Strudel.

We were at Costco the other night and Ben wanted a box of strudels.

I was like, " ppssshhhh! I can totally make that!"

So no strudel for Ben.

I had a box of puff pastry left over from a previous project, a can of wild berry pie filling, and some cream cheese, you know that weird amount left over from doing a cheesecake or something? The tub of cream cheese is more than an 8 ounce brick, but not enough for another recipe! Make me crazy!

Anywhooo, I spread out my puff pastry on a Silpat lined cookie sheet, parchment paper works great too, and you don't have to wash it, bonus! (we're not exactly tree-huggers here)

I then spread out the remainder of the cream cheese into the middle section of the pastry.

Spoon about 1/2 of the can of pie filling on top of the cream cheese.

I sliced the edges and braided the sides of the pastry sheet into the middle. 

Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 450 until puffy and golden brown. Around 30 minutes.

Set aside and let cool.

While I was trying a bite letting it cool down, I found a recipe for an easy Creme Anglaise sauce.

You can find the recipe here.

My bit o'green. No pinching.

I was thinking of ways that this could be Irish and fit in with my St.Patty's day theme, but strudel is German. Buuuuuut it's filled with field berries, and Ireland has fields so there must be berries there, therefore this is an Irish Fieldberry Strudel. 

Creme Anglaise topping. 

I dare you to challenge me on this.
But don't.
I don't like confrontation.

Je'taime Mon Petite Coeur

I am basically in love with all things french. I think there's a term for it, but I don't want to use it wrong then look like an idiot. So instead I pretend to know how to speak french and do a post title en francais.

This is common knowledge to my close people. Once I got 3 of the same toast stamps, which is a stamp that you press onto your toast leaving an imprint of the Eiffel Tower so you can have 'french' toast (I know! how flippin' cute is that?) . PS. I bought one too.

I have in fact been to Paris, if you can call 3 days, actually being in Paris. I'm holding on to that, so please don't try and take it away from me! I am determined to go back one day and spend a little more time than 72 hours of frantic racing around.

So right now, I am vicariously living in France through some baking, buying almost anything with french writing or an Eiffel Tower on it in sight. This includes shirts, art, clothes for my little girls, subtitled movies and keeping all my food in the fridge and pantry turned around so the french labels all face out. 

 In keeping with the french spirit of things, such as love and pastry, I whipped up my easiest treat yet! And when I say 'my' I mean my baking hero, Heather from Sprinkle Bakes. She's one of a kind, Artist/Baker, who is taking the foodie world by storm. And she also is kind and answers my stupid questions really fast!  If you click on the link above, it'll take you right to her site and the recipe for her French Palmiers. If you don't want the recipe, you should just go to her site simply for her pictures, they are art all on their own.

So here they are, my version of the French Palmiers, made in to hearts (shocking, right?).

What you need:

1 package of puff pastry, thawed.

1/2 - 1 cup of sugar.

Rolling pin

Spread 1/2 of your sugar on to a cutting board (I like to use a cutting board simply for easy clean up, but you can use your counter top too.)

Spread out your puff pastry on top of the sugar.

Put the remainder of your sugar on top of the puff pastry.

Roll out the sugar-covered pastry until its 1/4 " thick, or resembles a large rectangle.

Roll the sided into each other, until they meet in the middle.

Flip over your tube of pastry and slice into 1/2 " slices.

Place your slices on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

I unrolled mine just a little and pinched the middle so my cookies resembles hearts.

Put in a 450 degree oven for 4 minutes, spin your pan around and bake for another 4 minutes. Best to stay around and watch them juuuuuust in case, that's one hot oven.

The only thing I actually did differently was that I didn't flip my cookies over. I've tried it that way, it just hasn't worked for me, these have been my best batch to date.

So crunchy and flaky.

I love these cookies!