Puff Pastry Intestine

Well, this may be the first year that I have actually done Halloween-themed food research.  Between helping my sister locate the perfect treat for her work’s “spoooky cooookie” contest and concocting my own treat to bring along a newly instituted Recipe Exchange party, I’ve done plenty of googling and pinterest-ing of Halloween treats this past month.  There are just so many great ideas out there. Some ideas were spooky or creepy or seriously disgusting, and others were quite cute.  But, after many hours of digging through my Google Reader archives and pages of search results, I finally found my contribution to the Halloween celebration of 2012.

It’s not too cute nor too revolting to keep you from eating it.  Plus, it’s a perfect way to bring some savory flavors to the Halloween party, instead of filling up solely on those Trick-or-Treat baskets of sweets.  (I’m just trying to help you balance out your impending sugar coma.) It’s not just any old Halloween snack.  This, my friends, is a puff-pastry intestine for all ages to enjoy.

It starts with our go-to green chicken enchilada filling using homemade salsa verde (or you could use a store-bought favorite if tomatillos aren’t readily available in your area).  The process is really quite simple, but you’ll need a fairly long, clean countertop. Then, just cut your puff pastry into long strips and seal them together. Add your filling, pinch the puff pastry, and bake.

The filling is completely adaptable to whatever flavors or fillings you like best.  I can’t think of a single filling that wouldn’t be absolutely delicious wrapped up in a tube of puff pastry. (I found this recipe over at Canary Girl, where the guts are filled with guacamole.)  Puff pastry is the ultimate light and flaky dough, and it’s perfect for this recipe.  You can easily stretch it and pinch it, so it’s simple to seal the filling within your intestine shaped tube.  I decided to use our chicken enchilada filling because it’s creamy, delicious, and green, and I firmly believe that this intestine should be properly represented on such an important holiday.  Intestine guts are gooey and green, right?

So whether your taking the kids out for a night of Halloween tricks and treats or just sitting on your couch watching scary movies, eating some fancy Halloween-style popcorn, while your dog snuggles up next to you in her penguin costume (can you guess which one I’ll be doing?), make sure you’re eating plenty of puff pastry intestine and candy. The time for munching on fake body parts and stuffing your face with obnoxious amounts of candy only comes around once a year!
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Bloody Puff Pastry Intestine

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Serves	4-6
Prep time	40 minutes
Cook time	25 minutes
Total time	1 hours, 5 minutes
Meal type	Appetizer, Snack
Website	Canary Girl

Ingredients

• 1 1/2lb chicken breast (cooked and shredded)
• 2 cups salsa verde (homemade or storebought)
• 8oz cream cheese (softened)
• 1 cup mexican blend cheese (shredded)
• 1lb puff pastry (thawed)
• 1 large egg (mixed with 1 TBSP water)
• 1 can red enchilada sauce

Directions

1.	Combine chicken, salsa verde, cream cheese and shredded cheese into a mixing bowl. Stir to combine all ingredients.
2.	Cut each sheet of puff pastry (there should be two per 1 LB pacakge) into 6 even pieces using a pizza cutter or sharp knife. Clear a large countertop and lay out parchment or wax paper, sprinkled with flour. Make a long strip of dough using all of the smaller puff pastry pieces. Press overlapping dough edges together to seal.
3.	Using a spoon or wearing food-safe gloves, spread out filling into a thin strip along the length of the dough. Make sure to leave enough room on either side of the filling so that you can pinch the dough up into a tube.
4.	Pinch puff pastry up and around the filling, then press the dough together to seal. Remove any excess filling that spills out as you are pinch the dough together.
5.	Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Carefully pick up one end of the intestine and place onto the baking sheet, seam side down. Continue feeding the tube onto the baking sheet, forming an "S" pattern. Then, re-seal any seams that you can see or may have come apart during transfer.
6.	Brush top of intestine with egg wash. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and brush with red enchilada sauce. Bake for 10 minutes more, until puffy and golden brown. Remove from oven, brush with additional red enchilada sauce, then spoon splotches of sauce onto the top for the blood effect. Serve immediately.

Shared at Full Plate Thursday, Weekend Potluck, Strut Your Stuff Saturday

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