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Egg and Satsuma Puff Pastry Appetizers
These appetizers are really unusual, combining hard-boiled egg in garlic mayonnaise with mandarin segments, lettuce, and fresh snipped chives. You can use thawed pastry to make these but make sure it is still very cold, because if it gets too warm it will be sticky and harder to work with.
You can actually adapt the filling for these appetizers however you like. If you want to replace the egg with tuna mayonnaise or something else, that is fine. Swap the mandarin segments for halved strawberries if you prefer, or grapes, and you can also add some cheese to these appetizers. The pastry disks give you something to work with.
Just remember you will need some kind of moisture in there, else they will be too dry, which is why we are using a little vinaigrette (that also adds flavor) as well as the garlic mayonnaise.
Garlic Mayonnaise Egg and Salad Stacks
Ingredients -
14 oz thawed all-butter puff pastry
5 hard-boiled eggs
½ cup mayonnaise
1 minced garlic clove
Few drops lemon juice
2 tablespoons vinaigrette
10 fresh mandarin segments
Handful of chopped salad leaves
20 - 30 chopped fresh chives
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Preparation:
Roll the puff pastry out to a 16 x 12 inch rectangle and transfer it on to a baking sheet.
Cut out 30 circles and freeze them until firm.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and put 10 pastry rounds on there. Cover with more parchment paper.
Add another baking sheet and 10 more rounds. If you have a third baking sheet, add more parchment paper and then that.
If not, bake the rounds for 30 minutes and then reuse one of the baking sheets to cook the last 10.
The pastry rounds are cooked when they are golden brown.
Let them cool on a wire rack.
Stir the garlic and lemon juice into the mayonnaise and add salt and pepper to taste.
Lay out 10 of the pastry rounds on a platter and top each one with a mandarin orange segment and half the lettuce.
Divide ⅓ of the garlic mayonnaise between them and add a second pastry round to each one.
Top with the remaining lettuce and divide the vinaigrette between them. Top this with a final pastry round.
Top each appetizer with ½ a hard-boiled egg and the remaining garlic mayonnaise, pressing down on them a bit so they do not topple over.
Sprinkle chives over the appetizers and serve chilled or at room temperature.
(Makes 10)
Wine Suggestion:
What Wine Goes with Puff Pastry Appetizers
Try a rich, satisfying Pinot Gris with these delicious egg and mandarin orange pastry appetizers. Pinos Gris from California is more Italian in style than Pinot Gris from Oregon, which is why it is also known as Pinot Grigio (its Italian name) in California. This delicious wine is fruity and flavorful, and a great match for the creaminess of the mayonnaise, the flaky pastry, and the other ingredients also.
Puff Pastry Appetizers
Photo Description:
You can see from the photo how the pastry, egg, mandarin segments and other ingredients make cute little appetizers and the chives really adds a touch of sophistication so use plenty. This recipe is very simple to follow and you can prepare the ingredients for the pastry stacks as the pastry rounds are baking to golden brown perfection. You can serve this delicious garlic-flavored appetizer recipe chilled or at room temperature. You can also use the pastry disks fresh from the oven if you want to serve these warm. This is an unusual appetizer recipe and it is especially wonderful when served with your favorite California wine.
A Closer Look at Puff Pastry
Puff pastry is a flaky, light, unleavened pastry which has several layers of butter or fat. The layers are rolled out and folded and the fat goes between them. There are spaces between the layers which is a result of water turning to steam when the pastry is baked. If you pierce the dough before baking, it will not puff up too much. Crimping the sides of the pastry will stop the layers flaking all the way to the outer edge.
The History of Puff Pastry
Puff pastry is related to phyllo (or filo, as it is sometimes spelt) and it is used to make both sweet and savory layered pastries. It is believed that puff pastry was invented in the 1600s by a French cook and painter called Claude Gelee. According to the story, Gelee was making buttery bread for his sick father and when he rolled the butter into the dough, the finished product was similar in texture to a croissant. There are however pre-seventeenth century references to flaky pastry, where thin dough sheets spread with olive oil or laminated dough with many buttery layers were popular in Italy and Germany, and also Spain, so either puff pastry was developed simultaneously in these places or Gelee was not the first to invent it.
Recipes Using Puff Pastry
Popular recipes made with puff pastry include beef wellington, strudel, miguelitos, sausage rolls, turnovers, and various types of pie such as steak and kidney pie. Puff pastry is also nice to use for appetizers because its buttery flakiness gives it a great texture for combining with various types of ingredients. You can make hot or cold appetizers with it. Once puff pastry is cooked, you can chill it or warm it up gently and the texture will stay good.
Readymade Puff Pastry and the Homemade Kind
You can either make your own puff pastry or buy it readymade. To be honest, there is not a lot of difference and readymade puff pastry tends to be pretty good. There are lots of types of puff pastry appetizers you can make so if you want to experiment with puff pastry appetizers it is probably best to buy the puff pastry, since it is time-consuming to make. Also, you have to keep the raw pastry at 60 degrees F so the fat does not melt and you also have to let it rest between folds so that the gluten strands can link and layer.
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