Turkey Dinner Packages

 

On a whim a couple of years ago, I made what I called, "Turkey Dinner Bites" for our Annual Christmas Open House.  I used leftover turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, and this was encased in puff pastry.  Needless to say, it was a huge hit and I have made it every year since.  This year as we are having a smaller, low-key Christmas, I've decided to make these for our Christmas dinner.  I will be serving them alongside our traditional favorite side-dishes, but I won't have to deal with roasting a full turkey for three people (I'm really the only one who in my immediate family who loves roast turkey anyway).

You can bake these ahead of time and re-warm, or you can freeze and then re-heat from frozen.  They are great as an appetizer or as a main course.  I've since seen a recipe for a turkey wellington, and this comes pretty close to that.  If you are wanting to do something different this Christmas, this might be the year to do it.

 

I found this puff pastry in the freezer section of my grocery store.  You can also use phyllo pastry. Either will work, but using phyllo is a slightly different method as you are using layers. If you want to go that route, see my recipe for homemade spanakopita.

The ingredients are fairly straightforward:  stuffing (and I used *gasp* Stovetop Turkey Stuffing!), Roast Turkey, and cranberry sauce.  You will need an egg wash at the end (one egg whisked with a teaspoon or two of water).

For the turkey, I was happy to find a box of turkey breasts in the freezer section of my grocery store.  After thawing the turkey breasts, I drizzled them with olive oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary, and sage.  I then baked them in a 400 degree F. oven for 40 minutes (or fully cooked and internal temperature reaches 185 degrees f.)  I let cool and chopped.

I had leftover homemade cranberry sauce in the freezer, but canned works just fine too.

I used a pizza cutter to cut out the shapes for the packages.  I made six turkey dinner packages from one sheet (and I used several sheets).  If you are making appetizers, you can make more.

I started with a small layer of stuffing

Then I added some turkey

And topped it off with cranberry sauce.  From there, you want to bring the pastry over top of the topping and then press the sides together.  You can use your fingers to do this and then a fork, as that will help to make a seal.  At first, I used some egg wash around the edges, but I actually found that it was harder to get the edges to seal with the egg wash.

They don't have to look especially pretty...they will taste amazing!

 I applied the egg wash to them prior to freezing.  If you have a pastry brush, that will work well.

Here is one straight from the freezer.  I baked this in an oven that was preheated to 350 degrees F.  I baked it for approximately 30 - 40 minutes.  I set a timer for 20 minutes and then checked again after 10 minutes.

You want to bake it until golden brown, and there may be variation in the time it takes, depending on the size of your packages.

 

You can serve this alongside additional cranberry sauce and/or gravy, but it really isn't necessary. 

This really was so tasty!