Who’s ready for dessert? The final recipe in this month’s menu is an ode to almonds, and it’s sooo delicious!
In THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, the castaways eat lots of stone pine almonds, which are similar to pine nuts. However, since the castaways treat these nuts as a dessert, I decided to make my dessert recipe for this menu using true almonds, along with other ingredients they had on the island.
Since they have flour and dairy products in addition to almonds, I decided to combine them all to make pastries with almond-cream cheese filling. Neb is the main cook in the story, and he takes a lot of pride in his work. I like to imagine this is something he would make to celebrate a big moment on the island, like their first batch of milled flour or when Herbert recovered from a terrible sickness.
Since puff pastry is basically just flour,butter, and salt, I knew Neb would have all the ingredients to make it, so I used that as my pastry base. For the filling, I combined almond paste and cream cheese, two other ingredients Neb would be able to make with what he had on hand. I made them in a pinwheel shape as a nod to the windmill the castaways built at their home base, Prospect Heights.
These turned out AMAZING! The sweet, almond-y, creamy filling is a delightful contrast to the crisp, delicate pastry. I was really excited for my husband to try these, since he loves those flavors. He liked them, but I wasn’t prepared for how much my son would love them. He’s already asking for them for his next birthday (for context, his birthday was last month).
He’ll be excited to hear I’m planning to make more to bring to Easter festivities this year!
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Almond Pinwheel Pastries
“The exploration, therefore, continued, and was usefully marked by a discovery which Herbert made of a tree whose fruit was edible. This was the stone-pine, which produces an excellent almond, very much esteemed in the temperate regions of America and Europe. These almonds were in a perfect state of maturity, and Herbert described them to his companions, who feasted on them.
‘Come,’ said Pencroft, ‘sea-weed by way of bread, raw mussels for meat, and almonds for dessert, that’s certainly a good dinner for those who have not a single match in their pocket!’“
— The Mysterious Island
INGREDIENTS:
- 8 oz almond paste
- 3 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 10″x15″ puff pastry sheet, thawed
- 2 Tbsp egg white
- You could also use an egg wash, but I had some leftover egg whites from making pavlova for my kids’ birthday party.
- 1/4 cup sliced almonds
Makes 12 almond pinwheel pastries
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 400°F. In a medium bowl, beat together the almond paste, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and salt with an hand mixer on medium-low speed until fully combined and there are no more white streaks from the cream cheese. Set aside.
- On a lightly floured surface, unroll your puff pastry and cut into 12 squares (mine were approximately 3.5″x3.5″). At each corner, make a 1-2 inch cut angled towards the center of the square. Add 1 tablespoon of filling to the center of each pastry. Fold every other corner over the center to make a pinwheel shape, brushing a little egg white on the center each time you add a fold. Gently press the folded corners together in the center.
Step 1
Step 2
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Step 4
Step 5
Step 6 - Brush the tops with egg white and sprinkle on almonds.
- Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 15 minutes until golden brown on top. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
- Serve to the castaways on the Mysterious Island!
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If you like this Jules Verne recipe,
check out my Twenty Thousand Leagues menu!
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