Make an Elegant Easy Pastry for Breakfast or Dessert

I have a lot of berries in the fridge and wanted to incorporate them into breakfast today. Nothing too difficult, but something my family would eat without realizing it is, at least in part, good for them.

I decided to use puff pastry, which I always have in the freezer. The berries (sliced strawberries which I cut up last night and mixed with monk fruit to macerate them a bit, raspberries and blackberries) I put into a sauce pan and heated with a bit of the strawberry juice,then thickened the sauce with tapioca powder until it was almost jam like. The puff pastry, once thawed, I rolled into a larger square so that I could cut it into quarters.

I thought about putting in cream cheese, but when I pulled open the cheese draw in the fridge I saw the goat cheese rolled in blueberries I bought a week ago. Perfect!

I laid a couple slices of goat cheese in the middle of each square of pastry, and spooned cooled berries on top, then pulled the sides up. My original intention was to seal all the edges, like a pop tart, but I ended up leaving the center open so the berries were visible. I rather like it like that.

I put the tray back into the freezer for 10 minutes to firm up the pastry dough again. It needs to be cold in order to puff and make all those wonderful flaky layers.

The thickened berries created a gooey warm fruit center, thick and not runny at all (thanks to the tapioca thickener). The resulting pastry was better than anything from a box.

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Flaky Berry Pastry

Puff pastry and a few berries turn into a gooey warm pastry for breakfast or dessert

Course Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Berry pastry, breakfast pastry, dessert pastry with fruit, puff pastry
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
freezer time 10 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  • 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
  • 1 cup strawberries, sliced and marinated with sugar/monk fruit for a few minutes. Can be done in advance and refrigerated
  • 1/2 cup raspberries
  • 1/2 cup blackberries
  • 3 tbsp tapioca powder or use a flour or cornflower slurry
  • 1 log goat cheese, plain, or with fruit
  • 2-3 tbsp honey

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425F. Let pastry warm up to be pliable if it was frozen.

  2. Drain the strawberries. reserving juice. Put all berries into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add 2-3 tablespoons of strawberry juice. Once the juice and fruit just start to warm up, stir in 3-4 tablespoons of tapioca flour (or flour/cornstarch slurry). Cook until the juice is quite thick, and remove from heat. Let cool.

  3. On a lightly floured board or pastry mat, roll out the puff pastry dough to a larger square, 15" Cut into quarters.

  4. Lay 2-3 pieces of goat cheese down the center of each quarter. Drizzle with honey evenly divided between the 4 squares. Spoon over cooled fruit mix.

  5. Pull up the sides, sealing each end, but leaving the center open. Place on parchment covered sheet tray (for easy clean up).

  6. Put the tray in the freezer 10 minutes to cool the pastry dough.

  7. Bake for 15 minutes, turning half way through to promote even browning.

My husband insisted we save one for his treat after dinner tonight too. So it becomes dessert as well as my intended breakfast pastry.

Variations: instead of berries try:

  • tropical fruit like kiwi, mango, papaya and pineapple
  • Apple slices, raisins and brie
  • Pears and Gorgonzola
  • Peaches and cream cheese

If the fruit produces a lot of juice, just simmer briefly and thicken as I did with the strawberries to keep juice from making the pastry soggy. And use only a little cheese underneath the fruit.