Satisfied Cravings: Bananas Foster

Cravings are a constant challenge when you have dietary restrictions. You know that saying, "You always want what you can't have"? What I usually want is dessert and for the first time, the dessert I craved was something that I've never actually ordered, made, or even have a special memory of. I just knew that I had to have it.

 

If you've read my blog for awhile, you know that I love puff pastry. While I was looking for new recipes on puffpastry.com, I ran across a recipe for bananas foster. Bananas Foster is bananas covered in buttery-cinnamon-rum-caramelly (yes, not a word but it should be) goodness. Traditionally bananas foster goes over vanilla ice cream and although ice cream sounds delicious during these recent hot summer days in San Diego, sugar-free ice cream is one of those few items that I don't think has been mastered just yet. I crave bananas a lot but like a lot of fruit, I have to limit my intake because of the natural sugars and in the case of bananas, the starch.  I looked over the recipe and decided to make a few adjustments to the ingredients and the portion size to see if I could make it a little more friendly.

 

 

Bananas Foster with Puff Pastry

heavily adapted from puffpastry.com

 

1 package of mini puff pastry shells

egg wash - beat 1 egg, 2 tablespoons water

3 ripe, but firm, bananas

1/2 cup sugar substitute*

2 tablespoons light maple syrup

2 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons dark rum

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup of vanilla Greek yogurt

 

 

Preheat oven to 425F.

Place pastry shells on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the egg wash onto the puff pastry shells. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden. Cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut bananas into rounds.

In a skillet, combine the sugar, syrup, butter, lemon juice, rum, and cinnamon over medium heat. Stir until the sauce thickens. Add the bananas and coat until caramelized.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remove the centers of the puff pastry shells. Spoon in the Greek yogurt and add the banana mixture to the top. Add another layer of yogurt to top if you would like.

 

Sueshine Note

*The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar. Instead, I used C&H Light which is a combination of real sugar and stevia and the 2 tablespoons of light maple syrup. This sugar substitute does not measure equal to real sugar (1/2 cup = 1/4 cup) so make sure you adjust to whatever substitute you are using.

*Worried about the alcohol? It burns off but if you are worried about the sugars in the rum, you can use imitation rum extract.

 

I decided to go with the smaller puff pastry shells because it lends itself to a smaller portion. I believe one of these is the perfect size dessert for after dinner and there is a little less guilt involved. Did I mention how easy this recipe was too? You can whip this up in a matter of 15 minutes and even less time if you are just making the bananas foster portion. I actually had some extra bananas so I might save it for that sugar free ice cream that needs improvement.

 

 

 

I forgot to show what the puff pastry shell looks like when it's baked as well as the hollowed section filled with yogurt but I just got too excited to pour on the bananas and sauce! Do I have you craving bananas foster now? :)

 

 

 

Please note as with all my attempts in making a recipe more friendly, I'm not an expert. Please make sure you take into account your personal diet. Only you can make the right decisions.

 

Holding onto Summer - Mini Pineapple Mango Tarts

As summer comes to an end in Southern California, I wanted to make something that reminded me of summer...something reminiscent of a tropical fruity drink. Also coming to a close is my 6th month of blogging. For those of you who don't know, Blogger tracks your stats and what key words brought readers to your site. The top search for my site was for puff pastry recipes. It's good to know you all have the same love for puff pastry as I do! I mean, I did devote a week to it HERE. So in celebration, I made a super easy mini pineapple mango tart that just about anyone can make.

Mini Pineapple Mango Tarts

Ingredients

1 large ripe mango, peeled & diced (about 1 1/2 cup)

1 4oz can of cubed pineapple in natural juice (fresh can be used if available)

1 lime

1 1/2 tbsp butter

2 1/2 tbsp packed brown sugar

1 sheet of puff pastry dough

1/2 cup whipped cream or frozen whipped topping (optional)

Preheat oven to 400F. Grate 1 1/2 tsp lime zest  (optional) and squeeze 1/2 of lime (add more to taste).

Spray a muffin pan with a non stick spray.Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet to remove the fold marks. Using a round cutter (a glass or cup can also be used), cut into 8-12 rounds. Roll rounds thin and shape into muffin tin. Edges should slightly come over the top of the hole. Refrigerate.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and lime juice and cook until the mixture boils. Stir occasionally. Add the mango and pineapple, coating the fruit. Remove from heat.

