Cherry Puff Diamonds

Serves 8

Ingredients

½ recipe pastry cream from your favorite recipe
Cherry filling from following recipe (or use canned cherry pie filling)
1 ½  lbs puff pastry dough
(Dufour is an all butter puff pastry available in the freezer section of better grocery stores)
Egg wash (made by whisking 1 whole egg with 2 Tbsp. water)

Method

1. Roll out the dough 1/8" thick.
2. Relax the dough and cut (8) ‑5" squares. (Plan ahead to avoid excessive waste.)
3. Fold the squares into triangles with the folded side towards you.
4. Make a cut 1/4" in from both the left and right sides ending 1/4" from the top of the triangle.
5. Open the pastry up. There will be two L‑shaped strips barely attached to the square. Brush with cut strips lightly with water. Fold the left strip over to the right side of the square and the right strip over to the left side of the square. This will create a rim around the pastry with a knot at the top and bottom. Dock the center with a fork. Brush the tops of the rims lightly with egg wash, taking care not to get any on the sides of the pastry.
6. Pipe a thin layer of pastry cream to fill the area inside of the rim.
7. Bake at 350° in the oven until the sides are well puffed and stable.
8. Remove from the oven and top with a generous scoop of chilled cherry filling.
9. Continue baking at 350° until the pastry is crisp.

 

Cherry Filling

2½ lbs thawed and drained frozen tart cherries (save juice)
8 oz juice (add water if short)
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3 oz water
1½ oz cornstarch
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8 oz sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice
¼ tsp almond extract

Method

1. Heat juice to a boil.
2. Combine the water and cornstarch and then stir into the boiling juice.
   Boil 1 minute.
3. Remove from heat and stir in the sugar, salt, lemon juice, and almond extract.
4. Combine thickened juice with the cherries.