Is that time of the year again. The most glamorous night in Hollywood, the Oscars ceremony is only half a day away. Therefore, I have a perfect appetizer to share with you. These zucchini cream cheese puff pastry shells are gorgeous, elegant and delicious yet really simple to make. Layers of thin puff pastry, delicately formed in a mini shell, filled with a cream and topped with toppings of your choice.
Are you a dedicated movie enthusiast (like my boyfriend) or you couldn’t care less about the Oscars night (like me), either way, this night is a perfect excuse to try these lovely appetizers. Wink. Everyone will be delighted by this fancy finger food.
Last year we made some delicious, finger-licking coconut vanilla popcorn. But this year, we wanted something else. And so we got these savoury appetizers, along with other salty snacks and cocktails, to keep us up during the red carpet show and the whole Academy award ceremony.
Go crazy with fillings and toppings
These shells are cute and super easy to make. And, what is really great, they are customizable. You can make them either sweet or savoury. In fact, you can use vegetables, meat, fish, fruits or cream, as I did. Fill them with a filling of your choice. However, I decided on a simple vegetable cream cheese mixture with some colourful toppings.
All of the pastry shells are filled with zucchini cream cheese. However, they have different toppings. Moreover, some are topped with caviar (for the fish lovers) and some with chickpeas. If you are vegetarian, you can use pomegranate seeds instead of caviar. Wink. I like to combine different textures and colours. In order to add more colour, I used some lovely and crisp red cabbage cut into thin strips.
Puff pastry has many faces
I love puff pastry. You can make tons of different recipes all year long. In fact, you can make breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, appetizers. Moreover, or for more ideas, you can check these lovely puff pastry recipes: lovely puff pastry hearts, quick to prepare sausage puff pastry bites, fun Halloween Zombie guts, gorgeous Easter carrot croissants, an elegant and refreshing lemon curd strawberry danish, the delicious spinach pineapple braid or the cute mummies.
If you wonder, how to make a lovely and puffy pastry shell, keep reading. No special kitchen tool or knowledge is required. In fact, making pastry shells is easy and simple. To cut out the rounds you can use either a round cutter or a glass. I used an 8 cm and a 6 cm large glass.
Moreover, you need one for the base and the other one to create the rings. With the larger glass, I cut out 18 circles from both puff pastry dough sheets together. Consequently, I had six base pieces and 12 rings. Also, I didn’t use all of the dough. In fact, I saved the rests and made some simple puffy salty snacks.
A quick tip; it is best to fill the cups as close to serving time as possible. As a result, the cups will stay puffy instead of soggy. In addition, this recipe makes six pastry shells. To make more of them, simply multiply the number of the ingredients. Wink.
Ingredients for 6 zucchini cream cheese puff pastry shells:
- 2 rolls of puff pastry (ca 24x40cm)
- 1 egg (beaten)
- 2 zucchini (cooked, drained)
- 2 garlic cloves
- half a chili
- 2 curly parsley sprigs (and some for toppings)
- 150 g cream cheese
- salt and pepper
- 10-15 chickpeas
- half of a red cabbage leaf (cut into thin strips)
- optional rainbow trout caviar (or any other topping you prefer if vegetarian)
First of all, lay a parchment paper on a baking sheet and prepare the two cutters or, like I said above, you can use also a glass. One about 8 cm large and one about 5-6 cm large. Since you have two rolls of puff pastry, leave one in the fridge, while you are working with the first one.
With the larger cutter, cut out as many circles as possible. I suggest starting in a corner and not in the middle of the pastry dough. As a result, you should get about 12 round pieces from one roll. Transfer six circles on the baking sheet, prick them with a fork and brush them with some egg wash.
Then, punch out the centre of the rest of the round pieces, using the smaller cutter or the smaller glass. As a result, you should have lovely rings in front of you. In fact, you should have 12 rings in total, which is two rings per shell. Of course, you can add one more ring to each shell if you like.
Stacking the rings into a pile of four
Preheat the oven to 175º C. Then, place one ring on each base and brush it with egg wash. Do the same with the second ring. Quickly brush it with egg wash too and put in the oven for 15 minutes or until lovely golden brown.
Furthermore, fold the remaining dough back in the paper and keep in the fridge for maximum two more days. You can do some lovely puffy snacks, great to eat with a dip or fruity jam.
Once the puff pastry shells are puffy and golden brown, let them slowly cool down, leaving them in the oven with the door ajar.
In the meantime, prepare the zucchini cream cheese filling. Wash and cut the zucchini into chunks. Put them in a pot, cover halfway with water and cook them. When the zucchini get soft, drain the water and squeeze all of the excess water out of the chunks.
Then, using an immersion blender, puree the zucchini chunks, chili, garlic and parsley and then let the mixture cool down.
After the zucchini mixture is cold, add a pinch of salt and stir in the cream cheese. Mix until well combined. Only before serving, prepare the toppings. In other words, drain one spoon of chickpeas, cut the red cabbage leaf into thin strips, wash a couple of parsley leaves and open the caviar jar.
Finally, fill the puff pastry shells with the zucchini cream cheese. To do that, you can either use a piping bag or a teaspoon. Then, add the toppings according to your taste and bring to the movie snacks table.
These zucchini cream cheese puff pastry shells will be the star of your appetizers. They are simple, yet glamorous and delicious. Also, serve them with some white wine, a cocktail or a cold dark beer. Bring Hollywood to your home with these appetizers and may your favourite movie or actor win tonight. Wink.
Enjoy!
PS
If you like the recipe, if you make the recipe or if you have any new ideas how to improve or change it, let me know in the comments section below or alternatively share your photos and reactions with me on Instagram (@Passionspoon), Facebook or Twitter (@PassionSpoon1). Simply use the hashtag #passionspoonrecipes in your posts. I would love to see them! (wink)
