Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Pastry

Photo credit:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life
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I woke up today with the desire not only to bake, but to create. 

This is what I came up with! :)

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love reading recipes! Robert teased me the other night because I was up until the wee hours of the morning scouring Pinterest for recipes of various kinds to read and savor vicariously through fellow pinners. He even quoted one of my favorite movies, "No Reservations": "What are you doing? Reading a recipe, right?"

Well, when you put it that way.... :)

But I digress...

I recently bought an 18oz. container of fresh blueberries from the store. I must admit, it's slightly disappointing to me that we can't glean these delicious little antioxidant-packed berries from our garden. But perhaps next year's garden adventures will prove more fruitful (no pun intended) than last year's.

Anyway, I wanted to make a couple different things with these little beauties. The other night, I made Blueberry Lemon Scones:

If you follow me on Instagram, you've already
seen this picture :)

Sadly, the consistency wasn't scone-like (I think the warmth from my hands melted the butter, and there was not nearly enough flour in this recipe), and the glaze ended up being more absorbed than anything. Oh well.

So this was my second recipe this week with blueberries. One thing I started figuring out was that anything puff pastry-like or danish-ish would require like 6-8 cups of flour and half a pound of butter.

I say nay nay.

Instead, I made my own pastry dough! It's pretty much a cross between a puff pastry and a danish pastry - which is just fine with me! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour (you can use bread flour, gluten-free flour, almond flour or whatever you want - let me know how it turns out if you try something different!) 
• 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
• 1/2 c. butter (8 tbsp.), cold, cut into small pieces (I cut mine into tiny triangles, but you certainly don't have to be that fancy) 
• 1/4 c. very cold water (I measured this in advance, and kept it in the fridge until I was ready to add it)
• 1/4 c. very cold milk (Like the water, I measured this in advance, and kept it in the fridge until I was ready to add it)

Directions:

• In a medium bowl, combine the salt and flour. Mix well.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Cut the butter up into small pieces, being careful not to melt it with your fingers (don't touch it any more than you have to).
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Put butter in food processor, then add the salt & flour mixture. Pulse briefly, just long enough to make the mixture crumbly and the butter is in pieces about the size of peas. You should be able to see small chunks of butter.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Pour mixture into medium bowl (the same one you used for the flour & salt, if you want to cut down on your clean-up!), make a hole in the center, and add the water & milk. Stir to combine everything with a large fork. (You can use a wooden spoon, but it will take longer).

• On a floured surface, lay the dough out in a square or rectangle (your choice, depending on how you intend to use the dough and the shapes you need to cut). As you pat the dough, you'll see the butter still - this is what you want. Don't add any extra liquid; it should be very dry. 

• Using a floured pastry roller or a rolling pin, roll the dough out to about 10". 

Obviously, 10" is subjective in my kitchen...

• Fold the dough in thirds and roll it out. Repeat 5 times. 

• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and allow it to chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour to overnight. (If you're not using this right away, or if you plan to double the recipe to use more later, you can also freeze it). 
• Roll out the dough and cut as you please. Make sure you use a floured surface and a floured rolling pin. 

Now for the fun stuff! The Blueberry Ricotta filling! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh blueberries (or any berries that you want!) 
• 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp. water
• 3/4 c. ricotta cheese
• 1 large egg (optional - I found that I really didn't need the egg, due to the consistency of the filling when it was finished)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (you can add a little vanilla bean if you want, also! I think just about everything is better with some vanilla bean. I used 1/2 vanilla bean in mine. Just sayin'!)
• Zest of 1 lemon (I only used about 1 tbsp.)
• 2-4 tbsp. all-purpose flour, depending on how thick you want your filling. You can always add more later. (Again - if you experiment with a different flour, I want to hear about it!)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• In a medium saucepan, heat water, berries and sugar over medium-low heat. Cook 3-4 minutes, just enough to soften the berries (more or less time, depending on the type of berries you use). With the blueberries, I just cooked them until they "blushed" a little (AKA - when the color began to run a bit in the water). Remove from heat; set aside. 

• In a medium bowl, combine ricotta cheese, egg, vanilla extract, lemon zest and flour. (This is where you'd add vanilla bean, if you're using it. Simply scrape out as much or as little sweet vanilla caviar from the bean as you wish!) Mix everything together using a wooden spoon. Set aside.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• You can either mix the berries into your cheese mixture, or leave them separate and use the berries to top the cheese mixture in your pastries later - it's up to you! 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Pull your dough out from the fridge, lay out on a cutting board, cut into whatever shapes you wish. (Note: You may want to flour your surface a little first, but you don't have to). 
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or use butter/ flour (this is my favorite method!) Simply spread the butter out on the sheet evenly with your fingers (make sure you wash your hands first), and sprinkle about 1/3 cup flour onto the baking sheet. Gently turn the sheet perpendicular to the floor, and shake the flour all across the sheet so it's coated evenly. Dump excess flour off the sheet. 
• Finally, add your cheese mixture and berries into your pastries and roll/ close up as you wish. If you've mixed your cheese and berry mixtures together, gently fold it together now, being careful not to burst the berries. You want to get about 3-4tbsp. of the mixture into each pastry, regardless of how you do it. If you use the berries as a topping, just lay them on top however you wish! 
• Bake 15-18 minutes, until pastry dough just begins to turn golden-brown. 

You can top with lemon curd, raw cane sugar, or even a simple glaze (4tbsp. confectioner's sugar + 3 tbsp. lemon juice). Or, leave it as-is!

Ta-da! You're done! Enjoy the deliciousness of these Blueberry Ricotta Breakfast Pastries!