Description
Recipe from picture-perfect meals: Little Book of Appetizers
Ingredients
Scale
- For the Citrus Marinated Olives:
- 12 ounces (340 g) mixed gourmet olives
- 3 tablespoons (42 g) extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons (10 ml) garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7 ml) red pepper flakes, crushed
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- I added some sage and thyme)
- 2 bay leaves
- Zest of 1 orange
- I used 2 clementines)
- Zest of 1 lemon
- I used 1 meyer lemon)
- Salt and fresh ground pepper
- For the Puff Pastry Cheese Straws:
- 2 sheets frozen all butter puff pastry, thawed
- I used wheat all butter puff pastry)
- 1 1/2 cups (339 g) cheddar cheese, shredded
- I used Aged English Coastal Cheddar)
- 1 cup (225 g) Parmesan, grated and divided
- I used Parmigiano Reggiano)
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 ml) cayenne pepper, divided
- I added fresh sage and thyme, finely chopped)
- 1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- For the Citrus Marinated Olives:
- Put olives and other ingredients into a mixing bowl, toss to thoroughly coat. Then place olive mixture onto a large sheet of foil.
- Folding the edges over one another to create a pouch. Bake at 350 degrees in a pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes or until heated through.
- Serve warm or at room temperature along with some orange and lemon slices.
- For the Puff Pastry Cheese Straws:
- Line your work surface with parchment paper, lightly floured. Roll out puff pastry sheet to 1/16th inch thickness, trim sheet to about a 16×18 inch rectangle. Transfer the dough along with the
- parchment paper to a baking sheet.
- Spread all of the cheddar and 1/2 of the Parmesan onto the puff pastry sheet. Sprinkle 1/2 smoked paprika and 1/2 cayenne over the cheese mixture. Note: if adding herbs, use all of the herbs here in the same manner of the spices.
- Roll out a second sheet of pastry into the same dimensions as the first. Place the second sheet evenly on top of the first sheet, pressing lightly to seal.
- Lightly brush the top pastry sheet with the egg was, then add remaining Parmesan, smoked paprika and cayenne. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Using a sharp knife cut the dough into 24 8 inch strips. Remove the dough from the baking sheet and replace the parchment paper with a clean sheet. Twist each strip into a spiral shape like in the photo, and transfer to a prepared baking sheet. Press each spiral down at the tips.
- Bake in two batches in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees F,
- for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and golden.
Notes
You can serve these with a dipping sauce or oil, but they are perfectly wonderful on their own :)
As I noted above I did make a couple of adjustments here as well. First I again added some fresh chopped herbs of sage and thyme. Another adjustment was that my puff pastry was whole wheat and a different brand, so my sheets were not the same size or shape. You can adjust this recipe
easily if needed to fit your pastry sheets.
*Notes on prep time, cooking time and servings:
The olives-prep time: 10 min, cook time: 15 min, servings: 8-10 as an appetizer
The cheese straws-prep: time 1 hour, cook time: 20-25 min, servings: 24 cheese straws
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 30 mins