It is spring time in Australia and this means it’s strawberry season. The strawberries come in hot red colours with an intense fragrance. Their season is short and families are eager to visit the small farms and orchards around Perth where they can have a family picnic and return home with a big box of freshly harvested sweet strawberries.
Unfortunately, this season the strawberry farmers are having a hard time selling their fruit. In some areas of Australia strawberries have been tampered with and nobody wants to buy them. Their price is so very low that they are practically being given away. I was one of the strawberry lovers that gave up on them and I did not want to buy them.
As time went by and I saw the suffering of the farmers I decided to buy them and try a new recipe. Here are my beautiful and tasty bundles of love to support the strawberry farmers.
Ingredients
- 4 sheets of ready puff pastry
- 1 cup of fresh strawberries, cut in quarters
- 1 cup strawberry jam
- 1 cup white marzipan, coarsely grated
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/2 cup flaked sliced almonds
Ingredients for the Glaze
- 2 tablespoons strawberry jam
- 1 tablespoon water
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Let the puff pastry defrost.
- Cut the puff pastry into four equal squares.
- Quarter the strawberries.
- Using a spoon, place 2 tablespoons of strawberry jam into the centre of each puff pastry square, leaving a border all around.
- Divide the marzipan among them.
- Place 6 strawberry quarters on top of each marzipan mound.
- Brush the edges of the pastry with a little beaten egg.
- Bring up the corners of the pastry and lightly press the edges together, then open out the corners at the top.
- Glaze the pastries with some more beaten egg, then press some of the flaked almonds on each.
- Bake the pastries for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make the glaze, heat the jam and water in a pan, stirring until smooth.
- Press the mixture through a sieve into a bowl, then lightly brush it over the tops of the pastries while they are still warm.
- Leave the pastries to cool on a wire rack before serving at room temperature.
Tips
- If the strawberries are not sweet, cut them in quarters and add 1 tablespoon of sugar. Let them marinate for 1 hour.
- Be generous with the filling, otherwise you will end up with lots of pastry and not enough filling.
- It is a bit difficult to fold the little bundles but you have to make sure that they are well sealed on the edges or they will open up on the top while in the oven and the mixture will ooze out.
- You can fold them anyway to like just make sure they are properly sealed.
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