Fruit Pastries

Late Night Baking and Fruity Filling

I asked if you were ready for a pastry series, but it came a lot quicker than I anticipated. After the brown sugar cinnamon story, I was flooded with questions about different flavors. The most asked flavor was strawberry, strawberry cream cheese, and mixed berry. I even had a few close friends asking prices and when they could order some! I was very grateful, but I hadn't even had the time to work out recipes for them yet. So, this is what I did: I decided to create the "Taste Box". I created a sample box so they could try the flavors before they placed orders, since I hadn't made any of these yet. These were also some very dear friends of mine, so I figured it was the perfect experiment. And they were more than willing. I probably don't say it enough, but I am so very grateful for those people in my life. Very thankful to have their support, and I love them dearly.

I wanted to get these out as soon as possible so they could try them. Needless to say, I got to planning. I already had the dough recipe, which worked beautifully the first time. If it isn't broke, don't fix it, right? Now, to plan out the fillings. In order to make fruit fillings for pastries, you have to make preserves, which I had never done before. I was more than excited to learn, though. I had to make a strawberry and a blueberry preserve for these pastries. I had two strawberry flavors, a blueberry, and a mixed berry, which consisted of strawberry and blueberry. And they take about 30 minutes to cook on the stove and then a couple of hours to set in the fridge, so that was first on the to-do list. On to the glazes. I decided to do vanilla-based glazes and add a bit of the preserve with the appropriate pastry. Time to get into the kitchen!

The last time I made pastries, I got about 10 full pastries, which is 20 rectangles. I had a little dough left over, so I figured I could potentially get another two out of it without having to make a double batch of dough. But before I could make the dough, I had to get started on the preserves! They needed quite some time to cook and set, and I wanted to time everything perfectly. I definitely had my work cut out for me. For both preserves, I needed 2 cups of fruit, lemon juice and zest, granulated sugar, and a little vanilla. I washed my fruit, quartered my strawberries, and juiced and zested lemons. I premeasured the sugar and vanilla and moved to the stove. I started with the strawberry first, then the blueberry a few minutes after, so I could alternate stirring. To make these, you put everything but the vanilla into a saucepan and cook it over medium heat and wait for the fruit to let water out. You bring it to a light boil, stirring occasionally, until the fruit gets a little mushy. Then, you want to smush it all up as best as possible. Cook it until it gets thick, add the vanilla when it comes off the heat, and strain it into a bowl. I had three bowls, one for strawberry, one for blueberry, and the third for the mixed berry, which is strawberry and blueberry. When it's all strained, ready for the fridge, you want to cover it in plastic wrap, but make sure to press the wrap onto the preserves. This helps it from developing a crust on top of it.

With those setting in the fridge, I gathered the ingredients for the dough. When I made the dough this time, I cubed the cold butter into small pieces instead of grating it like before. I wanted to see if it made a difference, and it sure did. I feel like it didn't combine as well as the grated butter did. I ended up attaching the paddle and even had my hand in the dough to get it to that crumbly texture. Next time I make it, I will take the time to grate the butter again. I feel like it affected the end result, but not enough to make a difference to anyone but me. I got the dough made, wrapped, and chilling in the fridge. I had some time before I could do anything else, so I looked over my glaze recipes. I came up with a cute design to do for the glazes, since they were different flavors. I wanted it to be easy to tell the different flavors apart. I was planning to label them, of course, but wanted a nice design, too.

