Sweet and Savory Puff Pastries

Lately I haven't been in much of a mood to use my DSLR (instagram, on the other hand...). I've been feeling frustrated with my camera, the lighting in the apartment, and my annoyingly heavy lens. It can already get exhausting being in the kitchen all day, especially with this weather! But when you include setting up for photos it starts feeling like a chore. Not only that, but a lot of my cake and pastry ideas haven't been panning out lately.

But enough complaining! Today I decided to just go with the flow and came up with a few different puff pastry tarts. My brother recently traveled through Europe and brought me two bags of flour from France. I went with a quick puff pastry to take advantage of its finer texture. There was some brown butter sitting in the fridge and decided to use that as well. And then I raided through the fridge to see what I could top them off with.

Clockwise from top left: peach, tomato + yogurt, pickle + goat cheese, potato + dill, fresh peach + fresh mozzarella.

The puff pastry came out very delicate and flake, while the brown butter added a nice nutty flavor that was a nice canvas for sweet and savory options. This is what I came up with:

Peach: One of my failed ideas earlier this week had to do with peaches. I've decided that it's just plain wrong to cook them. Grill, okay, but bake? No! It breaks my heart knowing it's delicate flavor and texture are going to waste, turning into mush. Same with this tart.

Tomato: You can't go wrong with fresh garden tomatoes. I simply topped them off with pepper and maldon sea salt.

Pickle + goat cheese: I was skeptical, but Kate gave me that idea and I ran with it. Surprisingly delicious! Those are my lacto-fermented pickles, by the way. I might have to put a post together because I found it really exciting and fun to make.

Potato + dill: We got these cute little potatoes and I couldn't resist using them. Added some leftover dill from my pickle experiment.

Fresh peach: Peaches really do shine when they're uncooked. I baked the pastry with a bit of fresh mozzarella then topped them off with peaches right out of the oven.

By the way, what do you guys think of these photos? Shooting on a dark surface has really piqued my interest in photography again! Excited to see what else I can use this with. (Well, I do have this one that I like to call "Chiaroscuro Kitten")