The Versatile Puff Pastry

A recent discovery of mine has been working with puff pastry. Such a variety of recipes can be prepared in a flash if you keep a box of puff pastry in your freezer. It can be used for both savory or sweet dishes. In the savory category, I have used puff pastry as a topping for chicken pot pies and also as a base to serve a creamed seafood medley. Granted, it's a fairly high caloric splurge, what with all the layers of flour and butter, but isn't it worth it to indulge once in awhile?

Included in this entry are two desserts I made over the past couple months. One is a simple turnover and the only trick to this is to make sure the pastry is cut in fairly exact squares, otherwise it is difficult to keep the filling encased. (I learned this the hard way). I filled mine with some wonderful prepared cherry filling. It is important to brush the edges of the turnover with egg wash and press them closed with a fork. Bake 20 minutes or so at 350Degrees or until they are golden and puffed.
The other dessert is an apple tart. This was even easier than the turnover. All that is needed are some nice, tart cooking applies (I used Romes and Granny Smiths) cut into eights. These were placed on top of the squares of puff pastry, sprinkled with a bit of cinnamon, brown sugar and a dollop of butter (because there just isn't enough butter in the pastry!) and baked until the pastry was golden and the apples were soft. So French and so delicious.