Blue Cheese And Fig Puff Pastry Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425°; line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a small custard dish mix the egg yolk and water with a fork (this is the egg wash); set aside.
• Break or cut the blue cheese into 24 small pieces (about ¼ inch); let stand at room temperature to soften.
• Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface; with a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out pastry to a 10-inch square.
• Using a 1 ½ inch round cutter, cut out 24 pastry rounds from pastry sheet.
• Place rounds 1 inch apart on baking sheet; brush tops of rounds with egg wash.
• Bake rounds in the middle of oven for about 12 minutes, until puffed and golden brown (rounds will puff unevenly).
• Transfer rounds with a spatula to a rack; cool slightly; trim bottoms of rounds, if necessary, to create level pastries; cool completely on rack.
• Top each pastry round with 1 piece blue cheese and ½ teaspoon jam; serve at room temperature.

Steps:

• First make the pastry. Tip the flours into a food processor with ½ tsp salt and the diced butter. Pulse until you can't feel any lumps, then tip in the walnuts. Mix the egg yolks with 3 tbsp cold water, then dribble this into the machine while you pulse again until the pastry comes together. Tip the pastry out onto a floured surface, lightly bring it together into a ball, then roll out and line a deep 20-23cm tart tin with overhang. The pastry may crack, but just patch it back together, then cover and chill for 1 hr.
• To make the filling, melt the remaining butter in a large pan, then add the shallots and soften for 10-15 mins, until golden and squishy. Stir in the thyme for 1 min, then remove from the heat. Beat the eggs in a jug with the crème fraîche and cream. Crumble in the cheese and season with pepper and a small amount of salt.
• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Blind bake the pastry for 20 mins, remove the baking beans and paper, then bake for a further 15-20 mins until golden and sandy. Reduce the oven temp to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Add the cooled onions to the cream mixture and pour into the case. Sit the fig halves on top, cut side up, sprinkle with some more thyme and bake on the middle shelf for 1 hr-1hr 10 mins until the tart is browning and has a slight wobble - the cheese middle will firm up on sitting. Cool for about 15-20 mins, then remove from tin and serve with a green salad.

Steps:

• Cut each pear lengthwise into 10 (1/8- to 1/4-inch-thick) slices (5 from one side, then 5 more from the opposite side), avoiding core and discarding rounded outermost slices.
• Layer 4 pear slices with cheese and fig on each of 4 plates, beginning with largest pear slices, and ending with smallest.
• Sprinkle any remaining cheese and fig around napoleons.