A few months ago, some friends gave us two huge jars of canned apricots. “My mother cans them every year,” he said. “They have a HUGE tree in their yard and literally nothing goes to waste.” “And,” his wife chimes in, “she sends us a crate of them every year, we are up to our ears in backlogged apricots!” Amazing! I thought. It sounds like a dream I sometimes have (seriously)–going into my pantry or kitchen or shelving area and finding row upon row of colorful, tantalizing, and amazing canned goodness! Apricots, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, succotash, tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, carrots, bok choy, jicama, cabbage, and I am sure I’m forgetting a few, are all there lining the shelves in their glossy (glassy) glory. These two huge mason jars of apricots have been sitting in our dining room for some time now. That’s good, because they have been in plain sight and prompting me to subconsciously stew over what to make with them. Deep down, I’ve known for some time now that little puff pastry danishes with the apricots would be in order–so when I re-discovered the recipe in the Baking with Julia (Child, that is) cookbook, I immediately got busy and started in on them.

The puff pastry took two days to make. It sounds intimidating, but it’s really a matter of patience more than anything (which, is challenging in and of itself!). First, you make a very basic dough–water, flour, salt. Then, you roll it into a circle with “flaps” coming off of the four sides. You do this by first rolling out a circle, then putting your rolling pin in the center to start, you roll out first towards the top to make a flap that protrudes out. Make sure you do this for each side. Why? Because when you fold in the pound of butter shaped as a square–yes, you heard right, one pound–you wrap it in the dough like a present.

Roll the dough out with the butter inside into a rectangle, about 18-24 inches. If it starts to squish through the dough, wrap it in plastic and set it in the fridge for a half hour to firm back up. Then try again. Once the dough has been rolled once, fold the rectangle length-wise, with the folds on your left (like a book) roll it out and do it again (that is a total of three times so far). Roll it out one more time if it’s cold enough, then fold on top of itself, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for an hour or over night. Make four thumb marks on the side of the dough so you remember how many times you’ve rolled it. The next day (or hour) roll it out two more times. The butter should be nicely incorporated–it might coagulate a little bit on the ends which happens, but otherwise, it should be a part of the dough by now, not seeing chunks anywhere.

I’ll give you the rest of the recipe below, but making the puff pastry itself is pretty involved and deserves it’s own explanation! Sometimes a girl (well, me anyway) just needs to get into her kitchen and make something challenging. Instead of putting on my boxing gloves, I put on my oven mits–needless to say, I don’t actually use oven mits, but you get the idea. If you are new to baking, you may want to research puff pastry a little more. My explanation was quick and step by step images really help. But don’t let intimidation or the little voice in your head saying “ya right! puff pastry?!” stop you! Keep on keepin’ on, my friends, and if it doesn’t turn out the first time, it more than likely will your second or third try. This is a great recipe though and I highly recommend Julia Child’s cookbook, Baking with Julia, for this very purpose. She is a master explain-er! (but of course!). I love how detailed her books are–she’s not only good with explaining with words, but there are nice step by step photos too. If you try puff pastry, or ever have tried it, I’d love to know about your experience!

Puff Pastry 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour 1 1/4 cups cake flour — I used all regular flour and it worked out alright 1 tablespoon salt 1 1/4 cups ice water 4 sticks (1 pound) very cold unsalted butter, shaped into a square *see above for instructions

The Apricots *if you don’t have any canned apricots laying around, here’s a way to make some quickly yourself 2 cups water 1 cup sugar Juice of 1/2 a lemon 8 apricots, halved and pitted

A few hours (or as long as 2 days) ahead poach the apricots: bring the water and sugar to a boil in a 3- to 4-quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the apricots and simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until they offer just a little resistance when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. Take the pan off the heat and let the apricots cool in the syrup. Drain an pat the apricots dry before using. If keeping the apricots for longer than a few hours, cover and refrigerate them.

The Pastry Cream 1 cup milk 1/4 cup sugar pinch of salt 2 large egg yolks 2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch 1/2 vanilla bean or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Put the milk, sugar, salt, egg yolks, and cornstartch in a 2-quart sauce pan. If your’re using a vanilla bean, split it in half lengthwise, scrape the soft, pulpy seeds into the pan, and toss in the pod. If you’re using vailla extract, keep it in reserve until the cream is cooked. Stir with a wire whisk to ble, bring to a boil, whisking constantly, and let the pastry cream bokl for 30-60 seconds, at which point it iwll have thickened and the whisk will leave tracks as you stir. Take the pan off the heat and scrape the pastry cream into a strainer set over a bowl. Push through the strainer, discard the vanilla bean. If you are using extract, stir it in now. Cover the bowl with plastic, pressing the plastic wrap up against the surface of the cream and top the layer of plastic with ice cubes. Leave the ice cubes there until the cream cools.

The Pastry Puff pastry recipe 2 cups (approx.) sugar 1/2 cup apricot jam 2 teaspoons water

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Working on a lightly floured surface (cool marble is ideal, although my kitchen table worked fine too), roll the puff pastry to a thickness of between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. Flour the edges of a 4 inch cookie cutter round and cut 8 rounds from the dough. Stack the puff pastry scraps neatly, trying to keep the layers in place and refrigerate to use in another recipe (coming soon!). Clean the work surface and sprinkle it generously with sugar. While you work on one round, keep the others covered with plastic wrap. Rest a puff pastry round on the sugar and dust the top of the round lightly with flour to facilitate the rolling. Roll out the round until it elongates into an oval about 8 inches long. Don’t roll all the way to the ends–you want the ends to be a little thicker so that they’ll puff up higher around the apricots (also, if you roll over the ends you risk pasting the layers together). Brush the flour off the top and put the oval on the large unbuttered baking sheet, sugar side up. Repeat with the remaining pastries, leaving little room between each pastry on the sheet–these are going to puff up, not out.

Spoon a walnut-sized dollop of pastry cream onto the center of each oval and set 2 apricot halves side by side on the cream so that they resemble eggs sunny-side up. Bake the pastries for about 35 minutes, The pastries should be golden and beautifully puffed, and the sugar should have caramelized.