Sappy Turtle Adventures presents,
"You Did WHAT with Nutella??"
An epic new blogging "mini-series", featuring ongoing stories of all the mouth watering, chocolate hazelnut concoctions that I create.
Each post in this mini-series, will feature "shop & prep" lists, as well as step by step directions, including photos.
I will also post any links to other blogs/pages, that helped inspire what I come up with.
Us Nutella addicts have to stick together!
Follow along with me, from "finally tearing myself away from my desk to go bake," to "oh my goodness honey, you have GOT to taste what I've created!!"
Well......to be fair, once in awhile, that second step sounds more like, "Um, honey, I tried to make _____, and well, it didn't exactly turn out the way I expected...." I plan on writing about those times to, because making mistakes is one of the best learning tools out there. Some of my greatest creations started as something completely different. It took messing up a stitch or a paint stroke, to grow into what it was meant to be.
Thankfully, I'm pretty good with my baking skills (or so I've been told,) so those "learning experiences" don't happen very often. :)
Keep an eye out on my updated posts,
for the "You Did WHAT with Nutella??" logo, seen at the top of this page. Whenever you see that image, you know amazingly delicious things are about to happen!!
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I present to you the first instalment of the "You Did WHAT with Nutella??" mini-series, " Nutella Smores Pockets"
I can't even begin to describe the experience of biting into one of these beauties for the first time! I was very impatient, so in the process of my taste testing, I also got a bit of a burnt tongue.
It was totally worth it, and I'd do it again!
Okay, so before I get into how I made these bad boys,
I want to give a thank you shout out to Picky Palate, an online kitchen with tons of fun, family friendly recipes
I got the idea to try making these pastry pockets here.
Mine didn't turn out as photogenic as hers, (perhaps time to look into getting a new camera?) but for my first go at it, I am quite proud with what I came up with.
I think I'm going to have a go at making her
Bacon Gorgonzola Chicken Salad for our upcoming BBQ party. Getting ahead of myself yet again, those ideas are a few posts away still!!
To create your own Nutella Smores Pockets, you will need:
1 jar of Nutella
1 jar of marshmallow fluff
1 package of frozen, ready to bake puff pastry sheets.
1 egg white
powdered and/or regular sugar
QUICK HINTS: *It's always fun to have more than one jar of Nutella....you know, in case of emergencies. :)
*Shop around for the best price for your marshmallow fluff. My 7oz jar I bought, cost $1.99 at Superstore, the same size jar in Walmart was about $3.50
*The egg white is required for egg white wash. If you haven't heard that term before, don't freak out! It is really simple. You mix your egg white and 1 tablespoon of water, with either a fork or a whisk. When your pastries are prepared, and ready to pop into the oven, your last step is the egg white wash. You brush the wash across the the tops of your goodies, which helps them bake to a flaky, sun kissed golden finish. :) mmmm, this is making me want to make them again!
Okay, I almost forgot to photograph each step as I went along, but I remembered at only the second step!
The first step is to carefully roll out one of the rolls of dough, (put the extra one back into the fridge, until you are ready to use it) and to cut it into however many pieces suit your fancy.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
For this project, I cut mine out into nine pieces:
As you can see, the next step is to add a couple spoonfulls of the Nutella, in the middle of each piece. You want to make sure that you leave enough room around the filling, to fold over the pastry edges.
I like to put the marshmallow fluff on top, because the marshmallow melts into a gooey river of sweet goodness, mixing with the melted Nutella seeping its way into the walls of the pastry.
I have a bag of graham cracker crumbs in my cupboard, just for these type of occasions. Mixed it up with some fairy dust (well, in my imagination at least,) and sprinkled it over each one. It really added to the smores factor!
At this point, I highly suggest to pop the tray in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. I found that when I was folding them into shape, they were difficult to work with after being out in room temperature for a little while.
When your dough is nice and chilled, fold them over into triangles, and use the tip of a fork to press into the edges and seal the soon to be melted goodness inside.
