bite-with-me good.

Start out making the dough for the pastry crust.

Pastry Dough:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter

5 Tbsp. cold water

Instructions:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in medium bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is size of fine crumbs. Stir in water until dough forms with wooden spoon. Knead dough just until it forms a ball with some flour. Shape into flat circle, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate (I left it in the fridge overnight).

Peach Filling:
2 large ripe peaches (I don't like peach peel, so I got rid of it, but it's perfectly fine if you want to leave the peel on your peaches)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp pumpkin spice
1 Tbsp butter

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat butter. When it foams, add sliced peaches and sugar. cook until peaches are soft, flipping once. Set aside.

Roll out dough and cut into small circles. Using your fingers, fold up the edges of the dough.

Place the peaches into the dough along with a couple spoonfuls of liquid.

* brush with eggwash (I forgot to do this) and sprinkle with a little sugar (optional)

Bake in oven until crust is brown, about 35 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy!