Chutney, Feta and Walnut Palmiers - for Organic September

I KNOW, I KNOW – more savoury! I should change the name to Bakeyboi instead. But I really wanted to make puff pastry and the remaining ingredients in my Sainsbury’s Organic Hamper – fruit chutney and walnut pieces would be perfect in Palmiers – made with said puff pastry. Palmiers come in savoury and sweet versions and have many many different names. I have heard elephant ears, angel’s wings; in Scotland cows feet or pigs lugs are common! I call them Palmiers…My version would be savoury as I said with the chutney, walnuts and salty feta cheese to compliment these.

Pastry has been my nemesis in baking, as I’m sure I have said before. But I am slowly getting to grips with it and puff pastry is one of the more complicated ones – or so I thought.

I used a Lorraine Pascale recipe, which I found on the BBC website. I did change it a bit, but all in all, it was quite straightforward and only a little time consuming, waiting for the pastry to chill in between rolls.

I made the pastry package as instructed from flour, salt, butter and water. Formed it into a ball and chilled this. I then cut a cross in the top of the ball, pulled the corners up and out and rolled the dough into a square. Lorraine then added softened butter to her package – I used cold butter, which I beat up with my rolling pin to get it flat and pliable. I then folded the package over the butter and began rolling and folding several times. This creates the layers of pastry – when it goes into the oven the moisture from the butter steams and puffs up the pastry apparently. Follow Lorraine’s recipe!

Yield: About 20 palmiers.

Ingredients:

Puff Pastry (from Lorraine Pascale’s recipe)

140 grams Sainsbury’s So Organic Spiced Fruit Chutney

50 grams Sainsbury’s So Organic walnut pieces

100 grams Feta Cheese crumbles

Method:

Preheat your oven to 200^oC. Line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper. Take your chilled dough and roll it into a rectangle, 25cm by 30 cm.

Spread the chutney all over the dough and sprinkle on the walnut pieces and feta cheese.

Roll one of the short ends into the centre of the rectangle, then repeat on the other side, so the two rolls meet in the middle. 

 

 Pop the rolled up dough into some clingfilm and place back into the fridge for 45 minutes to chill again.

Then, slice the roll with a sharp serrated knife into 1 ½ cm thick pieces. Mines needed a bit of tweaking back into shape as the 45 rest meant one side was a bit squashed. Place the slices on the baking sheets spaced well apart and pop into the oven for 12-25 minutes, or until they have turned golden brown. I didn’t give mines an egg wash, but they still came out a good colour.

Let them cool for about 10 minutes, before carefully peeling them off the paper. They are best eaten warm. If you are eating them later in the day, place them in an oven at 150^oC for 5 minutes to warm through.

The spicy sweetness of the chutney works well with the creamy saltiness of the feta. And the walnuts give a good crunch. Oh and my puff pastry was a success! I was so happy seeing all those delicious flaky layers…enjoy!