Raisin Walnut Canapes

These are easy.  EASY.  But you will impress the heck out of your friends because they look complicated and are flaky and delicious.  Normally, I make all of my food from scratch, but in this recipe, we will use a little help from our friend, Puff Pastry.

Get some puff pastry, roll that shizzle out, and cut it into squares or pinwheel shapes or whatever.  You can even take an easier route, like me, and wait until a box of vols-au-vent (vol-au-vents?) makes it to the final reductions freezer section of the Co-op.  Anyway, get your puff pastry in the desired shape and bake according to the directions.

At the same time, get a pan and heat some non-hydrogenated margarine* (or coconut oil).  Once it's melted, add some muscovado sugar (brown sugar will do just fine as a substitute) and stir until it starts to dissolve.  I'm not gonna give you exact measurements or proportions -- this is pretty forgiving stuff here and I don't know how many puff pastry bits you've got in your oven.  Add some raisins and chopped walnuts (or whole walnuts, or heck, even pecans -- go crazy!) and stir to coat.  It's delicious.  You may find yourself scraping every last bit out of the pan and licking it off your fingers.

Once your puff pastry is puffy and cooked, take it put of the oven and spoon the raisin walnut goo on.  Give it a minute or two for the goo to solidify and so you and your guests won't burn the roofs of their mouths with the hot raisins.  I think these are great with a nice cup of tea.  I made these when my in-laws came to town a few years ago and they thought these were great with a nice cup of instant coffee.

By the way, a surprising number of people don't know about puff pastry, so people might assume you made these entirely from scratch.  This may or may not have totally happened when my in-laws came to visit.

"My goodness, Big Momma, this pastry is SO flaky!  I don't know how you did it!"
"Why, thank you ever so much.  It was really nothing."

*  Seriously, guys, I know trans-fatty marg might be cheaper, but STAY AWAY FROM THE HYDROGENATED AND PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED OILS!!!  Do it for your health, or at the very least because they taste like wax and make your tongue feel all coated and gunky.  Blech.