Onion and Goat Cheese Puff Pastries

I’m in a puff pastry phase. Not a major one. I’m not obsessed. But the three packages of puff pastry I’ve gone through in the past couple of months probably number more than I’ve used in my entire life (used, not eaten).

So, I like the stuff. Turnovers with soft, fluffy puff pastry dough any day, over baklava with thin, crispy phyllo dough!

I also like how puff pastry dough turns me quickly into the hostess with the mostess. You can top or fill puff pastry dough with just about anything and have an instant dessert or appetizer – great for unexpected guests! (I don’t have any of those, though, unless you count the stray cats that invite themselves in my back door, and they’re helping themselves to Science Diet for fat cats.)

So, I don’t make the dough myself! It's frozen. Big deal. Homemade is time consuming, and I couldn’t do any better than the frozen stuff, any way.

Oh, and these caramelized onion and goat cheese puffs are really good; I just got hungry uploading these pictures!

Onion and Goat Cheese Puff Pastries
Makes about 24

2 sheets frozen puff pastry
2 medium onions, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons butter, or margarine
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
goat cheese

• Preheat oven to 400°
• In a skillet over medium heat, sauté onions in butter until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper, and teaspoon of sugar to onions while cooking.
  
• Let frozen puff pastry thaw 10 minute. Cut sheets into, roughly, 2 ½ x 2 ½ squares (in order not to waste pastry, mine were more rectangular). Prick pastry with a fork multiple times.
• Place individual puff pastry squares in the bottom of an ungreased, nonstick muffin tin, pushing down the pastry so it conforms to the shape of the tin. Place ½-1 tablespoon of goat cheese in the middle of each puff pastry square. Then top with about 1-2 tablespoons of the caramelized onions
• Bake at 400° for 15 minutes, or until puff pastry is golden brown.