Sainte-Maure Goat Cheese Feuilleté

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Use these intriguing cylindrical ash-colored French goat cheeses to make delicious puff pastry appetizers. A traditional French recipe.

I found this very easy gourmet appetizer in the now out-of-print Larousse des Cuisines Régionales. If you have ever been tempted to buy one of these intriguing French goat cheeses but just didn't know how to eat them, here is what to do.

One of the most famous fresh goat cheese in France, the Sainte-Maure weighs about 250gr and is shaped like a cone around a rye straw and rolled in ashes to give him its trademark black color.

Pound your Sainte-Maure with 4 tablespoon of cream, salt and a little pepper until you get a smooth paste.

Buy a sheet of puff pastry (you can do yours from scratch for even better results!).

If you have them, use a fluted circular cookie cutter to cut out puff pastry discs. You could also use a glass. The size depends on how you plan to serve them. Over a salad? Then a larger disc. Smart finger food? The smaller the better.

Put a spoonful of cheese on a disc, wet the edges and add another disc on top.

Press gently all around it to seal. You don't want any hole or the cheese will melt out disgracefully. For smaller portions just use one disc and fold it in half like a Chinese wonton.

Lay them on a sheet of baking paper.

Beat an egg with a tablespoon of milk.

Using a kitchen brush, coat each pastry with the egg mixture. This will give them a nice golden color. You really cannot omit this step in such a simple recipe or your feuilletés will not look good.

Heat up the oven to 230°C.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until well puffed and golden in color. Serve hot.

You can add some chopped walnuts or even finely chopped garlic or chives.

I did this recipe 4 times already and it worked like a charm every time.

If you don't have Sainte Maure you can do this with other goat cheeses - the taste will be different but it should work fine.