Have you been craving puff pastry treats from your local bakery? Well now you can make them at home, freeze them and heat them up whenever you like! This Cherry Puff Pastry Braided Twist recipe can be made from scratch or with store bought puff pastry dough. Learn to make it here!
I won’t lie… puff pastry treats are my weakness. Every once in awhile, I get a massive craving for some, and the only way to make it go away is to just satisfy the craving!
And lately, with the local coffee shops and bakeries being closed, I feel like a lonely dog staring through a window wishing they would just come back! (Insert wimper here…)
Are you loving our homemade recipes? Sign up to receive them in your inbox by clicking here!
How to cope through this experience???
But alas, we must find the silver lining in this experience, and what I’m finding is I am turning into a baking machine! I’m making homemade bread, croissants, puff pastries of all sorts, and homemade meals.
This cherry puff pastry braided twist recipe has been on my top fifty baking list for some time, and I had some homemade puff pastry in the freezer (you can get our puff pastry recipe by clicking here). So I thought, what the heck, it’s time to make the cherry twist.
Cherries are typically in season for a short period of time in California from April until about June. I love buying fresh cherries from the local grocery and snacking on them. Usually I just eat them and spit the seed out… so when I decided to make this recipe from scratch, I was like, “Ummm, how do you pit cherries really quickly???”
Thank goodness for Google! Ha!
Did you know you can pit cherries with a paper clip?
Yep! Simply unfold a large paper clip in the middle and use one end as the handle and the other end to pit the cherry. Push the paper clip end into the stem end of the cherry, rotate it around a few times and then pull the seed out. Voila!
If you don’t want to get messy while pitting, you may want to try this cherry pitter.
And it’s not like we don’t have tons of time on our hands right now, so, why not pour yourself a glass of wine, put on some fun music, and get to pitting your cherries.
Now onto the tips for making the yummy cherry puff pastry filling!
I usually like to keep the filling recipes super basic in order to preserve the flavor of the fruit being used. Usually for any pie or filling recipe, you’ll see me add a few handfuls of sugar, a few teaspoons of lemon or lime juice, along with a few tablespoons of flour or arrow root for thickening. For this cherry puff pastry filling recipe, I heated the cherries with a half cup of sugar and lemon juice from half of one lemon until just boiling. Then strained the cherries from a lot of the juice and added two teaspoons of arrow root to thicken the filling. If you don’t strain the juice, you will end up with a mess when baking!
Here are my tips for making the cherry puff pastry braided twist:
- Make your puff pastry dough the day before or buy it from the store because making puff pastry should be a relaxed all-day-kinda-thing. If you’ve made it ahead and frozen some, simply remove it from the freezer and let it thaw in the refrigerator over night. Here’s our puff pastry dough if you want to make your own.
- Pit the cherries with a paper clip or cherry pitter the night before as well.
- When ready to assemble the puff pastry twist, take puff pastry dough out of the fridge to let it thaw a bit more.
- Cook the cherries, sugar and lemon juice (as specified below).
- While the cherries are warming, roll out the puff pastry dough into a rectangle until it’s about 1/4″ thick.
- The cherries should be coming to a simmer. Turn off the heat, strain the cherries (here’s my favorite strainer) and add arrow root (or cornstarch or flour) to thicken. Set aside.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and cut the design (specified below) into the puff pastry dough.
- Make sure the cherries are cooled and turn the oven on to pre-heat for baking the puff pastry twist.
- Once cooled, scoop the cherry puff pastry filling onto the center line of the cut puff pastry design. Braid the dough.
- Add an egg wash to the top of the braided puff pastry to help it get that shiny golden brown look. Sprinkle some sugar on top.
- Bake up the pastry, cut and serve warm!
Can you freeze the cherry puff pastry braided twist:
Yes! You can freeze the puff pastry dough and cherry filling separately and then assemble and bake it. Or you can bake the cherry twist, wrap and freeze cut pieces, and then re-heat them as desired. Here are the instructions for both:
If you want to get the dough and cherries ready and bake the twist for breakfast fresh, you can make the puff pastry and cherry filling days before and freeze them separately in freezer grade Ziplock bags. Then move them into the fridge the night before and thaw on the counter before assembling. Then bake as normal.
If you have baked the puff pastry twist, and you want to freeze a bunch of pieces for later, you can cut the twist into 2″ pieces, wrap each piece in Saran Wrap, place in freezer grade Ziplock bags and freeze for later. When you want a cherry puff pastry treat with your breakfast or for dessert, simply take it out and thaw for a few minutes, and then heat on a baking sheet in a warm oven or counter top oven.
Here’s the recipe for the cherry puff pastry braided twist:
| Prep Time | 1-2 hours |
| Cook Time | 45 min |
| Servings |
pieces
|
- 4 cups Cherries pitted
- 1/2 cup Granulated Suagr
- 2 tsp Lemon Juice
- 2 tsp Arrow Root or Cornstarch
- 1 Sheet Puff Pastry Dough
- 1 Egg for egg wash
- 1 Tbsp Water for egg wash
- 1 Tbsp Granulated Sugar to sprinkle on top
Ingredients
|
|
- Boil the 4 cups pitted cherries, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 tsp. lemon juice until just simmering. Turn off heat, let cool. Add the 2 tsp. arrow root or cornstarch to thicken.
- Prepare a baking sheet with wax paper. Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle and transfer to the baking sheet.
- Then cut triangles and slits into the puff pastry to match the design in picture.
- Scoop the cherries, allowing much of the juice to strain off, and line cherries onto the center line of the puff pastry dough. Braid the dough over the cherries.
- Heat oven to 400 degree F. Scramble one egg with 1 Tbsp of water and brush the top and edges of the puff pastry with egg wash. Sprinkle the top of puff pastry with sugar.
- Bake at 400 for 10 minutes and then lower the temperature to 375 for another 20-30 minutes. Wait until the puff pastry turns a deep golden brown (may require more baking time). Check it often once it reaches this stage and look for the inside parts to firm up. You want the top to be golden and flaking. Remove from oven and allow to cool about 10-15 minutes. Cut into 2" pieces and serve warm.
Leave a Reply