French Onion Pastry Puffs

There are two phrases that when placed together make me rrreeaaalllyy nervous:  “It’s cool.  There’s a method to my madness.”

No.  There seems to be no method at all.  Mostly I just think that your pot is about to boil over, you’re about to burn me and everyone in the room with that hot glue gun, please put that staple gun down, and your new parallel parking technique is totally not working out.

I say this with kindness… mostly because I’m talking to myself.  If you ever hear me say “there’s a method to my madness” you should run, because the oven is probably about to explode.  Wait… maybe there is a method.

Mostly there’s just a madness to my madness.  Let’s be real.

Original photography shot with the Canon EOS 5D Mark III digital SLR. The filmmaker’s camera.

I assume that there’s going to be a method to your Thanksgiving meal-prep madness this week.  It’s totally a balancing act.  The turkey goes in at a certain hour.  The basting is thorough and often.  The mashed potatoes will have extra butter.  Someone will burn the marshmallows on top of the sweet potato casserole (most likely my sister).  It’s all so precarious.

These French Onion Pastry Puffs are my effort to help you get ahead.  They’re little appetizer bites that can be made ahead of time and kept frozen until ready to bake.

They are like little flakey biscuits with French Onion Soup filling inside.  Soooo delicious.  When eaten in moderation they should not at all interfere with mashed potato and stuffing consumption.

Onions + salt and pepper + a big pinch of sugar + butter and olive oil + fresh thyme + beef broth (or beer or wine or whatevs).

The smell of onion cooking in butter and olive oil could be a perfume.  You’d wear it, right?

Patience with these onions.  Let them really cook down over medium heat.  They shouldn’t burn, but they will wilt and yield to the heat, salt, sugar, and broth.

I insist on using all-butter puff pastry.  It’s more expensive, but you know where your fats are coming from and the flavor is supreme.

I also cut out my little puffs as circles using a 1 1/2-inch biscuit cutter.  This comes at a cost.  Some puff pastry scraps were left over and I was unable to reuse them.

If you’d like to make this recipe as rectangles, you’ll get more out of the batch.  Use these instructions found with the Bite-Sized Baked Brie Bites.

Let’s layer these flavors.

First, egg wash.  This will help the pastry stick to itself.

Next, a tiny smear of whole grain mustard.

Up next, caramelized onions!

Gruyère goes on top of the caramelized onions!

Just a small pinch of each flavor.  No need to overstuff.

The egg wash will act like glue in sticking the two pieces of puff together, but these little suckers will fluff up like you wouldn’t believe!  We need some extra sealing security.  A good crimp with a fork will do the trick!

Now the question is, how much convincing do you need?  We’ve combined buttery puff pastry with caramelized onions and sharp Gruyère cheese.  Do I need to twist your arm any further?

These bites can be assembled, placed on a parchment lined baking sheet, and frozen.  Once they’re chilled through you can remove them from the baking sheet and place them in an airtight bag.  Bake from frozen or thaw in the refrigerator and bake from chilled.  You can also bake these off, and freeze them once baked.  They reheat very easily in the oven.  Whatever works for you and your holiday madness!