Fig Honey and Goat Cheese Strudel

This Fig Honey and Goat Cheese Strudel - with pistachios! - is a fancy, elegant addition to your brunch... but deceptively easy to make.

When it comes to breakfasts, I like making one dish and letting my husband live on that for a week.

While I tend to either skip breakfast, or grab a protein shake, leftovers, or whatever, I tend to do make-ahead stuff for him.

He doesn’t have my weirdness when it comes to eating in the morning, so he shouldn’t be limited by my views on breakfast foods, LOL.

So, he gets the traditional stuff.

9 times out of 10, that’s a batch of some kind of muffins. I’ve made So. Many. Muffins over the years! All kinds of flavours - someday, I think I’ll do a cookbook of them.

I’ve gone on the odd strata kick, where he’s ended up with something fun like my Ham, Swiss, and Kale Strata, Breakfast Bagel Strata, or even - most recently - my Deluxe Pizza Strata.

Sometimes - when I’m in the mood to do some “Capital B *Baking*” (ie: rising dough and all) - it’ll be a batch of homemade bagels, or some bastardization of cinnamon buns.

Apple Cinnamon Buns,
Chai Cinnamon Rolls, Maple Walnut Spiced Pumpkin Buns, Strawberry Orange Rolls ... I tend to get a little “extra” about it, LOL.

Designing A Fancy Brunch Recipe

With Mother’s Day coming up - as a food blogger who needs to be mindful of seasonality - I’ve had brunch on the mind lately.

So, he’s been graciously serving as my guinea pig while I expand my breakfast/ brunch offerings here on the site.

As I write this, he’s finishing off the last of the batch of Ambrosia Belgian Waffles I made a few days ago, to re-shoot for the blog.

Recently, I decided to make him some Strudel.

Breakfast Strudel

Weird side story - I had no idea what to refer to these pastries as, as I was designing them.

I started off calling them a “Danish”, as I’d known them as a kid... but that doesn’t seem right.

I’d also seen this kind of thing called a Strudel - I used to buy them at Robin’s Donuts on a weekly basis, in Jr High. http://www.robinsdonuts.com/menu.aspx

... but I guess - technically - the use of puff pastry makes it NOT a strudel.

Eventually, I got tired of thinking about it, and decided that if a major doughnut chain would call this a strudel, I’m just calling it a strudel.

Done and done!

Honey, Fig, and Goat Cheese Strudel

While I would usually choose between cherry, cheese, or blueberry... I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t get a little weird with it, right off the bat. 🙂

When doing my weekly grocery order recently, I came across some fresh figs. I had no idea they’d still be available at this time of year - I thought it was a summer/fall thing.

I guess I’m still getting used to the wild availability of previously rare ingredients. So happy we moved to Hamilton!

Anyway.

The “It’s been too long since we’ve had some fresh figs” hit at the same time as the “let’s make strudels... but what kind?”, so a decision was easily reached.

I tossed around the idea of doing a fig newton inspired pastry, but decided that would be a waste of *fresh* figs.

I didn’t want an overly sweet pastry, so decided to use some goat cheese. A little honey to balance the bite from that, some pistachio - because really - and a plan was started!

These got RAVE reviews! They may look fancy, but they take only minutes to make... it's a great payoff, both visually and taste-wise!

Tips for Puff Pastry Success

These come together VERY quickly and easily, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1. Make sure to fully defrost your puff pastry, according to the manufacturer's directions. As always, I do not recommend microwaving it, as you’ll ruin it.

Best to plan ahead, when using puff pastry!

2. Try not to do this in an overly hot kitchen.

I’d been cooking and baking all day, and my whole kitchen was basically an oven at that point. It made the whole thing a complete mess to deal with.

Honestly, the day I was photographing this? I figured we’d have to do a reshoot.

Amazingly, it all came together anyway.

It’s just a lot easier to work with the dough and the cheese if it’s not extremely hot in the kitchen, so I’m always a fan of avoiding a bit of frustration when you can!

Reheating Your Pastries

While these are great fresh out of the oven AND at room temp, sometimes you’ll find yourself wanting to reheat one.

While you CAN heat it up in the microwave, I definitely recommend heating it up in an air fryer, if that’s an option.

Microwaving it will give you a soft result, but an air fryer crisps up the pastries beautifully - it’s like eating them fresh from the oven!

The Instant Vortex 4-in-1 Air Fryer, 6 Quart by Instant Pot is the Air Fryer we purchased, and we love it.

If I had my time back, I may have ordered this one - a size bigger - but we had no idea how much we'd use it, so we weren't really willing to pay more or sacrifice more counter space for it!

I’m sure all air fryers are a little different, but for reference: he reheats his pastries for 2-3 minutes at 400F.

How to Make Fig, Honey, and Goat Cheese Strudel

Prepare the Elements:

Heat oven, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cream together goat cheese, cream cheese, honey, and 1 egg.

Slice the figs

Chop the pistachios. I like them fairly fine, so I run them through my mini food processor.

Whisk together the remaining egg and 1 tablespoon honey.

Assemble the Pastries

Unfold thawed pastry sheet onto parchment-lined pans.

Cut each into 4 squares.

Use a sharp knife to make cut strips (like a fringe) along the two long edges of each pastry square, ending ⅓ of the way towards the center.

Divide cheese filling into 8 portions, evenly spread filling over the center ⅓ of each pastry square.

Take one of the end strips and fold it across the filling, at a slight diagonal. Take the top edge strip from the other side, and fold it across the filling, ending just over the top of the first one. Continue, alternating sides, until the whole thing is “braided”.

Use a pastry brush to liberally spread the egg mixture over each braid.

Sprinkle each pastry with pistachios...

... and top with slices of figs.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until puffy and golden brown.

Remove from heat, drizzle with more honey if you like.

Serve hot or room temp.

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5 from 1 vote

Fig Honey and Goat Cheese Strudel, with pistachios

This Fig Honey and Goat Cheese Strudel - with pistachios! - is a fancy, elegant addition to your brunch... but deceptively easy to make.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Snack

Cuisine: French

Servings: 8 pastries

Calories: 470kcal

Author: Marie Porter

Equipment

• 2 Baking Sheets
• Parchment Paper

Ingredients

• 6 oz Goat Cheese
• 3 oz Cream cheese Softened
• 2 tablespoon Honey
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 package Puff Pastry thawed
• 1 tablespoon Honey
• ¼ cup Pistachios, shelled and finely chopped
• 6 Fresh figs, sliced

Instructions

• Heat oven to 400F, line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Cream together goat cheese, cream cheese, honey, and 1 egg.
• Unfold thawed pastry sheet onto parchment-lined pan. Roll out a little to elongate it slightly in both directions, cut each into 4 squares.
• Use a sharp knife to make cut 1″ wide strips (like a fringe) along the two long edges of each pastry square, ending ⅓ of the way towards the center.
• Dividing cheese into 8 portions, evenly spread filling over the center ⅓ of each pastry square
• Take one of the end strips and fold it across the filling, at a slight diagonal. Take the top edge strip from the other side, and fold it across the filling, ending just over top of the first one. Continue, alternating sides, until the whole thing is “braided”.
• Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon honey, use a pastry brush to liberally spread it over the whole braid.
• Sprinkle each pastry with pistachios, top with slices of figs. Arrange on a
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until puffy and golden brown.
• Remove from heat, drizzle with more honey if you like. Serve hot or room temp.

Nutrition

Calories: 470kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 62mg | Sodium: 281mg | Potassium: 77mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 422IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 53mg | Iron: 2mg

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