Amazingness

I have been bringing my pastry creations to work lately (really good way to bake a ton and not eat it alll). A co-worker had gone huckleberry picking and asked if I would bake something with them. I have been dying to attempt making my own puff pastry for quite a while, and decided that this might be the perfect project for the huckleberries.

Not wanting the tartness of the huckleberries to be too overpowering, I sifted through my cookbooks for a recipe....I was all set to try a cream cheese puff pastry, but on Friday I jammed my thumb (lots of stifled explitives as I was with a kiddo). I couldn't pick anything up without it throbbing, so kneading that much butter and dough was not going to happen. I dove back in to the cookbooks and emerged triumphant with the Joy of Cooking's food processor puff pastry. Now that the cream cheese was out, I needed something else to compliment the huckleberries, so I hit the internet and came across a recipe for huckleberry and fig tart. I kept looking to see if there were any additional reviews about this recipe and found this blog. Amazing. The review of the recipe had me sold.

I made the puff pastry and set about finding fresh figs in North Idaho (not an easy task) and was about to settle for dealing with dried, when the produce lady at the natural foods store became my angel and held the last pint for me till I got there. With a minor modification to the filling recipe, I was ready to go. The result was amazing mini huckleberry-fig turnovers with an egg-milk wash and raw sugar on top. I had extra filling left over, so I made my mom's raspberry torte, substituting the huckleberry-fig filling in place of the raspberry jam. The results are below:

Mini turnovers cooling...so adorable and delicious!

Fig-Huckleberry torte....also amazing yummyness.

Figs+huckleberries=absolutely delicious. I was kind of hesitant about the figs (never having had anything figgy but a Fig Newton), but they compliment the huckelberries perfectly. Not sure if I will be able to find more figs around here any time soon, but if I do I have several more recipes I would love to try. In the mean time, I will enjoy the turnovers and torte!