My best friend sent me a picture of challah she was grilling this weekend. Camped out at a cabin in Maine, their power was out, so what did she do? She frickin’ grilled challah. Love that lady.
The absolute cutest plum-harvester ever. Only problem was, she just wanted to eat everything she harvested! So then I’m thinking, wondering, why I wasn’t grilling pastries. As luck would have it, our awesome buddies invited us to pick plums from the tree in their front yard. This is one thing I love about Nebraska – we just find fruit trees in our front yards! Happened to me last year, when my girlfriend noticed I had peaches growing in my yard. Shows you how intimate I am with our property… We picked so many plums. The plum-tree owners ended up with five gallons, we took a full shopping bag, another friend was there picking, and the tree was still full when we were done. Awesome plum bounty, y’all.
With the combo of fresh plums, and wanting to grill something, the world was my dang oyster. I ended up doing little turnovers with almond cream and plums. Pretty lush! I wanted them to taste kind of charcoal-y, but they didn’t – not this time. Wondering about smoking some sweets next time, which I know is not a new thing, but I need to try it out on my Nebraska frontier.
Newbie Tips For Grilling Pastries:
- Don’t put the pastry directly on the grill – unless you want it to get charred and you watch it really carefully. Put a brick on the grate, then the pan you’re cooking on. This is a tip from my challah-grilling BFF.
- If there’s sugar in what you’re cookin’, grease the pan or whatever you’re cookin’ on! The sugar is going to seep out and and it’s going to caramelize. God forbid your pastries get stuck!
- Put the lid on. You want ’em to cook all the way around, so let ’em cook! Stay close, though, and check them often.
- It’s not the end of the world if you have to finish whatever you’re making in the oven.
Hints For Making These Cutie Turnovers:
- Use the pastry dough recipe and the almond cream from this recipe. But add 1 tsp cinnamon to the dough.
- Roll the dough to about 1/8″ thick and cut 3″ x 3″ squares.
- Spread almond cream across the square, leaving about 1/2″ around the edges. Brush that space with egg wash.
- Pile in a few plums or peaches or cherries, whatever you have! Sprinkle the fruit with turbinado sugar. Fold the dough diagonally over the fruit, makin’ a little triangle.
- Brush the tops with egg wash, sprinkle with more turbinado sugar. Throw them on a foil-lined pan and put that on top of the brick of your grill that’s ready to go. Cover them and check back every five minutes until golden brown and bubbly!
- P.S. You can also bake these in a 375F oven for about 30 minutes.
