Spinach and Cream Cheese Puffs

Crunchy, flaky and super quick to make, spinach and cream cheese puffs recipe. Perfect as an appetiser for parties and big groups.

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Hello HTS Community

Now that we are moving towards festivities, we ought to have some lip-smacking and impressive appetisers. I always turn to puff pastry when I’m making something for large groups, because it is easy to process and presents fantastic results. These flaky, buttery sheets of pastry can either be prepared and frozen at home (recipe for puff pastry and rough puff in links), or can easily be found in grocery stores.

Puff pastry and rough puff are extremely versatile and turns out to be beautifully golden on baking. You can make sweet or savoury items in no time. In the past I’ve made Palmiers- French sugar cookies, Croissants and cheese tomato puffs. Though they all have been big hits, I am sure this one would also share the stardom. So, I am sharing my recipe of Spinach and Cream Cheese puffs, these small treats are creamy on the inside and crispy on the outside. The spinach and cream cheese filling is super simple and requires only handful of ingredients. You may choose to use fresh spinach and follow steps as mentioned in the recipe, or thaw frozen spinach.

To make a vegan version of the recipe, use vegan puff pastry and replace cream cheese with vegan cream cheese or cashew cheese.

Ingredients for Spinach and Cream Cheese Puffs

• Puff Pastry or Rough Puff- 1 sheet (9-10 inch)
• Fresh spinach- 100gm
• Garlic- 2-3 small cloves
• Cream cheese- 100gm
• Lemon juice- 1 teaspoon
• Salt- 1/2 teaspoon, or to taste
• Black pepper- 1/4 teaspoon

Steps:

• Thaw puff pastry or rough puff in refrigerator overnight.

• Preheat oven at 180 degrees and start with boiling water in a pan with some salt. Add fresh spinach leaves to it and cook for 20 seconds on high heat. Take out the spinach and immediately transfer to ice cold water.

• Squeeze the excess water out of spinach leaves and chop finely.

• In a bowl add chopped spinach, finely chopped garlic, cream cheese, lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Mix all to make a thick mixture. This is our filling for spinach & cream cheese puffs.

• Dust surface with flour and place puff pastry on top. Cut in 3×3 inch squares and place on a baking sheet. This step needs to be quick because we want the pastry to be still cold. If you feel the butter is melting, place it back in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

• Scoop 1 teaspoon of the filling and place it in the center of each pastry square. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden.