Easy Almond Pastries

These pastries really couldn’t be easier. With just a few ingredients you have a fun and delicious brunch dish. What makes them so fun? Cookie cutters and food coloring.

I like to use cookie cutters to cut my pastry into seasonally appropriate shapes and then tint the icing on them to make them especially festive. With Easter coming up, I couldn’t resist making some Easter egg pastries.

Decorating the pastries would be a great kitchen project for kids. I usually put my icing in zippered sandwich bags and snip off the tips for decorating purposes, but you could also put the icing in little bowls and brush it on with a pastry brush or new paintbrush.

If you didn’t want to make them season-specific, you could make them as squares or triangles with a drizzle of white icing – they’re just as good!

Easy Almond Pastries

Easy Almond Pastries

Ingredients

  • 1 box of frozen puff pastry, thawed
  • 1 can of almond pastry filling
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 c. powdered sugar
  • 3 T. milk
  • Food coloring, if desired

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F degrees.
  2. Using a cookie cutter (or a sharp knife) cut out an even number of puff pastry pieces.
  3. Generously spread the almond pastry filling on half of the cut-out shapes, and then use the remaining shapes to top them off. Using a fork, press together the edges of the pastry to seal in the almond filling.
  4. Transfer the pastries to a lined baking sheet. Brush the tops with the beaten egg.
  5. Bake for 20 minutes, until the pastries are golden brown. Set them aside to cool.
  6. Meanwhile, whisk together the powdered sugar and milk. Add more sugar or milk to reach desired consistancy. Stir in food coloring as desired.
  7. Drizzle the icing over the cooled pastries to decorate. Alternatively, you can brush the icing on using a pastry brush or new paint brush.
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5 Tips for Holiday Entertaining

The holidays mean getting together with friends and family.  And that often means that you’re the host of the gathering.  Here are my top 5 tips for Holiday Hosting:

1.  Keep it simple.

I’m not a perfectionist.  I’m not fancy.  But I don’t let my lack of themed decorations and perfect place settings get in the way of having friends and family over.  I just keep it simple and relaxed.  And I’ve found that most people really enjoy a time to kick back and laugh together, without worrying about anything more.

2.  Set up a buffet.  

Whether you’re doing desserts or a full meal, buffet style is easier to pull of than a sit down dinner.  Guests can serve themselves, go back for seconds and generally find what they need when a party is set up as a buffet.

3.  Ask about special diet restrictions.

It’s always nice to know and plan for guests who may avoid sugar or who eat gluten free.  They’ll appreciate your extra effort for them.

4.  If you have kids coming, make it kid friendly.

Kids love munching bite-sized fruits and cheese cubes.  Parents will appreciate if you keep the cookie and chocolate trays up high so toddlers and preschoolers can’t help themselves.

5.  Think through the cooking time of your recipes.

If you’ve got two ovens, you’re in luck.  You’ve got plenty of flexibility.  If you only have one, you’ll have to plan well.  Try using slow cookers for some of the dishes.  I recently found this Breville Smart Oven and it’s now on my wish list.  It can do anything from make toast to bake bread to make crispy pizza.  It will even roast a chicken.

Breville has released new, time saving products such as the Smart Oven, just in time for the holidays! Take the guess work our of holiday cooking with the Smart Oven, the oven that does the thinking for you. Check out their website for more information on this product and other great gift ideas. 

And don’t forget to reply below for two chances to win your choice of amazing Breville products either for yourself or as a gift to a loved one: YouBrew, Tea Maker and Smart Oven products ($250 ARV)

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Breville. The opinions and text are all mine. Official Sweepstakes Rules

Low Carb Cranberry Sauce

This is a guest post from Dawn Farias.  She is going to be sharing her favorite low carb dishes with us in a new monthly series.

Cranberry sauce is a staple around the holidays and is a snap to convert to a more low-carb version.  You simply find a recipe you like and substitute your artificial sweetener of choice.  The trick is not adding too much because doing so can make your final product fairly bitter.  But in the final analysis, I suppose it’s all a matter of ‘taste’.  (Yes, I went there!)


At any rate, here’s what you’ll need: [Read more...]

Caramel Apple Pie

Thanksgiving means pie.  This apple pie fits right in with the required pumpkin and pecan pies.  Using brown sugar instead of white makes the filling rich, dark and caramely.

The recipe comes from a small cookbook my Aunt Gerry put together years ago.  I bet if she’d had computers and internet, she would have had a food blog! [Read more...]

Cranberry Nut Bars

cranberry nut bars done

Please make these and share them with a group of people.  If you don’t, you’ll eat the whole pan yourself.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

These cake-like dessert bars combine the tart cranberry flavor with sweet cake and the crunch of pecans.  Oh my!  I can’t stay out of them. [Read more...]

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