- Hey guys. Today I'm gonna show you
how to make three impressive Christmas morning breakfast pastries that are actually a cinch to make. And one of the reasons why they're so easy is because we are gonna be
working store-bought puff pastry, which during the holidays is
an entertainer's best friend. Your friends and family will
think you bought these pastries at a fine local bakery. They are that good. And special thanks to
Wewalka for sponsoring and collaborating with me on this video. Now I have to admit,
this has become my new favorite brand of puff pastry because I think it is one
of the easiest to use. It comes in rolls, so it
doesn't have any scoring, which means you get a nice large sheet of puff pastry to work with. It also comes with its own
sheet of parchment paper that you can bake your pastries right on, up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. It bakes up so light and
flakey and reminds me of true European style puff pastry, but one that I can actually
get at my local supermarket. Okay first up let's start with the classic holiday sticky bun. But these sticky buns
are about half the work of a tradition sticky bun
because there's on dough to rise and instead we can get right to fun part, the filling, the rolling, and the baking. Okay so to begin, we are gonna melt four tablespoons of butter
and once it's melted, go ahead and pour it into a pitcher, and pop it in the fridge for 10 minutes. We do wanna work with melted butter, but we don't want the butter to be hot because we don't wanna pour hot butter on our chilled puff pastry. While our butter is cooling down, we can mix together our filling. All you're gonna do,
in a small bowl, is add two tablespoons of white sugar, two tablespoons of brown sugar, a half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon, and two teaspoons of orange zest. I always love to add
orange zest to sticky buns because sticky buns are pretty sweet, but by adding the orange, it
really adds a nice freshness to them and makes them feel
kind of Christmasy too. I just love having that
orange zest in them. And then at this point, we're
gonna roll out our puff pastry and this is another thing
that like about this brand of puff pastry is the fact that it's sold in the refrigerator aisle
and not the freezer. So you don't have to wait for it to thaw before you can work with it. It's always ready to go when you are. And then at this stage, you're
gonna take your cooled butter and spoon it all over the puff pastry. And then take your filling and
sprinkle it all over the top and then you can sprinkle
the raisin and nut mixture on top of that. And see how easy. Now it's all ready to roll up. So starting from the short end, you're going to roll it up pretty tightly. You wanna make sure you
have a firm grip on it, away from you. And then you wanna continue to roll it until your log is seam side down. Okay at this stage, you
have two ways to go. You can either use a
jumbo style muffin tin and get six sticky buns, or you can use a standard
size muffin tin and get eight. What I actually like to
do is double this recipe and do six large ones and eight mini ones, and then you have a
platter that's really great for grownups and kids. Just make sure your muffin
tins have been sprayed with baking spray beforehand, and that way your sticky
bun will pop right out. So for the jumbo, I like
to cut the log in half, and then cut each half in thirds. And then you can go ahead
and place your slices in the muffin tin. And then for the mini sticky buns, go ahead and cut your log in
half and then cut each half in fourths, and that'll
give you eight equal pieces. Now at this stage, you
could cover both of these with a little bit of foil loosely, and pop them in your fridge overnight, and then all you would
have to do the next morning is pop them in the oven and bake. Then when it does come time to
bake, you're gonna place them in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven
for about 20 to 25 minutes, just until they're puffed
up and golden brown. Now meanwhile when they're in the oven, I do like to create a
little extra sticky sauce that you can use to spoon
over your sticky buns once they're baked. You could just use it just like this, but I mean it is the
holidays and who doesn't like a dripping, oozing sticky bun (laughs). So I find it's worth making a little extra sauce for the side. So in a small saucepan, you're going to add four
tablespoons of butter. Once it's melted, you're wanna add two tablespoons of white sugar and two tablespoons of brown sugar and a half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. And go ahead a stir that up with a whisk, and allow the sugar to start to melt, and it'll start to get sticky, and bubbly, and start to caramelize. Once it gets to that stage,
and you'll see it'll start to thicken as well, then you wanna add two tablespoons of fresh orange juice, and whisk that together,
and then it'll thin out and replicate kind of a sticky sauce. If you're serving these right away, you can just leave it
there on your cooktop, in the saucepan. But if you wanted to get
this done the day before, you absolutely could. Just transfer it to a
microwave safe pitcher, and then zap it in the
microwave for about 30 seconds. Then when the sticky buns
are done, you don't want them to sit in the tins too long or they'll be harder
to take out (chuckles). So I say give them like two
minutes and then go ahead and place them on a platter,
and then go in with your sticky sauce and just
drizzle the tops of them. And you'll see, the sticky sauce will make them nice,
and shiny, and sticky. And when you cut into these
sticky buns, you will see how light and flaky they
are, loaded with all that cinnamon, and the raisins, and the pecans. It just screams Christmas morning and was so much easier to make
than traditional sticky buns. Okay, next up I also like
to have something savory, especially for a brunch. So I'm gonna show you how
