Donate Now!

Donate Now!
Buy a membership or koozies to help!

Thursday, July 07, 2011

EO(S) Wild Mulberry puffs





 Mulberries tend to be overlooked. I know here we mow them down, or rip them out often, as they spring up like a weed. We only allow one, maybe two to grow to full maturity, as no one wants all that purple poo over everything. So colored me surprised when I saw mulberry trees for sale in a tree catalog! People are willing to pay for these? Of course they are not native everywhere.

Some research has shown that the mulberry may have potential health effects against cancer, aging and neurological diseases, inflammation, diabetes, and bacterial infections. They contain Resveratrol which has been found to be protective against stroke risk by alteration of molecular mechanisms in blood vessels. (I am eating them!) A good source of vitamin C, A and E as well as iron.


People that have mulberries rarely know what to do with them. Cobblers are the most popular item. Some will even turn them into a jelly, mixed berry salad or a topping for ice cream and yogurt. We shall make them a breakfast item, the doughnut.

Wild Mulberry Puffs

You will need:

Puff pastry
mulberries (washed and stem trimmed)
sugar

Puff Pastry

1/4 c. warm water (105F. to 115F.)
2 1/4 tsp. (1 package) active dry yeast
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. room temperature milk
1 large, room temperature egg
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 sticks (8 oz.) cold, unsalted butter

Dissolve yeast in warm water with a pinch of sugar.

In a different bowl, cut butter into flour until pea sized butter lumps remain.

Using a third bowl, mix the remainder of sugar with milk, egg and salt. Add the foaming yeast mixture and stir until combined.

Pour liquids into flour and stir until just combined. Lumps of butter should remain.

Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 8 hours to overnight. Make sure the dough is very cold.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and pat into a square. Dust the top with flour and roll to a 16 by 16 inch square, dust as you go. You will probably have to dust a little underneath the dough too, so it remains loose.

The colder your kitchen is, the better. You don't want the butter to melt and become too incorporated into the dough. And as the dough is stiff, you will be working out those guns of yours.

Fold dough into thirds, outside right to center, outside left to center. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Do not unfold it, roll out again to the 16 inch dimension. Refold into the thirds, wrap a refrigerate for 30 minutes. You want to repeat this process a total of 6 times. Place in the freezer for about 20 minutes, no longer, then get ready for the final roll.

The dough will be very stiff at this time, but you want to roll it out to a 20" x 20". If needed, flour lightly. Cut the dough into 5" squares.

Or just go and buy it already made at the store.

Mulberry filling;

Place your mulberries into a jar, add sugar to taste and bruise (shake the jar) place in fridge until you puff pastry is ready for it.

The "doughnut".

After you have cut the squares into your dough, fill the centers with the mulberries. Try not to add too much of the juices, but reserve it for another recipe or a simple syrup.

Fold the pastry and allow it to rest 30 minutes.




Heat oven to 450F. Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on how much of the liquid remains on the pastry. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temp. For a more golden color, brush with whisked egg yolk and a bit of water.


My boys love it! Claim it tastes just like a jelly doughnut. (Speaking of boys, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LARGE!)

7 comments:

Laurie said...

Yum - that looks FANTASTIC! Too bad I didn't freeze any mulberries this year - our season is over. By the way, you don't have to trim the stems. They are soft and tasteless. I even had a local mulberry dessert in a fancy French restaurant once that left the stems on the mulberries, and so it really is okay - LOL!

Phelan said...

No you don't have to trim them all the way off. However sometimes when you pick, you get these gosh awful long ones, and for appearance and people's visual tastes, trimming is appreciated.

Our mulberries here will do 3 different rounds of production.

Bob from Athens said...

Aw, the memories, when I was just about ten or so we had this big ole tree in the yard, must a been about fourty feet tall, spent a lot of time in it eating and throwing. The good and ripe ones shore do splat on brothers, sisters, or who ever was unlucky enough to walk by. Good times until Momma found out what was going on, then sitting became a problem for a day or so.

TexasWren said...

We used to have something called Paper Mulberry trees, but they weren't the edible kind. They would grow from ankle high to house high in one summer and were nothing but weeds with bark. I don't think I've ever had a real mulberry. Are they anything like black berries(with seeds) or more like blueberries in texture?

I'm saving your puff pastry recipe to my pinterest!

Happy Birthday Large!!! I remember you when you were the Small! ;-)

TexasWren said...

Never mind, I just looked more closely at your pictures and answered my own question. ;-)

What if it's today? - A survivalist's blog said...

I was laughing because I'm one of "those" people who bought three mulberry trees. We had two that were flowering mulberries but the first time I ate a real mulberry I was hooked. It took a couple of years to find the fruiting trees at the nurseries where I live. It seems nobody wants to deal with the droppings. It's soooooooooooo worth it!

Phelan said...

Ah, so you're the one! ;) Mulberries are yummy, and so many things you can do with them, so I guess I don't blame you, just watch out, they do become a noxious weed, popping up anywhere birds sit.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...