Spoon fruit mixture into the pastry cups. Bake for 15 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. Cool then remove from pan. Top with whipped cream and garnish with lime zest.

Adapted from puffpastry.com



Sueshine notes

1) Please flour your surface and rolling pin or the puff pastry will stick to it and everything near it, including you!

2) Please please spray your muffin pan. The tarts may stick if you don't do it.

3) Please please please wash your saucepan immediately. Even though I used a non stick pan, as soon as the sugar starts to cool, it will start sticking to your pan. Are you seeing a trend in my notes for this recipe? :)

The whipped cream is not pictured in this post just because the day I made them, I was taking it to the San Diego Food Blogger's Roundtable brunch and I wasn't sure if it would hold up. I would add the whipped cream. What's a fruity drink without the whipped cream, right? Here's to the end of summer and many more blog posts to come! Cheers!

Oh Pastry...How I Miss Thee!!

Do you remember the old Meryvn’s commercials with the woman who is standing outside before the store is open and she’s pressing herself against the glass doors, chanting “open open open”? Sometimes I feel like that woman but instead I’m standing in front of the glass doors of the Von’s pastry cabinet. Like her, I can’t have what I want the most.

When people find out that I'm a diabetic, they tell me they would never be able to deal with not eating their favorite sweets. A lot of people ask me what sweets I miss the most since being diagnosed as a diabetic. Cake is and always will be number one but breakfast pastries are a very close second. Since I'm not willing to give up sleep in the morning, I don’t have time to make myself a high protein breakfast like my doctor and nutritionist encourage me to eat. So what's left when you are in a rush....donuts, muffins, bagels, pop tarts, danishes....all things that are so accessible but so forbidden for me to eat. So once again I was faced with the same dilemma that I had with cake….I had to learn to make it myself and find some alternatives. About 2 weeks ago, I had the most intense craving for something very specific: almond pastry. The almond pastry in the Von's pastry cabinet was taunting me with its flaky goodness, sugary icing, smooth almond filling, and crunchy toasted almonds. My daydreaming of each of the individual components of the pastry made me think: Actually, this wouldn’t be too hard to make myself. Then I started to look at the other items in the case: chocolate croissant (yup I can make that), muffins (not a pastry but of course I could make those), donuts (err, that’s a tough one). With all this hard thinking and trying to figure out ingredients and how to do it easily and quickly, this is what ultimately inspired puff pastry week.

Almond Pastry Bites

puff pastry, almond paste (not marzipan) or almond pie filling (can), 1 egg, 1 tbsp water, sliced almonds

Cut puff pastry dough into small 3 inch squares. Place 1/2-1 tsp of almond paste or almond pie filling in the center of the square . Fold one corner of the square to the opposite corner (like a turnover). Beat egg and water in a small bowl to make an egg wash. Brush on the top of the pastry with the egg wash. Sprinkle sugar or sugar substitute over egg wash and place almond slices on top. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

(Sueshine Note: almond filling can be replaced by any flavor pie filling such as apple or cherry or any fruit preserve to make a turnover. Just be mindful of the sugar content. Smuckers has several sugar free or no sugar added flavors)

Chocolate croissants

 puff pastry, sugarfree chocolate squares, 1 egg, 1 tbsp of water

Cut puff pastry dough into long triangles (like the ready made Pillsbury croissant dough in the tube). Place chocolate square on the wide side of the triangle and roll, tucking the end  in the middle of the croissant. Curve ends into a crescent. Beat egg and water in a small bowl to make an egg wash. Brush on the top of the croissant. Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Drizzle with melted chocolate.

One of the hardest things to recreate is a donut. Let's be honest, a donut is not healthy. I mean, its deep fried dough usually filled with some super sweet jelly, covered in glaze, then covered in sprinkles. That could send almost anyone into a sugar coma. Again while I was researching on www.puffpastry.com, a receipe definitely caught my eye. Gail Simmons (editor for Food and Wine, judge on Top Chef) had a whole collection of recipes with puff pastry including, PB & J doughnuts. My mouth instantly started to water. Could I even remember the last time I had a donut that wasn't a plain cake donut? (not glaze, no sprinkles....just plain, dry, and almost made me choke). I definitely needed to find a way to make this a little more diabetic friendly.

PB&J Puff Pastry Donut

1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup Simple Jif peanut butter

3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar (Sueshine note: to make powdered sugar with Splenda, mix 3/4 cup granulated Splenda and 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Mix ingredients in a blender until a fine texture. Makes 1 cup of powdered sugar)1 package (17.3 ounces) Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets, thawed
4 teaspoons Smuckers Sugar Free Strawberry jam

Heat the oven to 400°F. Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork.
Stir the peanut butter, heavy cream and confectioners' sugar in a small bowl until the mixture is smooth.
Unfold 1 pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Using a round cutter, cut the pastry sheet into 9 (3-inch) circles. Repeat with the remaining pastry sheet.
Place 9 pastry circles onto a baking sheet. Spoon about 1 teaspoon peanut butter mixture in the center of each pastry circle. Top each with about 1/2 teaspoon jam. Brush the edges of the pastry circles with the egg mixture. Place the remaining pastry circles over the filling. Press the edges firmly to seal. Using a sharp knife, cut a small slit in the top of each filled pastry.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown. Let the pastries cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with additional confectioners' sugar

Source: adapted from www.puffpastry.com

So it's not EXACTLY like a donut but it's as close as I can get to one right now. The fact that it isn't deep fried alone makes it a little better.

Well that's it for puff pastry week....which actually turned into 2 weeks but until I become famous, I'm stuck at my 9-5, tired and stressed at the end of the day. But that's okay...the wonder that is puff pastry makes it fast and easy for me to make a quick dessert....or even provides memories of what I dream I could still eat. A diabetic girl's dream could come true...I just gotta work at it a little and make it happen myself ;)

Why does Gordon Ramsay keep yelling?

So puff pastry week got a little sidetracked (had my first real order for cakepops this week which kept me busy!) but I'm back. I knew when I decided to do puff pastry week, I didn't want to limit it to sweet items....I wanted to at least try one real dish. I immediately knew what I wanted to do for my savory dish and it would finally answer my question....why does Gordon Ramsay keep yelling at the contestants on Hell's Kitchen?


If you have never seen an episode of Hell's Kitchen, I'll give you a quick summary: Contestants have to cook a dinner service under Chef Gordon Ramsay. Contestants must cook quality food quickly, all while Ramsay is screaming his head off. You would think none of the contestants have ever cooked anything in their lives the way he yells and smashes food on the counter. Every season, Ramsay has a few staple dishes that are always on his menu, one being Beef Wellington. So what is Beef Wellington? From what I could see on TV, it's beef tenderloin wrapped in puff pastry. What's so darn hard about that? Apparently everything because you always hear variations of Ramsay yelling after they bring it up to the pass: "IT'S RAAAAW you donkey!!!" I mean, most of it is already prepped before dinner service and all they have to do is throw it in the oven. I wanted to find out if I could do it...me, who maybe has one pinkie bone of natural cooking ability (as previously written, the family cooking gene skipped right over me) but then again, this is baking right.....sorta?


I did some research on beef Wellington recipes and found there is actually more to it. Like most recipes, there are so many variations. Some have pate or ham (similar to prosciutto) but I didn't want to get too complicated my first time around, especially since I know a lot of my friends and husband are such picky eaters. I did decide to stick to the ingredients that seemed to be a constant of a Wellington: tenderloin, puff pastry, mushrooms, mustard, and pepper. So here we go:


Beef Wellington

1 beef tenderloin (1.3lbs was more than enough for 2. I couldn't find a plain ol' tenderloin but I did find a pre-marinated tenderloin....garlic and black pepper)

Ground black pepper
1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/2 tablespoon butter 

1 tablespoon mustard (I used spicy brown)1 cup finely chopped mushrooms
1 medium onion, finely chopped

Heat the oven to 425°F.  Place the beef into a lightly greased roasting pan. Season with the black pepper, if desired.  Roast for 10 minutes. (see notes below: what I learned) Cover the pan and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Reheat the oven to 425°F.  Beat the egg and water in a small bowl with a fork or whisk.

Heat the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and onion and cook until the mushrooms are tender and all the liquid is evaporated, stirring often.

Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a rectangle 4 inches longer and 6 inches wider than the beef. Brush the pastry sheet with the egg mixture. Spoon the mushroom mixture onto the pastry sheet to within 1-inch of the edges. Brush mustard onto beef. Place the beef in the center of the mushroom mixture.  Fold the pastry over the beef and press to seal.  Place seam-side down onto a baking sheet.  Tuck the ends under to seal.  Brush the pastry with the egg mixture. Sprinkle coarse sea salt on top of puff pastry (optional).

Bake for 25 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown .

 Source: Adapted from www.puffpastry.com



Round one of cooking the tenderloin



Sauteed onions and mushrooms in butter






Mustard coated beef on the mushroom mixture & puff pastry




Wrapped in puff pastry, pre-baking




After baking




Inside (its well done...oops!)



So what did I learn about making my first beef Wellington?


1) There is a lot of prep to this dish and it isn't just "wrap beef in pastry."
2) Instead of roasting it before going into the fridge, I would pan-sear it instead (as suggested on other recipes). One of the biggest problems that I noticed when I watch Hell's Kitchen is that the contestants always have a problem cooking it to order and I can see why. By roasting it, if your tenderloin is small, it will cook pretty fast. If you sear it, it will only brown the outside and leave the inside pretty pink and give you some room when you are cooking it inside the puff pastry. The other issue is that since it's wrapped in puff pastry, its not like you can poke at the beef and check if it's medium rare or well done. No wonder they get yelled at....cooking times could mess this up real bad.
3) I made two separate ones because the hubby is one of those picky eaters and he likes everything plain. His did not have mushrooms or mustard but he said it was really good (he might be bias though...hehe). He also took a bite of the one with mustard (no mushroom bits) and he said he liked that as well...."it can go either way." Like I always say, adjust to your taste.


I'd probably get yelled at by Ramsay too. This is courtesy of the Mister who thought it would be funny to play in the background as I experimented:
http://www.gordonramsayswearsatyou.com/ (Warning: no bleeps here!)
LoL oh well....I never claimed to be a chef or plan on going on Hell's Kitchen but I think I did very well for Lil Ms. Sueshine playing chef in her kitchen tonight  ;)


<3 Lil Ms. Sueshine

Brie on Croute...Mine Needs Work

Brie on what? Sounds hoighty-toighty doesn't it? It's what I made tonight (well a loose interpretation of it) within 20 minutes with 4 ingredients: puff pastry, brie cheese, raspberry preserves, and almonds.

The first time I tried brie I was a little skeptical. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE cheese but this one looked a little funky when my aunt Sherri, the Wine and Cheese Queen, first introduced it to me. Brie is one of those  cheeses that you don't unwrap the plastic wrap from (ie American slices) or it doesn't come shredded and ready to put on your taco. Brie is one of those kinda intimidating cheeses they keep the in special section of the grocery store deli mixed in with all the other fancy imported cheeses from around the world. All brie is is soft cow's cheese....with a little bit of a rind. So back to the first time that I had brie. My aunt is usually assigned the appetizers during family gatherings and it ALWAYS includes some kind of cheese plate. One night, I watched her put a wheel of brie in a little ramekin, put some preserves on top (I think it might have been fig at that time), put sliced almonds on top of that, then popped it in the oven for a bit. Hey...I could go for this...who doesn't like melty oozy cheese? When it was ready, I was instructed to put it on a plain cracker and dig in. I must admit, I dug into that cheese more than a few times.

When I started looking for puff pastry recipes, I noticed a lot of recipes for brie on croute. Brie on croute is just a fancy name for wrapping a brie cheese wheel in puff pastry. There are so many versions of this recipe because you can wrap almost anything in it....from apricots to raspberry to guava to mushrooms and parsley... with the brie. I wasn't too sure about wrapping a whole wheel of brie in puff pastry because to be honest with you, I've tried brie on a lot of different stuff but I really only like it when it's cut with some kind of fruit. Plus, I didn't want to make a whole wheel either just in case I did like it and ended up eating the whole thing myself. Cheese coma would be bad. So I came up with an alternative.

