mulberryshoots

to serve warmed up tonight – with vanilla ice cream!

Recently, I’ve been looking for easier ways to cook yummy dishes without fussing so much. Yesterday, I saw some frozen peach slices in the freezer section of the grocery store and thought how much fun it might be to make a peach pastry for dessert, even though it’s just the beginning of March and fresh peaches are still something we look forward to in mid-summer.

I’ve also been experimenting recently with frozen puff pastry – using it to top a homemade leftover chicken pot pie instead of standard pastry, for example – it looks so fantastic puffed up when you take it out of the oven!

chicken pot pie with cut out vents on top of puff pastry & added on top as decoration!

So today after lunch, I defrosted a small packet of frozen peaches into a mixing bowl, tossed it with 1/4 cup each of flour and sugar; 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. Mixed all the dry ingredients together and then with the peaches. The puff pastry thawed along with the peaches.

I looked at the sheet of puff pastry and rolled it out slightly on all edges. Then, I decided to place the peach mixture on the diagonal. Before I closed up the peach “pocket,” I put a few dots of cold butter into the peach mixture, and squeezed a small piece of lemon over the peaches. I had originally planned to make a triangle but as I started to fold the puff pastry, the ends overlapped into a sort of pocket with the ends folded over. I pinched the pastry seams together and swabbed the whole thing with a little beaten egg and water. Sprinkled the pocket with sugar and cinnamon before placing on a buttered baking sheet and slid it into a 400 degree oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Checked it at about 25 minutes and it was already golden brown almost all over. Back in for another 5 minutes, I thought. It’s cooling now on the breadboard and looks pretty appetizing to serve with a dollop of vanilla ice cream tonight.

This is the first time I’ve used frozen peaches rather than fresh ones. There’s also a peach with mixed berries in the frozen section that I might try next time.  This dessert was really easy to put together and the warming aroma wafting through the kitchen made this a special first day of Spring!