Breakfast pastries

As a pastry chef with a few years of experience under my belt, making laminated pastries does give me joy. However, with the introduction of twins into the daily mix I needed to come up with weekend pastry treats that are a little less time-consuming but also able to give me a buttery hit.

These breakfast pastries rely on handy store-bought puff pastry as the base and a few variations to keep your Sunday morning goodies novel and fun.

Mixed berry and lemon curd breakfast pastries - serves 6

6 x 10cm squares of puff pastry

Lemon curd

3 egg yolks

1 egg

125ml lemon juice

100g caster sugar

100g butter

Berries

6 strawberries sliced

12 blueberries

18 raspberries

Method

First start by making your lemon curd

·        In a pot place your lemon juice and butter

·        In a separate bowl place egg yolk, eggs and caster sugar and whisk together

·        Heat the pot of lemon juice and butter on medium heat until butter has melted

·        Slowly pour the butter mixture into the egg mixture whisking constantly

·        Pour the mixture back in the pot and cooking on a low heat, stir until the mixture is thick and bubbling.

·        Pour the curd into an airtight container, leave to cool and store in the fridge

Danish pastries

·        Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

·        Place the puff pastry squares on a baking sheet lined with baking paper

·        Using a sharp knife, cut a 1cm border edge onto edge puff pastry square

·        You want to make a slight indentation into the pastry but the puff pastry must not be cut all the way through

·        Bake the pastry for 15 minutes or until golden

Assembly

·        Take each puff pastry square and gently remove the top layer of the centre, taking care to keep most of the base intact

·        Place two tablespoons of lemon curd in each pastry

·        Garnish with one strawberry halved, three raspberries and two blueberries on each pastry

·        Sieve over icing sugar before serving

Variations

Lemon, apricot and toasted coconut

·        Cut 12cm by 10cm rectangles of puff pastry

·        Place a tablespoon of lemon curd in the centre

·        Having the 12cm length face you egg wash opposite corners and fold over each other

·        Bake for 15 minutes

·        Place an apricot half on each end, garnish with toasted coconut flakes and sieve over icing sugar

Strawberries and yoghurt cream

·        Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

·        Place the puff pastry squares on a baking sheet lined with baking paper

·        Using a sharp knife, cut a 1cm border edge onto edge puff pastry square

·        You want to make a slight indentation into the pastry but the puff pastry must not be cut all the way through

·        Bake the pastry for 15 minutes or until golden

·        Whisk equal amounts of yoghurt and cream and place a tablespoon into the middle of each square

·        Garnish with strawberries and icing sugar