Brie with Raspberries on Croute Minis

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

8 ounces brie cheese (wedge...remove rind)

1/4 cup sugar-free raspberry preserves

1/4-1/2 cup sliced almonds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Lay thawed puff pastry sheet on lightly flour dusted surface and cut in 3 inch squares (size depends on the size of your muffin pan). Lay squares in greased muffin pan and shape into cups.

Place a small cube of brie in the middle of the puff pastry then top brie with a teaspoon of raspberry preserves. Top with sliced almonds for crunch.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until the edges are golden. Cool for about 5-10 minutes.

So here's my Sueshine disclaimer. I said was going to be honest with you when it comes to recipes that I'm trying for the first time. I did not remove the rind from the brie because most of the recipes I read on the Internet said not to. For the bite sized version, remove the rind. I think my palette is changing again because I didn't use to mind so much but since I'm baking for an audience now, I know a lot of you will not be able to handle the "funk." I've got your back so do yourself a favor and remove it. It was good but I KNOW it would be better without it. I'll have to try this recipe again some time without it and try a different fruit, although raspberries are my favorite.

I always encourage you to try and tweak recipes to your taste. As I said, there are so many versions of this recipe, I'm sure you will be able to find a combination you will like and impress your friends with. Who knew that puff pastry could make you look all fancy ;)

Puff Pastry Week! You can do it!!

It's only Monday and I can already tell its going to be a long week at my day job. I'm sure a lot of people out there are super busy during the week  and by the time you get home, you're tired and you don't want to full on bake with the flour finger prints everywhere and try to figure out how convert one measurement into another. I wanted to share one of my favorite yet simple baking items that you can find in your local grocery store freezer and turn it into something yummy quickly during the week....puff pastry.

The first time I saw puff pastry used on one of my cooking shows was on Sam the Cooking Guy (http://www.samthecookingguy.com/). If you don't know who Sam the Cooking Guy is, he's a local guy (but now his show plays throughout the US) on Channel 4 San Diego and his show is about making "cooking" easy....and I mean REALLY easy. Sometimes his show borders on a guy who is making bachelor food but most of the time, it's pretty cool how he simplifies recipes for your everyday person who might not have the best culinary skills in the world. Another bonus of the show is that the things he makes can be done fairly quickly and with things you find at a regular grocery store. So anyways, one of the first episodes when I first started watching Sam the Cooking Guy, he was making bunuelos....well sorta. It was kinda of a cross between a buneuelo which can be covered with cinnamon and sugar and also similar to the New Mexican pastry, sopapillas, in texture. Unlike bunuelos and sopapillas, what he was making was not deep fried. So when you are super tired from a hard day at work, I present probably one of the easiest items you will EVER bake.

Cinnamon Sugar Puff Pastry Bites

Puffy Pastry (Ready made. You can make your own puff pastry but why when this is so accessible and fast)
Sugar or granulated sugar substitute
Cinnamon

-Thaw puff pastry according to directions on the box. Once thawed, dust your work surface lightly with flour (Yes, I know, I know...I said earlier that you wouldn't have to get flour everywhere but if you don't want the dough to stick to your table, take the time to throw down a little flour)
-Preheat oven to 400. Fold the dough in half so it is 2 layers. Cut into squares and place on a greased baking sheet. Put in oven for 15-20 minutes or until brown and puffy.
-Mix cinnamon and sugar in a large mixing bowl (Note: The amount does not have to be exact. Also, if you are not worried about the sugar content, there are premixed cinnamon/sugar shakers at the store). Drop the warm puff pastry into the mixture and roll around until it is completely coated.

That's it? Yup, that's it. Hey, I can do that! Yeah, I know!

Nothing too impressive but it's a quick and easy dessert in which you can control the amount of sugar on it. Plus, cinnamon is supposed to be good for diabetics since it helps regulate blood sugar. If you want to work on the presentation, I suggest maybe using a cookie cutter to make different shapes. For those of you who can eat full power sweets, treat yourself to some dulce de leche ice cream on top of it or you can have it with coffee or hot chocolate or you can have it like in New Mexico...with a little bit of honey.

I'm planning on sharing some ideas on how to use puff pastry for both sweet and savory recipes this week. Some of the recipes I've already tried. Some, I'm going to be trying for the first time...and I'll be honest with everyone on how things turn out...either good or bad because you're taking this journey with me too ;)