Friday Faves – Nutmeg Nanny makes Chocolate Almond Pastry
Whew – sorry this is getting posted so late in the day. Blogger decided to take the evening off last night and didn’t come back up until recently. Today is a beautiful day in Boston and I’m very excited that it’s Friday! How about you? Today’s Friday Fav is a Nutmeg Nanny. I love that blog name! Freshly ground nutmeg is one of my favorite ingredients ever. Brandy makes all sorts of tasty treats andhas participated in my Operation Baking Gals teams and Bloggers Bake for Hope. If you haven’t seen her blog, definitely check it out.
Hello! I’m Brandy from the food blog Nutmeg Nanny. I’m a small town girl who left the corn fields of Ohio for the beautiful landscape of the Hudson Valley region of New York. My life was not always about cooking and baking but over the past ten years I have started exploring my foodie side. I use my blog to share my sweet treats and sometimes savory dishes. I’m not a fan of intimidating food so I like to keep my recipes simple…but delicious!
Do you ever have a night where all you want is something sweet? I tend to have those nights almost every night. It’s an addiction….I’m sure of it. Well, sometimes on those nights I just don’t have the energy to whip up a batch of cookies or cake. Luckily, I recently found a delicious quick dessert treat. I can now have my sweet chocolate fix in barely no time at all! It’s perfectly delicious cut into wedges and even better topped with ice cream. Then again, whats not better topped with ice cream?
This recipe uses store bought puff pastry, chocolate morsels, sea salt and almonds. Ingredients I always have sitting in my pantry. The most important thing to remember when using puff pastry is to keep it cold. If it’s not cold it will not properly puff…and that would be sad and not so delicious. The added sea salt is optional but I’m a big fan of the salty and sweet combo…how about you?
Enjoy!!!
Chocolate Almond Pastries
Ingredients:
1 sheet frozen puff pastry - thawed
1 large egg - lightly beaten for egg wash
Turbinado sugar - for sprinkling
1 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (Or use morsels)
Best-quality honey - for drizzling
2 tablespoons whole almonds - toasted and coarsely chopped
Sea salt - for sprinkling (Optional)
Vanilla ice cream, for serving (optional)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Arrange puff pastry on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Trim edges if needed to form a 10-inch square, and fold each edge in to form a 1-inch crust. Prick middle of dough all over with a fork. Brush edges with egg
wash, and sprinkle with sugar. Freeze for 15 minutes.
Transfer baking sheet to oven, and bake until pastry is puffed and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, and cover center evenly with chocolate. Drizzle with honey, and sprinkle with salt. Return to oven, and bake until chocolate melts, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle with almonds,and cut into 4 squares. Serve with ice cream if desired, and drizzle with more honey.
Recipe from Martha Stewart
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Wow, you’re going to end up with a whole lotta bars by the end of the week 😀
Yum! Love this recipe 🙂
http://www.brisbanebaker.blogspot.com
I love when ingredients don’t sound like they would be good, but come together in an amazing way! These look lovely.
I really enjoy your blog, lots of great photos and recipes! These look so good! I love oats, chocolate, and raisins, but have never combined all three.
These bars look fantastic and full of flavor. I’m bookmarking this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
These sound wonderful! I’m not huge on raisins either but it sounds like they really work here. I’ll have to try these! 🙂
This looks really great but I don’t think I can do the raisins–maybe I would make this and then I could give it to other people instead of eating it all myself!
Who is getting to eat all these amazing creations? Those ingredients sound delicious to me so I can only imagine the combined taste!
Ha Kelly! My husband and I take the baked goods to work with us. I am also the girl who always brings a dessert to any gathering. Everyone knows that if we’re hanging out, I’ll probably have desserts in hand. I usually only have about one of whatever I make (hey, I have to taste test my food!)
I am soooo making my housemates make me these for my birthday. If they don’t, I’ll just make them this weekend!! Thanks for the wonderful recipe!
How many grams in a stick of butter?
beantownbaker — September 17th, 2013 @ 7:30 am
There is information about butter in my FAQ page. 1 stick=113g