#my housemates and i taste tested these yesterday and i'm pretty pleased!!

[turndownyourlights]

Hey y’all! I tried my hand at making a recipe celebrating the coming of autumn that also incorporated one of my current favorite games, Night in the Woods! This is my first actually written up recipe, so feel free to message me for any clarifications!

The full recipe can be found under the cut. Happy Harfest everyone!

Mae’s Harfest Treats

Makes roughly a dozen treats

Prep time: Approx. 40-45 minutes Cook time: Approx. 15-25 minutes, depending on your oven and puff pastry brand

Italics indicate optional steps and ingredients or substitutions.

Ingredients

For the Maes:

2 packages of store bought puff pastry dough, refrigerated (I used Wewalka brand puff pastry because, weirdly enough, it’s vegan?)

White sugar (for dusting)

1 tablespoon of melted butter (or a trusted butter substitute of choice)

½ cup of powdered sugar (optional)

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)

For cinnamon sugar filling:

¼ cup of brown sugar

1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon

½ tablespoon of instant clear jel (this is used in making pies and can be found in some baking aisles and online) OR 1 tablespoon of cornstarch

About 2 tablespoons of water

For fruit filling:

¼ cup of your favorite jelly/jam/preserves

½ tablespoon of instant clear jel OR 1 tablespoon of cornstarch

For chocolate filling:

1/3 cup white sugar

1 ½ tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tablespoon of instant clear jel OR 1 tablespoon of cornstarch

About 4 tablespoons of water

Hardware

Fridge/freezer

Rolling pin

Cat head shaped cookie cutter (or – if you’re artsy – a cat head shaped paper/thin cardboard cutout and a skilled knife)

Small bowl(s) or mug(s)

Spoon(s)

Fork

Pastry brush (or a folded paper towel)

Parchment paper

Two cookie sheets

An oven

Mesh sifter (optional)

Directions

Prepare your filling(s)! Assemble your chosen dry ingredients into a bowl each, stir them together, and add water a tablespoon at a time until the mixture becomes the consistency of creamy peanut butter or thick pudding (when on a spoon, the mixture mostly sticks rather than all spilling off). (If you like, you could also use peanut butter, cookie butter, or Nutella as a filling. You won’t need to add jel or water and can use as is.) Place the bowl(s) into the freezer to chill until needed.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, or to your brand of puff pastry’s suggested oven temperature.

Take out puff pastry packages from fridge and open both. Place each sheet onto a separate cookie sheet lined with parchment paper that was lightly dusted with sugar. Lightly dust top of puff pastry with sugar.

Roll puff pastry sheets flat until they are almost as big as the cookie sheets. Cut out 12 cat heads per puff pastry sheet. (If you like, you can also use the puff pastry scraps to make her NIGHTMARE EYES! Just carefully cut out ovals using a knife and circles using straws! Press the pupil circles into some cocoa powder before affixing to the ovals.) Remove any excess puff pastry from the cookie sheets.

Carefully arrange the puff pastry cat heads into 3 rows of 4 on each cookie sheet. If they’re still sticking to the parchment paper once you move them, dust more sugar onto one side of them and flip them over.

Remove bowl(s) from freezer and spoon 2 teaspoons of filling onto every other puff pastry cat head. Don’t overfill them or they WILL leak! Place the remaining cat heads on top of them to create a sandwich and crimp the edges shut with a fork carefully so no holes are created. Reform any rounded ears into points.

Brush the tops of each puff pastry cat head lightly with butter. (If you made eyes, place two eyes onto each cat head.) Rearrange cat heads so there are a few inches of space between them. Store both sheets in either the fridge or freezer while waiting for the oven.

Once oven is preheated, put both sheets in the oven for 10 minutes.

Swap positions of the trays and bake for another 10 minutes, or until golden brown.

Mix powdered sugar and unsweetened cocoa powder together in a bowl and sift over the cat heads.

Let cool for at least 15 minutes.

Enjoy your new Harfest treats!