It's flaky, it's light and it goes with anything. What else could it be? Puff pastry, the queen of all pastries. It is one of the most versatile pastries and can be baked in so many different ways with so many different flavours...every time coming out on top! No matter how you present it or accompany it, in the end you will be left with a sensational treat, whether it be a lunch time snack, afternoon-tea bite or the main man of an exceptional main meal. It will be enjoyed no matter what by everyone who sets taste buds on it.
After considering all of the different flavour combinations and ways of presenting puff pastry, I finally decided on what I wanted to bake today. I was eager to prove to myself that I could produce sophisticated, elegant yet widely appreciated bakes, and I thought making some little puff pastry treats would do this. I decided to make two different products today. I made Raspberry Cream Slices as well as mini White Chocolate and Summer Berry Tartlets. Due to lack of time and practise I opted for using ready-made puff pastry (Jus-Rol), however if you would prefer to make your own you can do using your own recipe, or the one I have included further on in this post.
Firstly, I made the Raspberry Cream Slices. To do this I simply rolled out my ready made pastry until it was about 2" thick. Then I cut the pastry into rectangles, 7.5cmX11.5cm. You can make them whatever size you fancy, big or small. I personally think this size is perfect for being served as a dessert. I baked in batches of four, simply because my tray wasn't big enough to fit anymore on, however you can try and fit as many as you want on your tray and in your oven to save you the time. I checked them after 10 minutes, as the guidelines I used stated that's how long I should bake them for, however I found that leaving them in for a couple more minutes did the trick nicely. I cooled them once baked, meanwhile making my chantille cream. Now, chantille cream sounds extremely posh and sophisticated, however a 3 year old could make this with their eyes closed. Take double cream, whip it, add vanilla essence...that's it. Within a matter of seconds your double cream has turned into chantille cream, simply by adding a drop or two of vanilla essence. It's that easy. I promise! Usually, whenever I make something that isn't already sweetened I add a few tablespoons of icing sugar to the cream just to add that slight excitement for the taste buds as your tongue closes on the airy mixture in your mouth. I had previously bought some raspberry jam with the seeds in to use, you can use any jam you like...in fact any filling you like, and if you chose jam it can be seedless. I beat the jam for a couple of seconds to loosen it up ready to spread on the pastry slices. I cut each pastry slice in half horizontally and spread one half with cream and one half with jam before sandwiching them together. I did this to every one of them, leaving me with 10 Raspberry Cream Slices. I dusted them with icing sugar and served them piled up on a plate.
I personally think, that after trying my Raspberry Cream Slices, I should have used strawberry jam as I think that would have worked better with the chantille cream. I would also have used seedless jam because I found that the seeds made the product overall seem less sophisticated and more rustic, which was not really the idea I was going for. The only other aspect of this bake that I would change...well...it isn't really a change; more like something I would add to it to improve its absolute total deliciousness. I would add some royal icing on top each one to add to the sweetness of it and to add a smooth texture against the flaky pastry, bitty jam and airy cream, as well as using pink royal icing to create a feathered effect on top which would simply enhance the appearance of it. This would make these fancy little treats even more fit for tea with the queen.
For the White Chocolate and Summer Berry Tartlets, again, I rolled out the puff pastry and using a circular cutter (diameter 4cm) I cut out circles and again baked them for about 12 minutes. When these baked, because they were small and circular they formed small spheres, with could be cut in half to form hemispheres (half of a sphere). I did this, and due to the puff pastry layers, they were hollow inside allowing me to fill them with anything I liked. While the bases of my tartlets cooled I gathered the left over chantille cream and cracked on making a white chocolate ganache. To make the ganache, I heated double cream until almost boiling while I broke up white chocolate into a bowl. I was cautious not to make to cream boil as if this happens, the desired glossy, shine will be lost from the finished ganache. Once the cream has reached the stage just before boiling, I poured it over the chocolate in the bowl and allowed the heat of the cream to melt the chocolate. After a minute, I encouraged the chocolate to melt and combine with the cream by folding and stirring gently with a wooden spoon. I made sure there were no lumps of chocolate left before putting the ganache in the fridge to thicken up slightly. While the ganache was thickening, I spooned the cream into a piping bag fit with a large star shaped nozzle and in each hemisphere I piped a gem of cream. I then retrieved my ganache and using a teaspoon (you could use a piping bag) I added one spoon of the creamy, glossy, glue-like mixture on top of each tartlet. To finished I simply added a raspberry and blueberry to each one and dusted lightly with icing sugar. And there I had it, two easy, simple yet sophisticated pastry treats.
Both of these sweet pastries are perfect for afternoon tea, fund raising events, desserts or even as a small snack to nibble on among all the mayhem of your day. They're light, tasty full of satisfaction for all ages. Although they appear sophisticated and more suited to adults rather than children, I find that they would be perfect as an extra special treat for children. I've found from my own experience that as long as it's sweet, children will eat it and the addition of summer berries is a great way to get them to eat fruit. Almost any sweet, baked product can have a fruit addition added to it as a way of encouraging children to eat healthily in amongst the tasty goodness that they're more than willing to eat.
Here are the recipes for the two bakes as well as an easy puff pastry recipe if you would prefer to make your own but don't have your own recipe. The Raspberry Cream Slice recipe includes ingredients that I would have used if I had applied the changes and additions that I think would have enhanced the product's overall quality.
Raspberry (strawberry) Cream Slices:
1 block Jus-Rol Puff Pastry
150ml double cream
1tsp vanilla extract
2tbsp icing sugar
5tbsp strawberry jam (seedless)
5tbsp icing sugar
Warm water (enough to dissolve the sugar to create a royal icing, if you add too much it will be too runny)
Pink food colouring
White Chocolate and Summer Berry Tartlets:
1 block Jus-Rol Puff Pastry
Left over chantille cream from the Raspberry Cream Slices
100ml double cream
100g white chocolate
Raspberries
Blueberries
Puff Pastry:
225g plain flour
1/2tsp salt
250g cold, unsalted butter
150ml ice cold water
What to do to make puff pastry:
Firstly, sift the flour into a bowl and cube your butter using a knife.
Stir the butter into the flour using a round bladed knife until every cube is covered in flour.
Pour in the water and quickly use the knife to bring everything together to form a rough dough.
Gather the dough with your hands and turn out onto your floured work bench. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15minutes.
Take your dough out of the fridge and begin rolling. Roll it out in one direction until 1cm thick, and three times as long as it is wide.
Fold the bottom third of the pastry up, and the top third down so that it over laps the bottom third that has just been folded up. You should now have three layers of pastry.
Press the sides of the pastry down so that it is all compressed again.
Repeat the process four times.
Chill the pastry for two hours before using.
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