Shrimp and Mushroom Pasty

As an American kid, I had zero idea of a pasty was. Redwall and Harry Potter compelled me to look it up and I found that a pasty is basically a savory turnover. This shrimp and mushroom pasty from The Outcast of Redwall is my first real attempt at making them. I cheated and used pre-made biscuit dough (please don't judge; it's finals week...) but I think they would be even better with a basic puff pastry dough.

Shrimp and Mushroom Pasty

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 10-15 minutes
Total time: 30-35 minutes

Yield: 8 pasties

Ingredients

• 1 small yellow or white onion
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 8 ounces shrimp, shells and tails removed
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 1 recipe puff pastry dough or pre-made biscuit dough.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Finely chop onion and pepper
3. Add oil, onion, and pepper to a large skillet and cook over medium-high heat until softened.
   
4. Add mushrooms to pan and sweat until softened
   
5. Add shrimp to pan. If you're using raw shrimp, stir them around until fully cooked. If you're using thawed, cooked shrimp (I used pre-cooked salad shrimp...it's finals week...) then just stir them around to be sure there's no remaining ice on them.
   
6. Add cayenne pepper and set the skillet aside to cool slightly.
7. Roll and cut your dough into 8 large circles (if you're using biscuit dough, separate the biscuits).
8. Cup one circle of dough in your palm to create a bowl (or pull the biscuit apart halfway).
   
9. Spoon some of the shrimp mixture into the dough, being very careful not to burn yourself.
   
10. Crimp the edges of the circle together to seal and lay it on your sheet.
    
11. Repeat for the other 7 circles.
    
12. Bake pasties for 10-15 minutes, or until dough is golden brown. 
    

Raspberry Cream Turnovers

Raspberry cream turnovers were found in the book Taggeerung. For a long time, I debated between whether these were pastries with raspberries and cream or if they were pastries with some sort of raspberry-flavored cream. I went with the first idea, but maybe I'll revisit the second version when berry season comes around again... These turnovers make good use of the honeycream recipe I posted last week as well as any raspberry jam you may have made with the last of the berry season. Store-bought jam, of course, works just as nicely. I refrigerated my jam to make it stiff, which made this recipe easier.

Note: I don't recommend making the honeycream with chevre for this recipe, as goat cheese and raspberry aren't really the most compatible flavors. If you wanted to make these with fig jam, instead, that would be a different story...

Raspberry Cream Turnovers

Prep time: 20 minutes + time needed to make the dough
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time: 30 minutes

Yield: 24 mini-turnovers

Ingredients

• Pastry Dough
• Honeycream (You'll need about a 1/4-1/2 cup) 
• 1/4 cup raspberry jam (I used my strawberry jam recipe and just changed fruits)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Roll the pastry out into a rectangular shape and cut into twenty-four triangles. (I rolled mine out to about 12 inches by 9 inches, cut it into 12 3x3 squares, then cut each square in half)
   
3. Coat the center of each triangle with the honeycream. See how mine kind of goes really close to the edge? Try not to do that. It makes things harder later.
   
4. Plop a little ball of jam into the center of each cream smear. Try not to let that get close to the edge, either.
   
5. Fold over all the triangles so the cream and jam is enclosed. If necessary, wet the edges of the dough to act as glue. You can see that some of mine aren't well sealed because the cream was too close to the edge. It's not disastrous, but it's definitely messier than it could have been.
   
6. Bake turnovers for about 10 minutes, or until the dough is nicely golden brown. These can definitely be made into fewer larger turnovers, but you may need to increase the cooking time.

PS:  I went apple picking this weekend and have a massive number of apples to cook with. Brace yourselves for several weeks of apple-related recipes. Happy fall.

Strawberry Jam Turnovers

These turnovers were mentioned in Salamandastron. I made them small biscuits with homemade jam and puff pastry dough. They would be great to put on a saucer with your cup of tea if you're feeling fancy. Some unfortunate oven problems prevented my puff pastry dough from puffing properly, but they still tasted quite good. These are not very sweet, so if you want a more cookie-like treat you can dust them with powdered sugar after baking or sprinkle with granulated sugar before baking.

Please remember, if you're making your own puff pastry dough you should start it the day before.

Strawberry Jam Turnovers

Prep time: (Not including making the dough, if you're doing that) 30 minutes
Cook time: 10-15 minutes
Total time: 40-45 minutes

Yield: 3 to 4 dozen micro-turnovers

Ingredients

• 1 recipe puff pastry dough
• About 1/2 cup your choice of jam (I used my Basic Strawberry Jam)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Take your dough from the fridge and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll it out to about 1/8 of an inch thick.
3. Cut the dough into 2.5 inch rounds or squares (I used the rim of a wine glass to make circles because I don't have any cookie cutters...that aren't Star Wars shaped...)
4. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and transfer your dough pieces. Place about a 1/2 teaspoon of jam in the center of each piece. 
   
5. Fold the dough over to make a half-moon or triangle, covering the jam.
6. Use a fork to crimp and seal the edges of each turnover. (You can tell I overfilled some of these and they leaked during the crimping. Use a paper towel to wipe the worst of the leak so you don't end up with burned jam at the edges.)
   
7. Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
8. Slide the parchment paper with the turnovers onto racks to cool before storing in a sealed tupperware.