Popping the tray back in the fridge for a few minutes, also helped me tremendously with sealing the edges shut. When the dough had started to warm up a bit, trying to pull the fork back up turned into the dough sticking to the fork.
Letting the dough chill, made it super quick and easy to finish off sealing the rest of the pastries.
When you have them all sealed, now is the time for your white wash. Make sure the tops are covered, but try not to drown them in it. :) Remember, the more egg wash, the more brown and crispy the finished pastries will be.
Sprinkle them with sugar, the egg wash helps the sugar stick. :)
You are now ready to pop those babies into the awaiting hot oven!
1 jar of Nutella
1 jar of marshmallow fluff
1 package of frozen, ready to bake puff pastry sheets.
1 egg white
powdered and/or regular sugar
QUICK HINTS: *It's always fun to have more than one jar of Nutella....you know, in case of emergencies. :)
*Shop around for the best price for your marshmallow fluff. My 7oz jar I bought, cost $1.99 at Superstore, the same size jar in Walmart was about $3.50
*The egg white is required for egg white wash. If you haven't heard that term before, don't freak out! It is really simple. You mix your egg white and 1 tablespoon of water, with either a fork or a whisk. When your pastries are prepared, and ready to pop into the oven, your last step is the egg white wash. You brush the wash across the the tops of your goodies, which helps them bake to a flaky, sun kissed golden finish. :) mmmm, this is making me want to make them again!
Okay, I almost forgot to photograph each step as I went along, but I remembered at only the second step!
The first step is to carefully roll out one of the rolls of dough, (put the extra one back into the fridge, until you are ready to use it) and to cut it into however many pieces suit your fancy.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
For this project, I cut mine out into nine pieces:
I like to put the marshmallow fluff on top, because the marshmallow melts into a gooey river of sweet goodness, mixing with the melted Nutella seeping its way into the walls of the pastry.
I have a bag of graham cracker crumbs in my cupboard, just for these type of occasions. Mixed it up with some fairy dust (well, in my imagination at least,) and sprinkled it over each one. It really added to the smores factor!
At this point, I highly suggest to pop the tray in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. I found that when I was folding them into shape, they were difficult to work with after being out in room temperature for a little while.
When your dough is nice and chilled, fold them over into triangles, and use the tip of a fork to press into the edges and seal the soon to be melted goodness inside.
Letting the dough chill, made it super quick and easy to finish off sealing the rest of the pastries.
When you have them all sealed, now is the time for your white wash. Make sure the tops are covered, but try not to drown them in it. :) Remember, the more egg wash, the more brown and crispy the finished pastries will be.
Sprinkle them with sugar, the egg wash helps the sugar stick. :)
You are now ready to pop those babies into the awaiting hot oven!
Take a peek in the oven, let's watch science work it's wonder! I was worried they were going to burn, this is about the 10 minute mark. I love the one on the right, with it's super big hot air pocket, so cute and eatable!!!
The box said to let them bake for around 25 minutes, somewhere along those lines, I can't quite remember the exact number at the moment. I do know however, that if I let them bake for 25 minutes, they would be burnt black and ruined. Eveybody's ovens are different, I suggest to check it between 10-15 minutes, to get an idea of how much longer they need. Make sure to keep checking on them, don't lose track like I do once in awhile. Well, a few times a day, but who's counting!!
Once they have that beautiful golden brown look to them, they are done. Carefully take them out of the oven, and you should find something similar to this:
Do you see the animals too, or am I just sleep deprived and a tad bit crazy? I see a tortoise, a dolphin, a snail and a platypus kind of thing!
There you have it, Nutella Smores Pockets. :)
I had so much fun making these, and I've enjoyed putting together my very first DIY "How-to" post!
I'm learning new things as I go, and I'm super excited to share bits of my crazy with you!
QUICK HINT: When your Nutella jar is almost empty, and not enough to bake with, or even slather on bread, it tends to be a sad moment of realisation of that jar's journey soon coming to an end.
Never fear, Captain Spoon is here!