to make some really easy mini ham and cheese croissants,
which are quite delicious. So to begin, we're gonna be
working with some Swiss cheese. You wanna look for the Swiss
cheese that's typically used for sandwiches because
it's actually a square, which is gonna help us
turn them into triangles. And we're gonna be looking
for eight slices of cheese, so you'll end up with
16 different triangles. Then you're gonna take eight
slices of Black Forest ham, and cut that in half, and
then you can set that aside. So we're gonna roll out the puff pastry, and keep it on the parchment paper. I also love that you don't
have to use any flour when you're working with it, so there's less mess to clean up. Then here's how I wanna cut this, in order to make our little croissants. You wanna cut it in half, and
then cut each half in halves. And now you have four strips. Then we're gonna cut
our four strips in half. Then we're gonna cut down the diagonal to create triangles, and
then we'll have 16 triangles. Then you can transfer this
parchment paper to a cookie sheet because we're gonna be baking
these on the parchment paper. Then take a triangle of
puff pastry and orient it so the pointy side is
facing away from you. And then take one of
your triangles of cheese, and line it up. Then you can take a piece of the ham and place it on the straight
edge that's facing you. Then you're gonna roll up
these triangles away from you, and you'll see it'll
form a little crescent. And then you can reposition
them all so they each have enough room to bake because
they will expand a little bit. And then the final step,
which is kind of critical, is to brush each one with
a little bit of egg wash. Not only will that hold
the crescent roll together so that it doesn't open up in the oven, but it also will create the
most beautiful shine to them, which really makes them
look like elegant pastries. Now at this stage, if you
wanted to get these done the night before, I would
cover them loosely with foil and pop them in the fridge. Then moments before
you're ready to bake them, you can go ahead and brush
each one with the egg wash. Then you are gonna bake these
at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes, just until they're beautifully puffed up and golden brown. Then you can pile these
on a large platter, and they make such a statement. The combination of the ham,
and the cheese, and the pastry, it's just the perfect little nibble to start off for our
Christmas morning brunch. Okay next up, I think it's
really great to round out the flavor with a fruit
pastry, and you will love how beautiful and delicious
these little French style apple pastries are, and
they're super simple to make. So for this recipe, we're gonna
be working with Gala apples because they're nice,
and light, and sweet, and they bake up really quickly. So I like to use the smaller size Galas because the size of
them works out perfectly for the size of our pastry. So once you get them all peeled, you wanna slice of what
I call the apple cheeks. So if you just slice
the apple, you'll see, you'll create kind of like a half circle, and you wanna do that on each side. You're gonna slice off the
other sides and you'll be left with a square core and
you can use those for snacking, but I think you'll find the large sides works best for the pastry. Then you're gonna take
your apple and put it on your cutting board, cut side
down, and slice it very thinly. And this will help the
apples cook up a lot quicker if they're sliced thinly,
and keep them intact because this is what's gonna create sort of the beautiful whole apple design. Now we're gonna roll out our puff pastry, onto a cutting board, and keep
it on the parchment paper. And then you're gonna
cut it into three strips, and then cut those strips into squares, and you'll end up with nine squares. And then you wanna brush some egg wash around the perimeter of
each square, and then in the center of each square we're gonna be using some unsweetened applesauce. And then you can go ahead
and place your little apple, in the center, and we'll
sort of squish down the applesauce, but that's okay (laughs). Because now we are gonna take the corners of each of the pastry and
bring them the center, and brush that with some
egg wash to adhere it. Now they're actually not gonna
stay this way in the oven. As they bake, they'll
come apart a little bit, but that's part of the
beauty of the design because you'll end up with a square pastry that has the little corners turned up, which I think just gives
it a nice elegant touch. Then you wanna place your pastries in a 425 degree Fahrenheit oven, and you're gonna bake for 25 minutes. Now while your pastries are baking, you can melt a quarter cup
of apple jelly in a saucepan, just until it's liquified. And then once the pastries are done, take them out and let them
sit on the baking sheet, and then brush each one
with the apple jelly. So you wanna get the apple and the pastry, and it'll create a really
beautiful shiny surface. And if you let them cool
for about five minutes, it will set the jelly,
and then you can also dust them with the powdered sugar just to create a nice snowy holiday look. And you can place them on a platter, and bring them to the table. And you'll see when you cut into them, it's such a great combination between the flakiness of the puff pastry, that warm applesauce below, and of course those tender apples. It is a fantastic little
addition to our trio of pastries. Now I certainly don't expect you to make all of these pastries (laughs), although you could if you
have a huge crowd coming. But I think one or two
would be such a great way to kick off your holiday brunch. And special thanks to
Wewalka for sponsoring and collaborating with me on this video. You can visit Wewalka.us
for more information on where you can find
this product near you, and I will see you guys
back here next time. Until then, bye.
