Mother’s Day ⎜Herb Bouquets ⎜Sweet Pastries

A bouquet of lavender leaves and rosemary flowers.

These precious hands {Hannah} held a sweet and simple herb bouquet for Mother’s Day.  Clay pots that were once filled with dried herbs and lavender have new purposes as containers for fresh herbs.  To see and photograph my children holding and preparing these bouquets were as much of a gift as it is to receive them.

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Caleb holding a bouquet of sage, chives, lemon thyme, and lemon balm.

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Fresh herbs from the garden for the arrangements.

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Caleb picking out the herbs and rearranging them in pots.

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Grace combined lily of the valley with strawberry blossoms for this pretty arrangement.

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Work in progress.

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Almost done.

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Love this bouquet of lily of the valley, baby strawberries and strawberry blossoms.

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Beautiful Mother’s Day gifts.

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Homemade pastries such as these Puff Pastry Apple Tartlets or special store bought pastries {Mom’s favorite} would be wonderful to enjoy together for a light breakfast or as late afternoon snacks.

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{print recipe, here}

makes 4 tartlets

Ingredients

1   sheet of ready-made puff pastry, thawed
2   small/medium size Granny Smith apples, peeled, cut in half and cored
2   tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
8  teaspoons sugar
turbinado sugar {sugar in the raw} for sprinkling
powder suger for sprinkling before serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400˚ F

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1.  Cut puff pastry sheet into 4 equal pieces and transfer them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

2.  With a fork, prick the dough around the perimeter about a half inch in from the edges to make a rectangle borders.  Randomly prick more holes with the fork inside the rectangle area.  This will prevent the center area from rising up during baking.  Repeat this step with the other 3 puff pastry sheets.  Put the baking sheet in the refrigerate to keep the dough cold while preparing the apples.

3.  Take one half of an apple and cut it into thin slices.  Keep the sliced pieces together, set aside.  Repeat this step with the other apple halves.

4.  Take the chilled dough out from the refrigerator and carefully place one of the sliced halves in the center of a pastry sheet, fan the slices out to fill the pricked area of the dough.  Repeat this step with the other apple halves.

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5.  Top the apple slices with butter pieces and sugar equally.  Lastly, sprinkle raw sugar over each tartlet for texture.

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6.  Bake until apples are tender and pastry is golden, about 20-25 minutes.

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To make them extra sweet and pretty, sprinkle powder sugar {not shown} generously over the pastry before serving.

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Happy Mother’s Day!

{print Puff Pastry Apple Tartlets recipe, here}

posted by Kay