Fresh Strawberry Puff Pastry Dessert
The strawberry patch was slow going on this property. At our last place, the many varieties of strawberry we planted, took over like wildfire in the span of two summers and rivaled the rhubarb and mint for aggressively invading the yard. Then we moved to the prairie, which is the land of no shade, and the berry patch has been a slow project requiring endless tending. This dry, windy field of endless grass won’t even allow an aggressive invasive species to thrive without a lot of babying.
So, when I say these strawberries were highly valued, I am not kidding. The return on labor investment has not been good on the farm this year with such a bad drought. Add in the poor air quality due to all the wildfire smoke and we are lucky we managed to get anything. (The corn has done poorly as well, but that is another topic.) With few strawberries so very precious, it seemed fitting to give them some tribute in a recipe. It is a very simple dessert, but are simple ones not the best?
A Very Easy Strawberry Puff Pastry
- 1 sheet puff pastry just thawed
- 2 cups strawberries with centers hulled
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoon flour
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Flour your flat surface with that wee bit of flour we mentioned. Roll the pastry dough out to thin it out a bit. Basically, just make the square a bit bigger so the dough is more spacious.
We baked a few kiwi pastries to complement the strawberry pastries
Cut the pastry sheet into square quarters.
Slice the four corners of the square, as well as the edges so that each square has 8 dough flaps to fold over.
Place on a baking tray covered in parchment paper.
Slice fresh strawberries.
Arrange strawberry slices on pastry squares with the slices overlapping a bit. Each square should fit about 6 strawberry slices.
Sprinkle a bit of sugar over berries.
Make sure there is an inch and a half of edge remaining.
Crack your egg and whisk it in bowl with a tablespoon of water.
Using a basting brush, dab egg on edge of each dough flap.
Fold over pastry corners one over the next until all flaps are folded making a shallow bowl around the strawberries.
Brush the rest of the pastry with a bit of egg and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until pastry is golden around the edges begin toasting.
Remove from oven.
Some notes:
With frozen puff pastry, I find it does not really brown unless you baste it with butter or an egg wash. If you decide to skip this step, ignore the browned edges advice and just take them out when the time is up.
I definitely suggest using the parchment paper. Otherwise, it is possible you might destroy your pastries trying to get them off the tray if your fruit bubbled over. Unless, of course, you have those nifty silicone sheets.
If you are really, really smart, you will buy your food from a supermarket instead of trying to subsistence farm in a tundra. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.