Frosted Raspberry and Crème Bites

Frosted Raspberry and Crème Bites ~ Like a good pair of heels to a dress, the frosted berries brings an added sparkle to this simple bite size dessert.

Small in size but packed with flavor, the sweet and tangy tart of the berries adds a nice compliment to the buttery puff pastry while lending a fruity balance to the vanilla crème.

These Frosted Raspberry and Creme Bites are incredibly easy to make and always a hit for the holidays. If you keep up with my blog you know if I’m crazy for mini, but these little guys are micro-mini. Hardly bigger than the berries themselves this dessert is truly a bite size dessert and not a finger dessert that can sometimes turn into a messy two bite affair or a mouth-stuffing squirrel bite.

I caution you—make a lot.  Aside from being addictively delicious the mouth-popping size makes them go quickly.

A few notes:

• There are many ways to sparkle berries like rolling them in a simple syrup first and then tossing them in sugar. While that works well for cranberries, it doesn’t quite work so well for raspberries since the latter is much more fragile. That being the case, I simply tossed the chilled berries in granulated sugar.
• Wash and gently dry your berries between two paper towels, then refrigerate them for at least two hours. Refrigerating them is key, since the slight condensation from the cold will help the sugar stick to the berries. Make sure the raspberries are not wet or weepy as that will cause the sugar to breakdown.
• Frosted berries will last up to three days in refrigerator uncovered.

Frosted Raspberry and Creme Bites
Yields 32-36 Bites

Ingredients:

Creme Bites:

• 1 sheet of puff pastry (thawed according to directions)
• Vanilla cream (recipe follows)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup of raspberries
• 1 cup of cranberries
• Egg wash (one whole egg slightly beaten)

• 1 cup of whole milk
• 2 tablespoon cornstarch
• 6 tablespoon sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions:

Creme Bites:

1. Add granulated sugar into a pie pan or shallow dish. Place berries on top and gently toss and roll berries until they are covered in sugar. Transfer bowl to refrigerator while you work with the pastry sheet or refrigerate uncovered overnight.
2. Using a 1 inch  scalloped pastry ring dipped in flour, stamp out circles from puff pastry. Place circles one inch apart on a parchment or silpat lined bakesheet. Brush tops with egg wash and then pipe a small dallop of vanilla creme in the middle. Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes or until golden. If the vanilla creme puffs up with a skin, pierce it and let cool completely before piping additional vanilla creme in the center.
3. Remove frosted berries from the refrigerator and pipe more vanilla creme in the raspberries. Place cream filled raspberries on center of baked puff pastry. Serve immediately.

Vanilla Creme:

1. Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and remove from heat and transfer mixture to a new sauce pot. The new unheated sauce pot will help control the heat.
2. Beat whole egg and yolks into corn mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into egg mixture, making sure to whisk constantly so the eggs do not curdle. Return remaining milk to boil. Pour hot egg mixture in a stream and continue whisking. Whisk mixture until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in butter and vanilla. Refrigerate the cream overnight or for at least six hours.

Vanilla Creme adapted from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan