| Mini Cream Horns | ||||
| Makes about 96 cookies | ||||
| Ingredients | ||||
| 1 cup | milk |
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| 1 cup | Crisco, butter flavored | |||
| 1 stick | butter, sliced, softened | |||
| 1 1/2 cups | sugar (ultrafine if you have it) | |||
| 7 oz | (1 jar) marshmallow cream | |||
| 3 tbls | cornstarch | |||
| ________ | ||||
| 2 sheets | (1 box) puff pastry, semi-thawed | |||
| ________ | ||||
| 1 | egg | |||
| 1 tbls | water to make an egg wash | |||
| ________ | ||||
| some | powdered sugar for dusting | |||
| Directions | ||||
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First make the filling. In a mixer equipped with a beater, combine the
first set of ingredients. Start off slow so you’re not wearing half the
contents of the bowl. Once it comes together, mix it on medium for 5
minutes. If you’re not using “ultrafine” sugar, you’ll have to mix it
longer until a taste test reveals that it’s no longer grainy. You want
it silky smooth. Store the mixture covered in the fridge until you’re
ready for it. You can make it a night or two before; it’ll keep. Now for the shells. Find wooden “doll pins” at the craft store. They look like wooden clothes pins but are straight at the end, not flared. You’ll need about 48 total to rotate through the batches. Put the puff pastry box in the fridge the day before so the sheets will be semi-thawed and workable. Preheat the oven to 350°. Each sheet of puff pastry dough is folded into 3 equal parts. Cut each sheet along those seams so you have six smaller sheets total. Keep one out and put the rest back in the fridge. Dust a cutting board with flour, place the sheet of dough on the board, and dust the top of the dough. Use a rolling pin to gently spread and flatten the dough to about a 5"x12" dimension. Cutting across the shorter 5" dimension, cut strips about 3/4" wide. You should get about (16) 3/4"x5" strips from each piece of dough. Take a strip of dough and wrap it around a doll pin starting about an 1/8" in from the split end of the doll pin. Pull and stretch the dough slightly and spiral it up overlapping as your wrap. Press the end of the strip to the doll pin enough to secure it. Repeat until that third-sheet of puff pastry dough is used up. Spray a baking sheet with Pam and place the rolled dough pins on the sheet so they don’t touch. After you get all 16 strips on the sheet, lightly brush the tops with the egg wash. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes until they’re lightly golden. While one sheet is in the oven, you can work on the next third-sheet of puff pastry. When done, remove the dough strips from the oven and slide them into a large working bowl. Let them sit for about 5 minutes until the doll pins are cool enough to handle. To remove the dough from the pins, pinch the split end of the pin, use your fingernail to separate the other end of the dough where you pressed it to the pin. With a little encouragement and a gentle touch, the shells should slide off. Place the shells into another bowl to cool completely. Cover and store the empty shells until the morning of your party. If you fill them too early, the moist filling will leach into the pastry dough and you won’t get that crispy and creamy juxtaposition. You could fill them the day before if you have to. Equip a pastry bag with the biggest tip you have that will fit into the end of a shell then load up the bag with the filling. Place the rest of the filling back in the fridge so it doesn’t loosen up too much. Fill the shells from each end and place them on your serving tray. Once they’re all filled and arranged on your tray, dust them with some powdered sugar to make them look pretty. Keep them refrigerated until serving time. After the party, put any leftovers back in the fridge so the filling won’t run. |
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