SAVORY EN CROUTE

When I saw this braided pastry from Elra's Cooking, I fell in love right away. So, I made this savory en croute. I used the apple struddle's puff pastry recipe and I made a simple savory filling. Believe me or not, it turned so good. The pastry is so light with thick filling. My hubby liked it so much, and so do I :).

How to braid the puff pastry? Don't worry, it is not hard at all. You can check here on how to braid the puff pastry.

Savory En Croute

Ingredients:
Puff Pastry:
200 gr of all-purpose flour
1 tsp of granulated sugar
1 tsp of salt
1 egg
2 tbsps of olive oil
2 tbsps of warm water
100 gr of butter

Filling:
3 pieces chicken fillet, diced
1 cup (250 gr) corn
1 cup (250 gr) frozen green peas, defrost
2 big size carrot, peeled and diced
2 yellow onions, peeled and diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup (65 gr) fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup (125 gr) button mushrooms, sliced
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp sugar
50 ml white sauce or heavy cream
1/2 cup (125 gr) grated cheese
2 tbsps olive oil
Salt and blackpepper, to taste

Egg Wash:
1 egg yolk
1 tsp milk



Methods:
For the Puff Pastry:
In a big bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar until thoroughly mixed. Add in egg, oil and warm water, mix it well with spatula. Knead it with your hands until the batter form a dough. Shape it into ball form. Wrap it with plastic wrapper. Keep it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (better if you refrigerate it overnight)

Prepare a board or any clean surface and dust it with flour. Take the dough from the refrigerator, and unwrap it. Roll the dough on the floury work surface into 1/2 cm thickness, and roll it into long square form. Place the butter on the upper side of the dough, then fold the empty side up so the edge of the empty side meet the edge of the other side. Roll it a bit just to stick the edges only. Wrap it with plastic wrapper. Keep it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes. Repeat it until 7 times.

Roll the dough into 2 mm thickness in square form. Ready to use.

For the Filling:
In a skillet, caramelized garlic and onion with olive oil. Stir in chicken until the color changed. Add in carrot, corn, green peas and mushrooms, chopped parsley and nutmeg saute it for 10 minutes. Season it with sugar, salt and blackpepper, to taste. Set aside to cool. When the filling is cool enough, pour in white sauce or heavy cream and cheese.

To assemble:
Roll out the puff pastry to 17 by 17-inch square, transfer to a piece of parchment paper. Make a series of 1-inch slanting cuts on both side (between the filling). Place the filling in the middle of the pastry. Start braiding the pastry by over lapping each of the slice on top of the filling to enclose it. Transfer the pastry to a baking sheet. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes (I skipped this step)
Preheat oven to 375`F. Brush the pastry with egg wash mixture. Bake it for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve it warm.