An always a reliable solution to rescuing the stranded Nutella at the bottom of the jar:
:) and mixing it with a bit of peanut butter (:
I would like to thank Tim Hortons, for making this all possible. You see, recently they came out with a new Nutella donut, and a pastry pocket filled with Nutella.
Of course, I was super excited at this prospect, and had to try it out. It took 3 different visits, before I finally got there when they had any ready. I was sadly disapointed with what I got.
There was a decent serving of Nutella on the donut, which did impress me, but it was topped with ground nut pieces, and that just ruined it for me.
So I decided to try the little pockets instead, and when I say little, I mean little. Like the size of my toddler's fist little. They looked yummy enough, all sprinkled in powdered sugar, but at like $1.35 each one, it wasn't worth the money.
Of course, I bought one anyway, just to say that I tried it. Well, when I got home, I put it on top of the fridge, and there it sat for two days before I remembered about it. That was a sad moment for me, but the sadness was not doomed to last forever. I thought, I should just make my own, it'd be so much cheaper and I'd get a lot more.
So it was declared to be so, and so it did become real. :)
Thank you so much joining in my crazy for a few minutes.
If you have a go at making this for yourself, please let me know in the comments how it turns out.
I'd love to hear all about it!
Until my next post,
T.T.F.N.!
(if you don't know what that means,
be sure to keep updated with the latest
Sappy Turtle Adventures to find out!)
I took this beautiful sunrise picture, this morning on my front porch.
Everyone needs a little sunshine in their lives.....sunshine & Nutella!!
The box said to let them bake for around 25 minutes, somewhere along those lines, I can't quite remember the exact number at the moment. I do know however, that if I let them bake for 25 minutes, they would be burnt black and ruined. Eveybody's ovens are different, I suggest to check it between 10-15 minutes, to get an idea of how much longer they need. Make sure to keep checking on them, don't lose track like I do once in awhile. Well, a few times a day, but who's counting!!
Once they have that beautiful golden brown look to them, they are done. Carefully take them out of the oven, and you should find something similar to this:
Do you see the animals too, or am I just sleep deprived and a tad bit crazy? I see a tortoise, a dolphin, a snail and a platypus kind of thing!
There you have it, Nutella Smores Pockets. :)
I had so much fun making these, and I've enjoyed putting together my very first DIY "How-to" post!
I'm learning new things as I go, and I'm super excited to share bits of my crazy with you!
QUICK HINT: When your Nutella jar is almost empty, and not enough to bake with, or even slather on bread, it tends to be a sad moment of realisation of that jar's journey soon coming to an end.
Never fear, Captain Spoon is here!
An always a reliable solution to rescuing the stranded Nutella at the bottom of the jar:
I would like to thank Tim Hortons, for making this all possible. You see, recently they came out with a new Nutella donut, and a pastry pocket filled with Nutella.
Of course, I was super excited at this prospect, and had to try it out. It took 3 different visits, before I finally got there when they had any ready. I was sadly disapointed with what I got.
There was a decent serving of Nutella on the donut, which did impress me, but it was topped with ground nut pieces, and that just ruined it for me.
So I decided to try the little pockets instead, and when I say little, I mean little. Like the size of my toddler's fist little. They looked yummy enough, all sprinkled in powdered sugar, but at like $1.35 each one, it wasn't worth the money.
Of course, I bought one anyway, just to say that I tried it. Well, when I got home, I put it on top of the fridge, and there it sat for two days before I remembered about it. That was a sad moment for me, but the sadness was not doomed to last forever. I thought, I should just make my own, it'd be so much cheaper and I'd get a lot more.
So it was declared to be so, and so it did become real. :)
Thank you so much joining in my crazy for a few minutes.
If you have a go at making this for yourself, please let me know in the comments how it turns out.
I'd love to hear all about it!
Until my next post,
T.T.F.N.!
(if you don't know what that means,
be sure to keep updated with the latest
Sappy Turtle Adventures to find out!)
Everyone needs a little sunshine in their lives.....sunshine & Nutella!!
