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Apricot Walnut Palmiers

This is my take on a baklava-inspired puff pastry sweet appetizer… I wanted to do something completely nutty in the filling, but taking advantage of the unsulfured dried fruits available when I travel to the US, I decided to look for a recipe using dried fruit.

I started out with Giada’s Apricot Walnut Phyllo cups, but to make it easy on me, I would do palmiers out of puff pastry. I usually do not use orange zest in my cooking because I find it too bitter for my taste, but the crowd seemed to like it a lot. It brought out the apricot taste even more.

APRICOT WALNUT PALMIERS

1 1/2 cups dried apricots, unsulfured preferably, chopped a bit

1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon orange zest, from 1 large orange, plus more for garnish, optional,

2 tablespoons fresh orange juice

2 sheets puff pastry, thawed

In the bowl of a food processor mix together the dried apricots, walnuts, honey, orange juice and zest. Pulse a few times so it creates a choppy mixture.
Open the puffed pastry (which comes folded in three). Place some flour onto a clean surface and flour the rolling pin too. Roll out the pastry so that it loses the creases where the folds were.
Spread the apricot walnut mixture in an even layer leaving a border on one edge.
Start rolling from the farthest edge from the border you left without filling. Roll the pastry onto itself until you create a log. If you prefer to make them in palmier form, roll them from two opposites sides until the 2 rolls meet somewhere in the middle.
Repeat with the second pastry. Place logs in the fridge covered with a moist paper towel for about 10-15 minutes or until you’re ready to bake them. This is important for the pastry to harden a bit again. It’ll be easier to cut if the pastry is cold than if it is at room temp.
Slice the logs into ½ inch pieces. Place onto a baking sheet. I put some organic sugar on top, but I did not love how those turned out, but I forgot to take a pic without it.
Bake in a 425F oven for about 10-12 minutes, until the pastry is puffed and golden delicious.

I suggest that if you have leftovers, heat them back a bit in a toaster oven… This will soften the apricots in the filling, which tend to harden when they’re colder.

Next time… I promise to make the nut only mixture I envisioned originally. But these ones were a nice twist on my original idea…

Tags: apricot, food, honey, puff pastry, unsulphured, vegetarian, walnuts

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Categories appetizers, desserts

Soyrizo Apricot Quesadilla

24 Oct

My dear friends Angie and Ana are taking these cooking classes on Wednesday nights… I am not participating because these classes are not vegetarian and I would not be able to cook or actually taste almost anything they make. But the ideas their teacher shares are quite good sometimes and I like to vegetarianize them to be able to enjoy them.

Such is the case with a croissant idea filled with chorizo and apricot jam… Refrigerated croissant dough does not come in whole wheat form, unfortunately. So I decided to make-over the recipe given to me by Angie into a quesadilla.

Never been too fond of Mexican chorizo… I much preferred Spanish chorizo. But this Soyrizo tastes like the Mexican version with strong cumin notes. I take it easy with this soyrizo because after my first trip to India, I developed a strong aversion to cumin. For years I was not able to taste cumin or even smell it up close. Now I’m better, but I am still not a cumin fan.

What I do love about this recipe is the salty/sweet combination… and it has a very rich flavor, so be prudent and don’t over stuff your quesadilla.

SOYRIZO APRICOT QUESADILLA

1 FlatOut flatbread or whole wheat tortilla

2 handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese

1 ½ tbs of apricot jam

About 2 inches of soyrizo

2 large scallion, chopped finely

2 tbs softened butter

2 tsps brown sugar

Butter-flavored spray

Olive oil

In a small non-stick skillet over medium high heat, with a tad bit of olive oil, cook the soyrizo. Start moving it around allowing it to brown on one side before mixing it up and moving it around. It will cook and brown until it turns into crumbles. Set aside.
Pre-heat toaster oven to 425F.
In a baking sheet, spray butter-flavored oil to make sure your tortilla or flatbread does not stick. Place your flatbread halfway in the pan.
Start mounting the fillings… spread most of the apricot jam on the bottom half of your quesadilla. Add the cheese, the crumbled cooked soyrizo, the scallions and a tad bit additional apricot jam if you wish. Fold the tortilla to create a half moon. Press it lightly to make it all “stick together”.
Spread some softened butter on top of tortilla or flatbread and sprinkle some brown sugar on top.
Place in oven for about 5-7 minutes. The cheese will melt, the fillings will fuse together and the top will get brown and crunchy. Take it out if the oven and allow a few minutes for the cheese to cool down.
Cut into wedges and enjoy…