Bonne Femme!

It was hard to decide which recipe to make first from my new cook book The Bonne Femme Cookbook but I finally decided on starting with a starter.  I chose Flaky Green Olive and Cheese Spirals.

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
• 1 large egg
• 1 T water
• 1/2 C chopped pitted green olives (I used 14)
• 3/4 C (3 oz) shredded Pyrenees sheep's cheese such as Ossau-Iraty or Petit Basque
• 1 small garlic clove, minced

Preparation:

1. Thaw the puff pastry (see package directions).
2. Whisk the egg and water together in small bowl.
3. Unfold the pastry on a lightly floured board and brush with some of the egg wash.  Reserve the remaining egg wash.
4. Top the pastry with the olives, cheese and garlic.  (I mixed all together and them spread them on the pastry.)
5. Roll up the pastry, starting at the short side. ( My pastry was almost square so I just picked a side.)
6. Refrigerate the roll for at least 15 minutes or up to 2 hours.
7. Slice the roll into 15,  1/2 inch slices and lay flat on a parchment lined baking sheet.  I cut mine a little thicker and ended up with 12.
8. Brush the slices with reserved egg wash.
9. Bake 15 or 20 minutes, until golden.
10. Serve warm or at room temp.

Here is the result:

These were very easy to make and very tasty.  Flaky pastry, salty olives and mild cheese.  Delicious!  I got the green olives from the olive bar at Whole Foods so they were marinated which I think added some nice flavor.  I've never had either of the cheeses mentioned so I got both and mixed them.  They were quite similar but the Petit Basque has a little stronger taste; I will use it by itself next time.  The author suggests an alternate filling using one of her tapenade recipes and goat cheese.  I'll probably try that one too. And I might do one with blue cheese.  Yum!

I learned about this book over at verbatim. Karen was the copy editor on the book and she is mentioned in the acknowledgments.  Thanks Karen, I love the book.