Lately I’ve been baking (unfortunately for Ever So Sweet not here), working and watching tennis which hasn’t left a lot of time for blogging. There are photos piling up on my memory card of recipes waiting to be edited and written about but I’m getting back in to a routine so it’s all good! Later in the week I’ll post a wee round up of what I’ve baked so far for my small home-baking business and you can let me know what you think 🙂
For now though, I have a wonderfully simple recipe which can be thrown together in minutes to deliver a lovely, light dessert that just screams summer. All you need is puff pastry (I used ready made *gasp*), marscapone, a lemon and fruit. A little sugar or honey for a finishing touch would be perfect too.
I whipped these up one afternoon before a dinner party at a friends. My mission was to bring a light dessert. It’s like I have a reputation for making rich, decadent food or something? I had lot’s of lovely fruit in my fridge along with some marscapone which needed a purpose and pastry generally makes everything better, so these pastries were born!
Once roasted the fruit takes on a deep, sweet flavour with a slight caramalised edge. The tangy marscapone layer brightens the flavours and the flaky pasrty makes for the perfect bed to hold everything. Put these little pastries together in the morning, leave them in the fridge them bake them off for 10 minutes when you need them later in the evening. Served with some cold cream or ice cream and you have a delicious summery pudding.
If you buy a roll of ready make pastry this can be cut in half length-ways then make four cut along the shorter length to give you eight rectangular pastries.
Score a border around the edge to encourage the edge to rise and create a lip to hold in the filling then spread with the cheese and lemon mix.
Top with whichever fresh fruit you have.
Either sprinkle the fruit with granulated sugar or drizzle with honey for a little extra sweetness.
- Fresh fruit of your choice - I used a handful of strawberries, one nectarine and one apple
- 1/3 cup marscapone
- Zest of 1 lemon
- One packet of ready rolled puff pastry
- 1 egg
- Sugar or honey to top
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C, 170 degrees fan. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper and set aside.
- Prepare the fruit - for apples, pears or stone fruits slice in to thin segments. Strawberries should be cup in to thin slices but other berries can be left whole.
- In a small bowl, stir the lemon zest and marscapone together and set aside.
- Remove the puff pastry for the packet and unroll. With a sharp knife slice the pastry in half along the long length. Then slice the pastry along the shorter length to quarters to give you eight pastries in total.
- Score a border in to the pastry, being careful not to cut all the way through.
- Spread the marscapone mixture within the central area of the pastry, being careful not to spread on to the border you have just cut. Lay out the fruit in a single layer on each pastry.
- Whisk together one egg and brush over the visible pastry.
- Sprinkle the whole pastry with sugar, or drizzle the fruit with honey before placing on to the prepared baking tray.
- Bake for about 10 minutes, until the pasty is puffed and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven. If serving immediately place on to serving plate and top with cream or ice cream to serve. If storing for later, remove from the baking tray and allow to cool on a wire rack.
- Pastry can be eaten cold - that would make a delicious weekend breakfast - or reheated in an oven at 170 degrees for 8-10 minutes.