Apricot Pastry - Apricot Fold-Ups

Ingredients:

Dough:
2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 8oz package cream cheese
1 cup butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Filling
12ish oz dried apricots
2 cups water
1 and 1/2 cup granulated sugar

Glaze
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon water

If you noticed that there's no sugar in the dough, you deserve a cookie. The beauty of this recipe is that it plays the tart apricots off the tang of the cream cheese and vinegar in the dough, complimented nicely by a delicate sweet glaze. The dough is delicate and flaky.

Step 1:

Mix your flour and salt then cut in the cream cheese and butter like you would if you were making a pie. That should look something like this:

Now dump in your milk and vinegar. Roll up your sleeves and mix it with your hands until the dough comes together.

Step 2:

Split it into four balls, wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Step 3:

Toward the end of the 2 (or however many) hours combine the apricots, water, and sugar in a sauce pan on the stove. Bring the mix just to a rolling boil, then turn the heat off and let the apricots cool in the water. Then drain.

(this pic was pre-boil)

Step 4:

Heat your oven to 400 and line a baking sheet or two with parchment paper. Pull one ball out of the fridge and roll it out on a dusted counter, or if your counters are like mine, on a dusted piece of parchment paper.

Trim the dough so it's square, or at least rectangular. Don't be shy about trimming, with this recipe there's no reason not to mash the scraps back into a 5th ball and use it too. Cut the dough into 2ish inch squares, and place an apricot (that you've patted dry) in the center of each one.

Step 5:

Now take the corners of a square and fold them together over the apricot. Pinch the corners together. This might take some practice, or the help of someone with nimble fingers. I'm about as graceful as an ogre wearing boxing gloves, so yours are guaranteed to look at least like this.

Step 6:

Repeat until you're out of dough. When you remake the ball of scraps, you might want to toss it in the freezer for a couple minutes to get it chilled again.

Into the 400 oven they go, for 15 or so minutes or until they're just golden. And I'm serious about the just golden part. When the tops are golden, the bottoms are a dark golden, any longer and they'll burn.

Step 7:

Now then, let them cool slightly and make the glaze. Just dump the water in the sugar and stir. Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the cookies.

Step 8:

Serve your apricot fold-over pastries.