Postman's Envelopes

I think in response to the weather, I've been baking a lot lately. This week I made little pastry treats called Postman's Envelopes.

They are a cream-cheese dough wrapped around a delectable black cherry and pecan filling. Because I had some dough leftover, I also made a few filled with peach preserves (which I enjoy so much I have been known to eat them from the jar with a spoon). The peach ones quickly became my favorites.

Flavor-wise they reminded me a lot of rugelach, which is probably why I immediately thought I'd like to make some filled with chocolate, cinnamon, poppy seed, apricot, etc. My brother and I also agreed that the dough would be excellent for a savory filling. I think I will be playing around with these options.

The recipe came from an unlikely source: My First Baking Book by Rena Coyle, which I recently rediscovered when my parents were clearing out a cabinet. This was not, in fact, my first baking book, but its playful illustrations with Chef Bialosky Bear were what helped me conceptually understand baking techniques as a child. There is not a time that I separate an egg without imaging the drawing in this book.

The recipes are fool-proof and fantastic, and I don't mind confessing I plan to make them all. I know this is not as prestigious a completist resolution as the French Laundry at Home, but I'm going for it. Bialosky has my back.

Now on to the pastry!

Postman's Envelopes (slightly modified)

Ingredients
Pastry:

• 1 8-oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 Cups flour, plus extra for rolling

Filling:

• 1-1/2 cup (1 6-oz. pkg.) pecan halves or chopped pecans
• approx. 1 Cup juice-sweetened fruit preserves

Preparation:

1. Beat together cream cheese and butter using an electric mixer on medium, until smooth and blended.

2. Add sugar and beat until mixed in. Gradually add flour 1/2 cup at a time, and beat on medium speed until blended.

3. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile make filling: chop or break apart pecans, and stir together with fruit preserves.

5. When dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350 F.

6. Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface and flour a rolling pin. Roll the dough out about 1/8 inch thick. This can be done in stages, if you're using a small surface like I was.

7. Using a sharp knife and straight-edge (optional), cut the edges of the dough straight, and cut dough into 2-inch squares.

8. Spoon approximately 1/2 teaspoon of filling into the center of each square, then fold each square in half to make a triangle. Press the edges together with your fingertips or a fork.

9. Bake at 350 until golden brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Enjoy!

The original recipe calls for half these ingredients, but because of the way things are packaged, I doubled it, to yield approximately 5-6 dozen. I experimented some with the thickness of the dough and the filling-to-dough ratio and found I preferred thin dough with a lot of filling.

I expect you'll see many variations on this recipe in the future! Om nom nom...