Puff pastry pockets with cream and strawberries are indulgent single-portion desserts, filled with vanilla pastry cream and slices of strawberry. They are very easy and quick to prepare, especially if you use ready-made puff pastry.
If you prefer, you can replace the strawberries with raspberries or blueberries, for example, but these pockets are also excellent with peaches, mango or apricots.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Rest time: 1 Hour
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking time: 20 Minutes
- Cooking methods: Oven, Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Spring, Summer
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (≈6.8 fl oz) milk
- 1 cup (≈8.5 fl oz) heavy cream
- 1/2 vanilla beans
- 2 egg yolks
- 6 3/4 tbsp (≈3.0 oz) sugar
- 2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 roll (rectangular) puff pastry
- 1 egg (for brushing)
- 1 1/3 cups (≈7 oz) strawberries
- to taste powdered sugar
Steps
To prepare the puff pastry pockets with cream and strawberries, start by making the pastry cream, since it needs to cool before you can fill the pastry.
Pour the milk and about 1/3 cup (≈3.4 fl oz) of the cream into a small saucepan. Add the seeds from the vanilla bean, stir and place over the heat.
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until they are pale and fluffy.
Add the sifted cornstarch and incorporate it.
As soon as the milk-and-cream mixture begins to simmer, remove it from the heat, quickly add the whipped yolks and return the pan to the heat (without stirring).
The yolk mixture will float on the surface thanks to the air you’ve incorporated.As soon as the yolk layer is pierced by the milk in a few spots, quickly stir the mixture, remove from the heat and keep stirring until the pastry cream has thickened — this will take very little time.
Pour the pastry cream into a bowl and cover with cling film directly on the surface so a skin does not form.
Let it cool completely in the refrigerator.When the cream has cooled, pour the remaining cream (about 2/3 cup, ≈5.1 fl oz) into a bowl and whip with electric beaters until it is semi-whipped.
Beat the chilled pastry cream with the electric beaters until smooth and creamy, then fold in the semi-whipped cream. Transfer the resulting cream into a piping bag.
While the cream cools, you can work on the puff pastry.
Preheat the oven to 374°F (convection) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Unroll the puff pastry and cut it in half lengthwise, then cut each strip into 3 squares. Brush half of each square with the beaten egg, then fold the pastry over to form a triangle.
Brush the tops of the triangles with beaten egg, dust generously with powdered sugar and bake at 374°F for 12–15 minutes, until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let cool.
Wash and dry the strawberries, remove the stems and slice them.
When the puff pastry triangles have cooled, slice them open like a book and open them slightly. Fill the inside with the vanilla cream and add strawberry slices as desired.
Serve your puff pastry pockets immediately or store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator until serving. The pockets are best eaten the same day, as the puff pastry tends to lose its crispness over time.
