Perfect New Year's Eve Noshes...

I've fallen madly in like with Lorraine Pascale!

Her new show 'Simply Baking' is on the Cooking Channel but episodes can also be found on youtube. This lovely lady charmed me into making her simple but delicious little apps...it may have been more of a trance because I found myself talking to the television, eyes sparkling and laughing along with her as if I was in her kitchen. Whatever it was I was with it enough to know that during the holiday season this was a must! 
Quick and easy...two of my favorite things!

Here is the link to the recipes  
Sundried Tomato Palmiers & Totally Lazy Mini Sausage Rolls

According to her you need the highest end puff pastry all butter if possible.  We picked up Pepperidge Farm, I think it was the only kind they had but it was yummy.  One box with two sheets in it was enough for us.  You take it out of the fridge and lay it on a flowered cutting board five minutes before you start working with it.  Then you roll it out.  She said puff pastry rises more than necessary so you want to pound it a little.  Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

For the palmiers you sprinkle the whole thing with sundried tomatoes that were chopped up into smaller pieces.  We used the jar that is packed in oil so we had to rinse and dry them so they weren’t so oily.  Then we sprinkled on fresh rosemary that we chopped up into smaller pieces. Salt and peppered then rolled it up from the long sides like a scroll, meeting in the middle.  Wrapped it in cling wrap and chilled in the fridge for 30 min.  

Then we started on the sausage rolls. You take your other rectangle of puff pastry and roll it out on a flowered cutting board.  Cut your sausages in half.  We used two packs of Aidell’s precooked smoked chicken sausages.  I think they were black pepper & fennel and an asiago & basil.  I liked the one with spices better than the one with cheese, it was a little sweet and the cheese oils come out when baking…they still tasted really good.

To measure the pastry you lay the half sausage down then take a pizza cutter and cut a strip the whole length of the pastry that wide then do it again next to it since they will all be roughly the same size.  We ended up with 4 long strips of pastry. Then you set the half of sausage at the top of the strip and roll it down until you get the right length that will allow the dough to overlap and cut across all 4 strips at that width.  I think we ended up with 16 which was perfect because there are 4 sausages per package and you cut them in half so we had 16 pieces of sausage.  It probably took you longer to read this than it actually takes ;)

Now you beat and egg, and get a brush.  Lay the sausage on the top of the mini rectangle at the other end you brush a little egg wash on the other end.  Sprinkle some fresh thyme in the middle, roll the sausage up, press the pastry down around it and repeat. You lay them on the cookie sheet (I lined it with parchment paper)and chill them for 20 minutes. 

Take the sausages out and she poked them with a fork to make it look cute.  I poked one kind and put a knife slash on the other so we could tell them apart later.  Brush the top of the roll with the egg wash, don’t get any on the sausage ends.  Then put them in the oven and pull out your palmier scroll.  The sausages take a little longer than they did on the show, but the recipe states 10-30minutes.  They swelled a lot and ended up touching maybe I didn’t pound the pastry enough (think Whac-A-Mole!).  Since they were touching the sides didn’t cook so I had to roll them on their sides about 20 minutes in. 
 

Anyway now that they are in you slice the palmiers as thin as you can get, she said 1cm thick. My knife was probably a little dull because I ended up smashing them down a bit and the sundried tomatoes are hard to slice through so some fell out.  It didn’t really matter cause you can stuff the loose stuff back in and the pastry puffs up so you can’t tell.  Lay them out on a parchment covered cookie sheet and brush the tops and sides with the egg wash. 

 By now you are probably ready to turn your sausages (if necessary). The palmiers take less time to cook then the sausages so you end up pulling them out about the same time.

I really think staring at them helped speed things along....

Your biggest challenge is going to be stopping yourself from turning a little taste testing into an unstoppable two handed hand to mouth conveyor belt scene reminiscent of Lucy & Ethel!

...which in turn would force you into the market for store bought treats on the way to your holiday party with the rest of your neighbors which no one wants to do.  One, taste one (of each of course).


Wow, that was wordy!.  You could catch all this in a 15 minute show.  She's absolutely darling.  Enjoy! Happy holidays!