Chicken Puffs

In India, by evening the bakeries are filled with a different variety of hot puffs. Though I am not a big fan of these puffs, my family loves them a lot.

Here in the US as we get them very rarely, I bake them once in a while for my puffs loving daughter and husband. Now as my in-laws are here, I make sure they eat fresh homemade snack along with their evening tea and puffs have become a common one.

I usually bake egg puffs and paneer puffs. These chicken puffs, I made for the first time and is a huge hit. This is a perfect snack for guests. Make the chicken filling and fold it in the pastry sheet. Arrange them on a baking tray and when needed just bake and serve hot puffs.
Enjoy them as it is, or douse them generously with ketchup and bite into this splendid treat.

Ingredients:

1. Puff pastry Sheets- 10 square sheets
2. Boneless Chicken Pieces- 1 Cup
3. Green Chillies (chopped)- 2 tbsp
4. Pepper Powder- 1 Tsp
5. Red Chilli Powder- 1 Tsp
6. Turmeric Powder- 1/2 Tsp
7. Salt- as required
8. Tomato Sauce- 1 tbsp
9. Garam Masala- 1tsp
10. Fennel Powder- 1/2 Tsp
11. Onions (chopped)- 1 no
12. Ginger and Garlic Paste- 1 tbsp
13. Oil- 1 tbsp
14. Egg- 1 no

Method:

1. Depending upon the instructions on the pack of puff pastry sheets, thaw them for some time. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Chop the washed and drained chicken pieces into small cubes. Keep this aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add the chopped onions, green chilies. Stir till they turn translucent. Add the ginger- garlic paste, fry for about 1 minute.
4. Add the red chili powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder, fennel powder. Stir till the raw smell disappears. Add the tomato sauce along with salt.
5. Saute well, add the chopped chicken pieces and cook until done. If any moisture is left cook till the gravy becomes dry. 
6. Take one squared pastry sheet and place a tbsp of chicken masala in the middle of the sheet and fold in the desired shape.
7. Repeat with the remaining till the sheets and chicken masala is finished. Beat the egg and do the egg wash on top of the folded puffs for a shiny finish.
8. Arrange on a lined tray and bake for about 15- 20 minutes. The top will turn golden brown color.
9. Serve them along with hot tea or coffee.

Paneer( cottage cheese) Puffs

Puffs are the most popular snacks in India. We can see these crispy, flaky savory pastries in almost all the bakeries in India and which is liked by many along with their evening tea. When we were in India, we used to buy a lot of different varieties of filling in puff pastries.

Today I have made puffs with paneer filling. These are super simple to made and they are amazingly delicious. All you need to have is puff pastry sheets and paneer. You can also make the filling and shape them in triangles and store in the freezer. Whenever required remove the puffs from the freezer, thaw them till soft and bake till it gets cooked well. An appetizing snack which will be loved by all.

You can make puff pastry filling using chicken, mutton, vegetables of your choice or eggs. Egg Puffs are the most popular ones in India. I have posted about egg puffs long bake in my blog. In the US, we will get the veg puffs only in Indian store but not very frequently and to fulfill our desire of eating hot puffs, I will be making this regularly with different fillings which I mentioned above and this time it is with paneer. Hope you all will like this. Please try this out and let me know

Ingredients:

1. Cottage Cheese/ Paneer- 1 Cup
2. Green chilies- 3 nos
3. Onions- 1 no
4. Cumin Seeds- 1 tsp
5. Grated Ginger- 1 tbsp
6. Coriander Powder- 1 tsp
7. Red Chilli Powder- 1 tsp
8. Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
9. Cumin Powder- 1 tsp
10. Garam Masala- 1 tsp
11. Lemon Juice- ½ tbsp
12. Oil- 1 tbsp
13. Fresh Cilantro( chopped)- 1 tbsp  

Method:

1. Thaw the puff pastry until it comes to room temperature and becomes soft.
2. Meanwhile, chop the onions and green chilies. Heat oil and splutter cumin seeds, add the onions and green chilies.
3. Saute until translucent, add the grated ginger when the raw smells disappear add the spice powders and stir till everything gets blended.
4. At last, add the grated paneer and required amount of salt with a dash of lemon juice and chopped cilantro. Mix and keep this aside.
5. Cut the thawed puff pastry sheets into squares and in each square place a tbsp of the paneer mixture in the middle and fold the sheets in the form of a triangle. Press the sides of the sheets so that the filling won’t come out while baking.
6. Arrange the prepared triangle puffs on a parchment paper and bake them for about 15- 20 minutes or till top gets browned. When done, cool them and serve along with tomato ketchup or just enjoy with hot tea.

Palmier Cookies

Elegant palmier cookies  are one of my all time favorites treats. These are melt in mouth, buttery, flaky, layered cookies. This is a super easy dish which is prepared using puff pastry sheets and sugar. The cookies are also called as elephant ears, french hearts, french palmier cookies.

I first had this amazing cookies, when I went for a potluck. Among the desserts, I saw these delicious cookies and tasted one. I fell in love with the light, flaky, buttery layers. I googled and was shocked to see that with just two ingredients a luscious, delectable, appetising dessert is made. Ufff!!!! I don’t have words to describe these cookies.

