Trader Joe's Frozen Puff Pastry is the best (made with real butter) - puts Pepperidge Farms to .

C

cactussue

Well-known member
shame, in my opinion.

I made some mini-turnovers - (The pastry comes in two squares separated by paper) - cut the pastry into rounds, spread some raspberry jam on each, topped with chopped, ripe pears, folded over, baked at 400 for about 10-12 minutes, dusted with powdered sugar. My husband and I ate the whole sheet pan full in under an hour.(Not sure if that's a good thing to admit or not.)

I've since returned to TJ's, bought six more boxes, and thought I would try apricot jam topped with apples sprinkled with cinnamon sugar next.

I also thought this pastry is going to be great on my next homemade chicken pot pie or sausage/potato/apple casserole I make.

Just thought I would pass this along.

 
Bummer, I just tried PF and was pretty happy with it. We have no TJ's here, so I was ignorant

in my bliss.

I had made super-fudgy dark chocolate/apricot brownies (almost no flour in them) and cut them into little 1/2" cubes. Cut the puff pastry into 2" squares, smeared with a smidgen of pineapple cream cheese and topped with a square of brownies. Lifted up a corner and brought it over the top of the brownies, pressing only the very edges to seal. Baked the box temp and they turned out like puffy, little chocolate coissants.

Yummy. Took one bite and gave the rest to Lar. I know when I'm facing WW Will-Power devastation.

Now I want to try TJ's to compare!

 
Wow - that sounds like an incredible dessert! I've got to try it. Which brownie recipe

did you use? Apricots sound intriguing!
I admire your will power! I, unfortunately, have none.

 
Alice Medrich's. It's a funny recipe where you bake, then immediately plunge the pan in ice water

to stop it from baking anymore.

I had marinated small pieces of diced dried apricots in DiSaranno amaretto that I blotted, then added to the brownie mixture before baking.

I only added the cream cheese because I was worried the high heat might do something to the chocolate square, so I added the cold cream cheese spread. It was actually a very nice combination.

I'll dig up the recipe.

 
Dufour's is also wonder & all butter (frozen). It is available at Central Market. Also try

making palmiers with parmesan & pepper instead of sugar. Great with drinks.

 
Alice Medrich's Classic New Brownie...check link plus look at my notes inside.

This recipe was originally posted in her Bittersweet cookbook. Then a much simpler version was posted in her Christmas Dessert cookbook.

A KEY MISSING bit of information in the linked recipe is that you need to heat the chocolate/butter to 150 degrees before adding the sugar. Bittersweet tells you that, but the Christmas book doesn't.

This simpler recipe is all over the Internet and several people commented that their attempt was delicious, but gritty. I think if you don't heat up the chocolate enough, it doesn't stay hot long enough to melt the sugar.

Also, you have to beat the eggs (one at a time) until the chocolate pulls away from the edge of the bowl...another step ignored in the simplified recipe version.

Anyway, I was saved by a dear person HERE who told me those extra steps. My brownies weren't gritty at all.

Good luck.

http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com/2006/01/cooking-school-perfect-brownies.html

 
Never saw it

Thanks so much. I've been looking all over for an alternative to P.F., and I visit TJs often. I have never seen it there, but I'll be on the lookout for it now. What's the package look like?

 
It's a 10x10" (approx) box 'Trader Joe's Artisan Puff Pastry, Pate Feuilletee' with pictures of

several pictures of sweet and savory tarts/turnover type on the front. The several times I have picked it up it's been in the freezer case stuck between the frozen cakes and ice creams.
The back of the box has several recipes (from the front pictures) and the ever dreaded nutrition box.
Ingredients are: Wheat Flour, Butter(milk), Salt, Sugar and Water.

 
I agree, I really like DuFour's - it's expensive compared to TJ's - but if you make your own, try

Sherry Yard's (I think it's her recipe)chocolate puff pastry recipe - it's great for desserts - and also, she does a pistachio one - I haven't tried that one as I'm not a green nut fan, but chocolate puff pastry is really fun.
I can dig up the recipe if anyone wants it.

 
Oh, one last thing...I didn't have unsweetened chocolate, so I used

"Valrhona Dark Chocolate Couverture "Les Feves" Grand Cru Manjari" 62% and I cut out a little sugar.

(you have to know I googled that...I can't even spell Valrhona...I keep spelling it Valhala, like the Vikings.}

And my "add the egg" note seemed like you beat it forever...I just meant that you shouldn't dump all four eggs in at once and just stir until they are mixed in....the text was it needed to be beaten a bit to develop the gluten. So, don't get carried away, but do mix it a while.

Geez...that couldn't be less specific if I tried.

 
Melissa, the savory palmiers are good with a smear of pesto, tapenade or sundried tomatoes too.

 
Who knew? Sue, I go to TJ's at least twice a week and I never saw this. I bought a box today.

 
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