Spinach and Feta Puff Pastry Bites

I had friends over for a little festive gathering a few weeks ago and I was trying to come up with some appetizers that I hadn't made a million times before. I had some frozen spinach in the freezer and a three pack of cream cheese in the fridge so I came up with this tasty treat. I just kind of made it up based on what I had on hand.

Spinach and Feta Puff Pastry Bites
makes 24
preheat oven to 425F

• 1/2 package (4 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1 package chopped fozen spinach, thawed and well drained
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

Combine the cream cheese and mayo in a large bowl. Add the spinach and garlic and stir to combine. Stir in feta and pepper. Set aside while you prepare the puff pastry.

Unroll thawed pastry and cut into 25 2x2 inch squares. The pastry I buy (President's Choice) is usually 10x10 so it's quite easy. I always pull out the tape measure just in case. If you can't get the pastry into a square, just cut into 25 relatively even pieces.

Put each square into one well of a mini muffin tin. You'll have one square of pastry leftover. I find I always manage to mangle at least one in the process anyway.

Fill each cup with about a tablespoon of the spinach mixture. I used my trusty tablespoon scoop once again and it made the whole process really quick. At this point you can put them in the fridge until your guests arrive or throw them straight into the oven.

Bake at 425 for about 10-15 minutes until the pastry puffs and is lightly golden. Cool for a few minutes in the pan and enjoy!

This also works really well with prepared dips. I've done it with artichoke dip topped with a little mozzarella cheese. You could also use prepared spinach dip or any other dip you like and would normally serve warm. This technique is one of my go-to, super easy appetizers.

What kind of dip would you bake up in puff pastry?

Strawberry Rhubarb Turnovers

Last weekend I was lucky enough to come across local rhubarb and strawberries at the grocery store. I figured neither one was going to be around for too much longer so I'd better take advantage while I could. I wanted to make something tasty that wasn't too complicated so I decided to try my hand at turnovers. 

 

I started off with frozen puff pastry from the grocery store. I may be an adventurous  baker but even I'm not crazy enough to try to make my own puff pastry. Especially in the summer...in a tiny kitchen with weak air conditioning. Then I made a strawberry rhubarb compote to use for the filling. Basically just a mix of chopped strawberries and rhubarb, some sugar, a little cornstarch and a bit of water. Most recipes I came across mentioned cutting the sheet of pastry into 4 and making large turnovers. I decided I wanted to have more to share so I cut each sheet into 16. After putting them together, I can see why they suggest the larger squares. The process was very messy but the taste was probably the same. 

A lot of them exploded but the filling was easily stuffed back in

A little egg wash and large crystal sugar topped things off

I thought these were delicious. I nice small treat. They did lose their crispiness after they were stored overnight but they were still tasty. If I were to make them again I think I would definitely try out the larger size. I think it might be easier and you'd definitely get more filling per turnover. I froze some of them after assembly and I'm going to try to bake them from frozen some day when I need a little pick me up. Hopefully they'll work out just as well that way.