Jammy egg pastries with labneh, spinach and date and pistachio browned butter
Golden puff pastry layered with cool labneh, garlicky spinach and softly jammy eggs, finished with warm browned butter, sweet dates and pistachios. Rich, savoury and full of texture, these pastries make a beautiful brunch dish or relaxed sharing lunch.
Method
Preheat the oven to 210ºC/190°C fan and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Unroll the puff pastry and cut into 8 squares. Use a 7cm round cutter to cut out circles in 4 of the squares. Transfer the 4 uncut squares to the prepared baking tray.
Lightly brush the squares with the beaten egg, top with a cut-out square and lightly brush again. Sprinkle the borders with the nigella seeds. Bake for about 15–20 minutes until puffed and golden brown. Use a spoon to gently press down the puffed centres halfway.
Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a large frying pan over a medium-low heat and cook the garlic for about 1 minute to soften. Add the spinach, season with salt and pepper and cook for 8–10 minutes until all the water has evaporated.
Drop the eggs into a pot of boiling water and cook for 7 minutes (for jammy centres), then transfer to an ice bath until cool enough to peel.
When ready to serve, spoon the labneh into the centre of each square and top with spinach. Peel and cut the eggs in half to top.
Melt the butter with the pistachios over a medium heat and cook until the butter starts to smell like biscuits. Add the dates and chilli powder and, once foaming, chuck in most of the dill then immediately spoon over the eggs. Sprinkle with a little extra dill to serve.
Ingredients
For the pastries:
1 325g sheet puff pastry (we used Dorset Pastry)
1 large Clarence Court egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon nigella seeds
For the filling:
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
200g baby spinach
4 large Clarence Court eggs
200g labneh
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
For the browned butter:
50g unsalted butter
15g shelled pistachio nuts, chopped
30g pitted dates
A pinch of Aleppo chilli powder (regular chilli powder is ok, too)
A couple of sprigs of dill, roughly chopped