If you haven’t already heard, it was announced that The Daring Kitchen won a Foodbuzz Blog Award for Best Group Effort.

I don’t think there is a better name for an award that could perfectly capture how and why The Daring Kitchen is what it is.

In every sense, it is truly the culmination of a group effort. And that group is made up of all of you Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks out there.

Congratulations! Take a bow! Be proud of yourselves! Bring on those DK challenges!

Ciao!

Thank you to everyone that voted for The Daring Kitchen. To celebrate the victory, here’s an easy “cookie” recipe that you can make quickly. Of course if you’re a Daring Baker you’d make the puff pastry from scratch …

Cinnamon Sugar Puff Pastry “Cookies”

Yield: It’s difficult to say because it all depends on the size of your puff pastry sheet, as well as the size of your cookie cutter. But you should get at least 20 to 30 “cookies” that are roughly an inch in size.

1 sheet of puff pastry
all-purpose flour (to dust your work surface)
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp. of water

Combine the ground cinnamon and vanilla sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

Flour your work surface and your rolling pin and roll out your sheet of puff pastry until it’s about a 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

While the oven is preheating, begin cutting out your “cookie” shapes using a cookie cutter of your choice. When you cut the cookies, press down evenly but don’t move the cutter around too much. This will prevent the puff pastry from rising nicely. You don’t have to use a cookie cutter here. You can also cut the puff pastry into small squares with a sharp knife.

Transfer your “cookies” to one or two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. When you’re done cutting out cookies, put the trays in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

After ten minutes, remove the tray(s) of “cookies” from the refrigerator. Carefully brush them with egg wash (egg and water mixed together) and then sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake in the middle or lower part of the oven for 8 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and bake for another 5 minutes, or until the “cookies” are puffed up and browned.

Remove from the oven to a wire rack and let cool. Or at least try to let them cool down before gobbling them up. These treats should be eaten quickly as the puff pastry doesn’t remain crisp for long.

Enjoy!