Baking Obsession

These are super easy and quickly-done (provided you’ve made the puff pastry in advance or bought it) cookies that go well with ice-cream and fruit salad.

Makes two dozen

Ingredients:

• 1 lb puff pastry (home-made or good-quality all-butter store-bought)
• 2/3 cups strawberry jam (or raspberry)
• ½ cup unsweetened finely shredded coconut

• tiny amount of egg white to secure the cookies’ ends to a baking sheet

Preparation:

Center the oven rack and preheat the oven to 400F. Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.

On a working surface, lightly dusted with flour or lined with parchment, roll half of puff pastry into a thin about 10×10-inch square. Spread 1/3 cup of strawberry jam thinly and evenly over the rolled pastry, then sprinkle with the coconut. Roll another half of the puff pastry the same way as the first portion, spread the remaining strawberry jam over it. Carefully flip the second puff pastry sheet over the first one, jam side down (it’s very easily-done if you rolled the dough on the parchment since it will be attached to the parchment). Lightly roll a rolling pin over to adhere two pastry sheets together. Using a pizza wheel, trim the edges. Criss-cross cut the sandwiched pastry into 4 equal squares. Cut each square into 6 strips. Using either a sharp paring knife or the same pizza wheel, cut a slit in the middle of each strip leaving about an inch uncut at each end. If, at any point, the puff pastry gets too soft and sticky to work with, place it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up. It’ll be easier to cut cold puff pastry. But let it soften before coiling it up, otherwise you’ll break it.

Now, handling it carefully, slide one short end into the slit, then slide another end into the slit, but do it in the opposite direction. Place the formed cookie onto the prepared cookie sheet securing the ends with a bit of egg white to the baking sheet. Space the cookies about 1-inch apart. Freeze for 20 minutes before baking. After chilling time, place the cookie sheet onto another empty sheet. It will provide more time in the oven to bake the cookies through without burning their bottoms. Bake in batches for about 26 – 28 minutes, until nicely puffed and golden-brown. Cool the cookies on a cooling rack. The cookies are the best the day they are baked. Any leftovers can be refreshed and recrisped in the 350F-preheat oven (place the cookies on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet) for about 7-8 minutes.