Apricot Pochettes

These Apricot Pochettes are reminiscent of little French pastry desserts. They are made with a cream cheese and butter pastry dough, and are filled with just a bit of apricot preserves.

These cookies are like mini hand pies. The pastry consists of eight ounces of butter and eight ounces of cream cheese mixed with just a little over eight ounces of flour. That's a pretty incredible ratio.

They are super soft and flaky, and not overly sweet. When I took them to work, they quickly disappeared.

I first tried making a cream cheese pastry four years ago with this recipe for turnovers, and was thrilled with how tasty it was. This time, the butter to cream cheese ratio is even higher, and the turnovers, or little pockets, are cookie sized.

The dough itself is actually sugar free, so you could also fill them with a tiny bit of savory filling, such as cheese, meat sauce, or caramelized onions. Just tossing out a few possibilities!

A few hints:

1. Prior to baking, keep the shaped cookies cold, especially if your kitchen is warm. It takes a while to shape and fill the cookies, so place shaped cookies onto a plate in the fridge (covered with plastic wrap) as you continue to assemble the cookies. 
2. Roll the dough out between two pieces of floured wax or parchment paper. This will help keep the surface of the dough smooth and let it release from the paper easily. If your dough sticks too much to the paper when you try to peel it off, place it into the fridge for about 30 minutes prior to removing the paper. 
3. Do not overfill the cookies or they will leak. 
4. Since there is no leavening in the dough, you can place the cookies fairly close together on the baking sheet. The cookies will puff up, but they won't spread out. 
5. If you'd like the dough to get a bit more golden on the outside, add a couple of teaspoons of sugar. 
6. If you don't have a scalloped cookie cutter, just use a regular round one. They'll be just as tasty. 

After the recipe, check out the rest of the Creative Cookie Exchange Bloggers' cookie recipes to symbolize the end of summer. I used apricot preserves to fill these cookies, but any preserves from summer's bounty would be perfect in these cookies.

Apricot Pochettes

Ingredients

• 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 8 ounces of room temperature cream cheese
• 2 cup (8 1/2 ounces) all purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cups apricot preserves
• one egg white
• one teaspoon water
• Sparkling sugar (optional)

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese with the paddle attachment until fluffy.
2. Whisk the flour and salt together, and, with the mixer on low, slowly add the flour/salt mixture to the butter and cream cheese. Stop the mixer when the flour is just incorporated and finish with a rubber spatula. Do not over mix.
3. Divide the dough into two parts, flatten each into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F with a rack in the middle. Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper. Whisk the egg white with the water and set aside.
5. Roll the dough out between two lightly floured sheets of parchment or wax paper to 1/8 inch thickness. Using a 3 inch scalloped cookie cutter, cut the dough into circles. Gather up the scraps, re-roll, and continue to cut the dough into circles. If the dough gets too warm, place it back into the refrigerator.
6. Place 1/2 teaspoon of the preserves in the center of the dough circles, and using your finger, rub the border with the egg white mixture. Fold the circle in half and press lightly to seal the edges. Repeat with the rest of the dough.
7. Place the cookies on the baking sheet, brush with the egg white mixture, and sprinkle with sparkling sugar.
8. Bake the cookies for 20 to 25 minutes, until lightly golden. Cool in a wire rack.
9. Store in an airtight container for up to two days.

Yield: 36 cookies/pochettes
Recipe adapted from Melissa d'Arabian

Summer is almost over, and we have cookies to remember it by! Hint: a lot of these cookies could be made and frozen, to pull out a slice of summer in February! Check out what all of the hosting bloggers have made:

• Blackberry and Cream Monte Carlos by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Black Forest Cookies by Spiceroots
• Blueberry Cookies by The Spiced Life
• Lemon Basil Cookies with Mint by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Lemon Meltaways by Oven Delights
• Lemon Sour Cream Cookies by Magnolia Days
• Orange Creamsicle Cookies by 2 Cookin Mamas
• Peach Pie Cookies by Live. Bake. Love.
• Pecan Sandies by Food Lust People Love