Looks May Be Deceiving

It looks like I made croissants again, doesn’t it? These gems are most certainly golden, flakey and buttery but they were also cranked out in about an hour. Now unless I’ve developed some sort of time defying powers, these are not croissants. I’ve got many powers, but defying time is unfortunately not one of them. I made these delicacies out of leftover puff pastry that has been hibernating in my freezer since I made the Gateau St Honore with the Daring Bakers. I simply took the puff pastry out of the freezer the night before and then rolled it out in the morning to bake with. Instead of using flour to keep my pastry from sticking to the counter and rolling pin I used sugar and quite frankly, that was a fantastic idea. Since there’s no sugar in the puff pastry itself, the extra dusting wasn’t overly sweet and was just right.

The imitation croissants were filled with bittersweet chocolate and cinnamon. The pinwheel pastries were filled with white chocolate and raspberry jam. Both were then baked in the oven at 350F. The pinwheels took about 20 minutes and the croissants a little bit longer, probably 25 minutes. The end result was a huge success and the pastries disappeared quickly. I don’t think you can go wrong with puff pastry, the possibility for fillings is endless and if the dough is already made these treats can be whipped up in no time. I had come up with lots of ideas for fillings that I didn’t get to use, (like putting the dough into muffin tins and filling them with butter tart filling or making mini tarts with pastry cream and fresh strawberries) so I think I’m going to have to make some more puff pastry. I suppose I could buy some as well, but where’s the fun in that?

If you’re not already in the kitchen making puff pastry to recreate these treats, then read on to find out more about me. I’ve been tagged by Minh at Couture Cupcakes to reveal 7 things you don’t know about me. So without further ado:

• I like elephants. I’m not entirely sure why, I just do. It probably has something to do with the fact that neither of us were ever little nor will we ever find cute shoes to fit our feet.

• Unlike many children who sucked their thumb, I sucked on my index and middle fingers but only when I had my blue blanket which I carried around everywhere I went, (not unlike Linus from Charlie Brown).

• After a 12 year hiatus, I’ve taken up tennis again. It’s fun.

• If I see a turtle on the road I feel obligated to stop and help them cross, this was inherited from my Dad who is a dedicated turtle-saver. Sometimes we get there too late, like the day we were waiting on the side of the road for traffic to pass so we could go to the centre line and help a wee turtle to safety. There was a long line of traffic with a transport truck at the end of it. As the truck barreled past, it clipped the edge of the turtles’ shell which propelled the turtle high up into the air and well into the adjacent field. If anyone tries to tell you that turtles can’t fly, they’re wrong. That turtle was something special.

• I’m a pretty proficient backwards runner, not so much forwards.

• I have horrible balance and can fall over while standing still.

• I want to travel around the world visiting food bloggers, (food blog readers too). If you’d like to put me up for a few days, I’ll cook for you. Let me know if you’re interested…

If you want to brush up more facts about me, here are some past memes where I’ve divulged way too much information:

Sara of I like to Cook asks me 5 questions here.

Scott of Real Epicurean asks for 5 things about me here.

ArtizenFlair asks me questions that require 3 answers each here.

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Puff Pastry + Baking + Meme + Chocolate