Our Christmas breakfast consists of Country Puff Pastries which can be made any time ahead and frozen or they can be refrigerated for a few days, and Providence Hot Apples, which are prepared the night before and cooked in the morning. Our routine was to get up, turn on the oven to preheat and make coffee. We'd pop the apples and pastries in the oven while we all opened our stockings. Then we'd eat.
After breakfast, it was time for presents--and Mimosas or Sweet Sparkling Wine (usually Asti Spumante) mixed with blueberry juice and Chambord. That drink doesn't have an official name, but I like to refer to it as a Berry Merry.
The pastry recipe makes 27 pastries so we'd save some for New Years Day breakfast as well.
--These savory treats come from the Springdale Country Inn in Lincoln, Va. The entire family will love them--even the kids! Think of them as an elegant version of an Egg McMuffin. For ease, buy frozen puff pastry at the grocery store and thaw in the refrigerator. I get my ham from the deli--usually Virginia baked ham, and the Canadian bacon is the packaged one from the grocery store.
Makes 27 pastries
3 sheets frozen puff pastry (1 1/2 boxes of the most readily available brand), thawed
4 ounces grated Swiss cheese (1 cup)
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 ounces silvered country ham (about 1/3 cup packed)
2 ounces Canadian bacon, chopped (about 1/3 cup packed)
3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
3 tablespoons heavy cream
black pepper to taste
1 egg
1 teaspoon water.
Mix cheeses, ham, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, heavy cream and pepper in a large bowl.
Using one pastry sheet at a time, roll out sheet to a 12 inch square. Cut pastry dough into 4 inch squares (3 rows of 3 squares) and place 1 tablespoon of the filling in the middle of each square. Make an egg wash by mixing the remaining egg with 1 teaspoon of water. Brush the edges of each pastry square with a little egg wash, then fold each square top left corner to bottom right corner and press to seal the edges together with the tines of a fork. Trim the edges with a knife if they need evening up. Repeat with the other 2 sheets of pastry. If you don't plan on baking them immediately, wrap each individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze.
When ready to bake, place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or longer if pastries have been frozen. There is no need to thaw the pastries first.
--adapted from Breakfast with Friends by Elizabeth Alston, 1989
10 servings
4 pounds (about 8) Granny Smith or other tart apples
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Mix sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Peel and core the apples then cut them in 1/2 inch chunks. Add the apples to the sugar/cinnamon mixture in the large bowl and toss so that the apples are coated with the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Cover the bowl and refrigerate over night.
One half hour before serving, heat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 9 X 13 inch baking dish and add the apples, including all the sugar mixture and juices. Spread them out and bake for 20 minutes, stirring 3 or 4 times until the apples are tender but not mushy. Serve very hot.
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