Puff Piece

Are you a fan of frozen puff pastry? If you're not, I think you should reconsider. If you've never used it, then get thee to the market! I consider myself a decent baker. Not good, mind you, just decent. I can, thanks to my pop, Jack, finally make a homemade pie crust worthy of the Thanksgiving table. Dave and I make several kinds of great cookies. I can bake a cake, a loaf of bread and cinnamon rolls, too. However, I am self-actualized enough to know that I'm just not able (read: patient enough) to make croissants or puff pastry. Thus, my love for frozen puff pastry abounds!

It's perfect and delicious. My favorite use is as the top to a chicken pot pie. You'll be seeing some of the many sized chicken pies we make at my house once the weather cools down a bit. We also love to use the pastry sheets to make pockets filled with delicious and sometimes unexpected flavors. For last week's labor day picnic we wanted to take something sweet, easy to transport, and easy to eat. So here's what we did:

That up there is thawed puff pastry as the base (cut into strips), filled with two slices of crisp Granny Smith apple, a half dollar-sized piece of triple cream cheese (we used St. Andre), and smeared with fig jam that had been cooked with a splash of cognac. Just egg wash the edges, fold over, and fork closed the three seams. Add another coating of egg wash on top then bake until golden. That, my friends, is a seriously hot pocket!