During this Ramadhan fasting time, I thought of baking and this was the result. Everybody will love it.

Not only sugar, you can also experiment by adding cinnamon, dried fruits, candied ginger as a filling for the cookies. Try this out and let me know...

Ingredients:

1. Puff Pastry Sheets- 1 sheet
2. Granulated Sugar- ¼ Cup

Method:

1. Thaw the puff pastry sheets and roll out into even rectangle shape by placing the sheet on granulated sugar.
2. Using a rolling pin roll the sugar into the rolled pastry sheets.
3. Fold the left and right sides of the sheet to middle, sprinkle some sugar and roll lightly.
4. Again fold from middle, so that it looks like a book. Press lightly and keep this refrigerated for about 30 minutes, so that the dough will be firm.
5. Preheat the oven for about 400 degrees F. After chilling, slice the folded pastry sheet using a sharp knife roughly 1 inch wide.
6. Grease a baking pan and transfer the sliced cookie pieces laying them cut side up. Sprinkle some more sugar on top. Make sure you place the cookies few inches apart as they will puff quite a lot.
7. Bake for about 18- 20 minutes. Cool and serve. They will become crispier as they cool. Store in airtight containers.

Umm Ali/ Egyptian Bread Pudding

This umm ali is an Egyptian sweet, that has a layer of puff pastry sheets, nuts and milk. This dessert is totally delicious, easy, simple and made with very less ingredients.

This looks similar to bread pudding. You can even add raisins, desiccated coconut, chocolate chips of your choice.

I first heard about this dessert long back, but couldn't try because of the non availability of puff pastry sheets. I completely forgot about this dish and one day my brother, when he visited Kuwait, he ate this at a friend’s place and told me about this awesome dessert. Then itself I have decided that this one I am going to try and within minutes a wonderful dessert is made.I was really surprised that this lovely dessert can be made easily. Just a mouthful and you will be mesmerized with the flavors and I am sure that you won't stop with a little.

This is a warm, comforting, gooey and very delicious dessert. Now I am thinking, I should have tried this dessert long back...

Adapted from All Recipes:

Ingredients:

1. Puff Pastry Sheets- 1 Packet (thawed)
2. Milk- 3 Cups
3. Sugar- ¾ Cup (as required)
4. Almonds- ½ Cup
5. Pistachios- ½ Cup
6. Vanilla Essence- 1 tsp
7. Cream- ½ Cup

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bread pan with butter and arrange the puff pastry sheets one over the other and bake for about 15 minutes. The puff pastry should be golden and puffed.
2. In a sauce pan heat milk along with sugar and vanilla essence. Stir well and let it boil for about 15- 20 minutes till the milk is reduced little. Switch off the flame.
3. Break the puff pastry sheets into pieces and place it in the bread pan, sprinkle some powdered almonds and pistachios.
4. Over this pour the boiled, reduced milk and cream  and remaining nuts on top. Bake for 20- 25 minutes and serve warm.

Kerala Egg Puffs with a dash of Schezwan Sauce

Egg puffs are my favorite tea time snacks. Not only mine but my family’s favorite snack too. These egg puffs are available in almost all the bakeries in India.

I love to prepare them at home, but as you all might know by now that I am a very lazy person and making puff pastry sheets at home was a dream for me and also the ready made pastry sheets were not easily available in the shops. But here in US almost all the shops have these sheets in there frozen section and so I grabbed one and tried these egg puffs, which came out perfectly baked.

Ready to go in the oven...

In these puffs I have added a spread of homemade schezwan sauce for a twist and it tasted amazing. You can also try it if you have schezwan sauce at home or omit that step. Any ways, this will taste yummy.

Ingredients:

1. Puff Pastry Sheets- 10 nos
2. Eggs- 5 nos
3. Onions( sliced)- 2 nos
4. Tomato (sliced)- 1 no
5. Kashmiri Chilli Powder- 1 tbsp
6. Turmeric Powder- 1 tsp
7. Pepper Powder- 1 tsp
8. Garam Masala Powder- 1 tsp
9. Salt- as required
10. Tomato Ketchup- 1 tbsp
11. Egg Wash- 1 egg
12. Schezwan Sauce- 3- 4 tbsp (optional)

Method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C and arrange a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. Boil the eggs, when cooled, deshell and cut into half.
3. For the masala, heat oil in a pan, add the sliced onions. When they turn translucent, add tomatoes and mix well.
4. In this add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, pepper powder, garam masala powder and salt. Stir well till everything gets blended together. At this stage add tomato ketchup, mix and switch off the flame. Divide this into 10 equal parts.
5. Take a puff pastry square, spread the schezwan sauce, spoon the prepared masala in the center of the sheet. Over that place the halved egg and fold all the corners to the center and press with your finger to seal.
6. Brush with egg wash. Repeat the process for all the puff pastry squares. Place these puffs on the parchment paper and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until it turns golden in colour.
7. Serve and enjoy hot egg puffs along with tomato ketchup and hot tea.