Foodie Friday: Puff Pastry Appetizers

With New Year’s Eve being tomorrow, I figured it would be appropriate to share a new favorite appetizer recipe: Cooking Light’s Tomato-Baby Bell Pepper Tartlets. These little beauties are made with a few basic ingredients, but look impressive. Don’t fear the puff pastry!The key to having these puff up is scoring the puff pastry. To me, it looked like I was cutting saltine crackers into each square of the dough.
While this recipe is delightful, the puff pastry base opens up a number of possibilities for toppings that roast or melt well.Cooking Light’s Tomato-Baby Bell Pepper Tartlets
By Ann Taylor Pittman
Ingredients

• 1 sheet frozen puff pastry dough, thawed
• 1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 2 tablespoons canola mayonnaise
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 8 grape tomatoes, cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices
• 3 baby bell peppers, cut into 1/8-inch-thick rings
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves (which I left off)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2. Unfold dough; place on a work surface lightly dusted with flour. Roll gently into a 10 x 9–inch rectangle. [I used Pepperidge Farm’s Puff Pastry, which happened to be the perfect size out of the box.] Cut dough into 20 (2 1/4 x 2–inch) rectangles. Score each rectangle about 1/8-inch from edge. Prick each dough piece liberally with a fork. Arrange dough pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; chill 10 minutes.
3. Combine cheese, mayonnaise, and garlic, stirring well. Spread a scant 1/2 teaspoon cheese mixture over each dough piece. Top each tartlet with about 2 tomato slices and 2 bell pepper rings. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until dough is lightly browned. Remove from oven, and sprinkle evenly with thyme.