| Heat
the water in a heavy saucepan to a boil. Add the butter and
salt and reduce the heat to medium. Add the flour all at once
and vigorously beat the mixture until it pulls away from the
sides of the saucepan. Remove the saucepan from the heat and
add the eggs, one at a time, making sure the egg is incorporated
into the batter before adding additional eggs. Once all the
eggs are incorporated, transfer the batter to a bowl.
Heat
the oven to 400°. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Spoon
a small portion of the batter onto the cookie sheet. Note:
I like to put the batter into a pastry bag fitted with a fluted
tip. Then, I pipe a small round of the pastry batter onto
the cookie sheet. This adds a fancy shape to the finished,
baked pastry. Brush each pastry shape with some of the egg
and water mixture.
Bake
the pastries in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until
golden brown. Remove the pastries from the cookie sheet and
let cool on a cookie sheet.
To make
the filling, beat the whipping cream until stiff peaks form.
Gently fold in the sour cream, lox, dill, lemon juice, lemon
zest and cucumber. Season the mixture with salt and pepper
to taste.
Cut
the pastry puffs in half and scoop out the inside dough. Spoon
a small dollop of the salmon mixture on the bottom of a pastry
puff and then place top half of pastry on top of salmon mixture.
Garnish each pastry puff with a sprig of fresh dill.
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