An hour passes, and it is finally time to roll out the dough! This part always takes me the longest. I like to make sure the dough is thin enough, and every piece is identical to the last. In reality, it doesn't really matter since they get crimped, but I can't help myself. I like to do the very best that I can with everything that I do. It honestly took me about 45 minutes to roll and cut 24 identical rectangles, to equal 12 full pastries. After about the 9th one, it was getting a little difficult to get a whole dozen out of one dough. I did it, but it wasn't easy. And the last few didn't look the prettiest, I won't lie. Now, I could finally get the preserves out! I was so excited to work with these fruity fillings! I could fit 6 on one baking sheet, so I had two batches to bake. I did the strawberry and blueberry first since they were plain flavors. All 6 filled, sealed, crimped, vent holes poked, and egg-washed, ready for the oven! They baked for 25 minutes. The second batch, I started with the mixed berry, knowing I had to make some sort of cream cheese concoction to go into the last set of pastries. I did almost a cream cheese frosting, but without milk. I used about four ounces of cream cheese with maybe one cup of powdered sugar, and a splash of vanilla. I originally wanted to do a stripe of each flavor, alternating the strawberry and cream cheese, but it was a little difficult spreading the cream cheese onto the raw pastry. This is a learning experience, so I was trying not to get too frustrated. I ended up doing a layer of cream cheese with strawberry preserve on top. This batch was ready for the oven! And good timing, as the first batch was ready to come out. The second batch was also baked for about 25 minutes. However, after they cooled, it looks like they could have baked a few minutes longer. They were baked through all the way; I just thought they could have used a little more color.

Now to wait for them all to cool so they can be glazed! I was thinking about the designs I wanted to do. I had to figure out how to make the two strawberry flavors look different. Here's the kicker: I wasn't sure if I had enough strawberry preserve left! I wanted to put some preserves into the glaze to give it a nice pinkish color, but I didn't have enough for the glaze and the design. And I definitely didn't have the time to make another batch of that. They are completely cool after an hour and a half, and I get to making the glaze. A plain vanilla glaze, with powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. I did the strawberry first because I was stressing about it. Turns out, I had just enough strawberry preserve to add to the glaze to give it a slight pink color and add a little design to the pastries. The design didn't come out how I wanted, and I may have added a fancier design to the plain strawberry instead of the strawberry cream cheese one. I suppose this tends to happen when you're in the kitchen until 2 AM... Oh well, they all look good, even if that wasn't my original plan. Next, I did the blueberry glaze. Again, just a vanilla glaze base, but for this one, I had plenty of blueberry preserve left, so some of it got mixed into the glaze. It made this beautiful, deep purple color. These got dipped, set to dry, and then onto the last pastry: the mixed berry. I also had plenty of this preserve left, so it got added to the glaze as well. This one made a gorgeous mauve color, so vibrant and fresh. I dipped the mixed berry pastries and decided to do a little design on these with the preserve that was left. These were probably my favorites. They were the best looking, in my opinion.

Time to let those set up before they get boxed up, as I clean the kitchen for the third time during this process. Ugh, I was beyond exhausted at this point, but determined to wait for the glaze to dry so they could be packaged. I couldn't go to sleep knowing my task wasn't finished. After all the dishes were clean, counters and appliances were wiped and sanitized, and I was able to sit down for a minute. I took this time to play around with a little portable printer I got. It is the cutest, coolest little thing I have ever gotten. I was able to print a little logo sticker and a couple of little hearts to put on the boxes. Speaking of the boxes, the pastries were finally dry, so they got labeled, packaged, and a little twine was wrapped around the two boxes, ready to be delivered in the morning. The final dishes got cleaned, and just like that, the late-night baking came to an end. My, how time flies when you do what you love!

This was such a fun bake! It brings me such joy to learn, experiment, and bake new things. This was such a learning experience, and I'm ready for the next batch. And I am loving this new chapter of my baking life, and it is all thanks to you! I wouldn't be able to if it weren't for all of you and your support, so thank you with all of my heart. I am so grateful for my followers and supporters. Thank you so much for being here! As always, check out my Facebook and Instagram pages for exclusive shots from the kitchen! I'm starting to get the hang of making these videos, so don't miss out!! I'm trying to post every day, so make sure to check them out! And that may be the reason I don't have as many pictures in this story as I normally do. I got so caught up in the baking and the videos, I forgot to stop and take pictures, too. For that, I am sorry, and all the more reason to check the socials for the video! But here is the recipe! Again, thank you so much for being here. Go learn something today! Take care. <3