Cooking Tip of the Day: Recipe: Red Raspberry and White Chocolate Cream Pastries

These Red Raspberry and White Chocolate Cream Pastries are made of flaky puff pastry dough with a filling of sweet white chocolate cream cheese and red raspberries….. deliciously indulgent… a wonderful dessert or as we had it.. as a breakfast pastry… with coffee.. a fabulous way to start the day!

Pastry recipes seem difficult and they certainly can be… my Grandmother was so good at making light and flaky pastry that my efforts pale in comparison… actually truth be told … there is no comparison… but as Warren would say.. practice makes perfect… or so he hopes that I practice.

Well… this recipe was a snap to make and turned out extremely well… I did cheat.. I used frozen puff pastry… we are so fortunate today to have the convenience items at the store that our Grandmothers didn’t have. … and while it isn’t close to the quality of my Grandmother’s pastry… it is very good.

Trust me… frozen puff pastry is your friend… not only does it eliminate the hours of work… it comes out pretty darn good. I try to keep a package in the freezer.. it makes making impromptu desserts a snap.

This recipe is slightly adapted from a recipe from the folks at Pepperidge Farms.

TIPS

Sometimes the pastry dough just doesn’t unfold like it should… I just roll it out to the size I need.. I have never had a problem with it turning out flaky and just fine.

I have a ruler I keep in the kitchen.. this way I can measure the dough exactly and roll it out to the size specified in the recipe… there are pastry boards with measurements on it that are handy as well.

Be careful placing the 3 inch cutter (I used a biscuit cutter) on your dough…. the dough when rolled out to the indicated size will make exactly 12 circles per sheet… actually.. I wasn’t careful and ended up with 19 circles instead.. I had waste… I could have rolled the scraps and then cut more circles, but didn’t….

Didn’t plan ahead? Need to soften the cream cheese quickly? See my post for directions how to soften cream cheese quickly.

The original recipe directions said to put a tablespoon of filling on each pastry dough circle… if you do that you will run out of filling… I used a measuring spoon to spoon out the filling.. and used about ½ - ¾ of a tablespoon.

I put about a tablespoon and a half of Smucker’s Seedless Red Raspberry jam in a measuring cup and microwaved it for about 10 seconds or so to melt it. Then I put the fresh raspberries in a small bowl and tossed them with the melted jam.. just enough to coat them.. I think it balances out the tartness of the berries better than just using the raspberries.

Remember to use the beaten egg wash around the edge of the dough circle to seal the dough… otherwise… this will happen to your pastry.. the top will slide right off.

Pinch the pastries then crimp them with a fork.. don’t fret if they don’t look perfect when you do it.. they will bake and smooth out naturally.. in fact the crimping will all but disappear anyway… but do it to help seal them closed.

Don’t panic if they leak… they will look just fine when removed from the pan.. in fact they look a little like little jelly donuts.

Use Demara sugar to sprinkle over the tops.. it adds a great little sweet crunch and gives them a professional look. You can find it in the grocery store by the other sugars. For information about Demerara sugar see my post about it.

Beware.. you can’t eat just one!

Recipe: Red Raspberry and White Chocolate Cream Pastries

All you need:

1 pkg. (17.3 ounces) Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets, thawed
Sprinkling of all-purpose flour (for the board)
½ of an 8 ounce pkg. of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, softened
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ cup white chocolate chips
1 pkg. (6 ounces) fresh raspberries
1 ½ tablespoons Smucker’s Seedless red Raspberry Jam
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoons Demerara Sugar (see Tips)

All you need to do:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Microwave the seedless raspberry jam in a microwaveable bowl until just melted.

Place the raspberries in a small bowl and toss with the melted jam …then set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese and the sugar until smooth. Stir in the white chocolate chips and set it aside.

Beat the egg and water in a small bowl and set aside.

Lightly sprinkle flour on a work surface and roll out a pastry sheet to a 12 inch square. Using a 3 inch round cutter, cut circles out of the dough… you should get 10-12 circles. Repeat with the other pastry sheet.