Puff Pastry with Asparagus, Brie, and Honey -- a taste of spring

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  Once more with the asparagus, my friends! 

In case you missed the memo, we here at Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen decreed ages ago that using frozen puff pastry is NOT cheating. Especially those of us who have ever tried making it ourselves! It is, in fact, one of the wonders of the freezer case, a boon for busy cooks, a treat for anyone who loves buttery, flaky things. 

We made these for our Easter dinner, more of a celebration of spring than anything else for us. (You already know we are nontraditionalists when it comes to holiday meals.) They were easy, fun, and pretty, and we won’t wait until next Easter to make them again. After all, we only made half the recipe, using one sheet of puff pastry, so we still have half a box waiting. And you don’t want to keep tasty food waiting now, do you?

The original recipe, which I adapted from Red Stick Spice Company in Baton Rouge, called for smoked honey. Lacking such a taste treat, I used Montana clover honey and it was delish. When I warmed up a leftover packet and forgot the honey-butter drizzle, the result was still good, so you could skip it. But why skip an extra bit of butter and sweetness? 

How much asparagus you need will depend on the thickness of the stalks. For the asparagus, any herbed salt will do—I used a blend I bought in Paris, but you can make your own following the instructions in The Solace of Bay Leaves. Or just a bit of sea salt. For the drizzle, if you use salted butter, skip the added salt. 

PS: I finally figured out how to embed a PDF of the recipe for easy printing. 

Scroll down to the 💕 for the link. 

Puff Pastry with Asparagus, Brie, and Honey 

For the pastry bundles:

1 package refrigerated or frozen puff pastry, thawed

30 (or so) stalks of asparagus, washed, ends trimmed

8 ounces brie, sliced

olive oil

herbed salt 

For the honey drizzle:

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

For the egg wash: 

one egg, lightly beaten

Heat oven to 375°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicon liner.

Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Break the asparagus stalks in half and add to water. Reduce the heat to a high simmer, and cook until stalks are bright green and just tender, about 3 minutes depending on their size. Drain in a colander and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking. Toss with a little olive oil and herbed salt. 

Lay the pastry sheets on a flat surface and roll into a 10 by 11 inch rectangle. Cut each sheet into 6 rectangles, and transfer to baking sheet.

Place a slice of brie on each piece of pastry. Add 3-4 pieces of asparagus, alternating heads and cut ends. Take 2 corners of the pastry and wrap up and over the asparagus, pinching firmly to close. Repeat with remaining pastry and asparagus.

Brush each pastry with egg wash.

 Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

While the pastries are baking, add the honey, butter, and salt to a small saucepan. Melt and simmer 2-3 minutes, until it begins to thicken; the glaze will thicken as it cools. 

To serve, drizzle the honey-butter glaze over the baked packets, or serve on the side in a bowl and allow each diner to spoon up as much as they would like. 

Makes 12 pastry packets.

Do you have a favorite puff pastry recipe or treat? Do tell!

💕 Click here for a free printable PDF! 

At Seattle Spice Shop, owner Pepper Reece has whipped up the perfect blend of food, friends, and flavor. But the sweet smell of success can be hazardous . . .  

Spring is in full bloom in Pike Place Market, where Pepper is celebrating lavender’s culinary uses and planning a festival she hopes will become an annual event. When her friend Lavender Liz offers to share tips for promoting the much-loved—and occasionally maligned—herb, Pepper makes a trek to the charming town of Salmon Falls. But someone has badly damaged Liz’s greenhouse, throwing a wrench in the feisty grower’s plans for expansion. Suspicions quickly focus on an employee who’s taken to the hills. 

Then Liz is found dead among her precious plants, stabbed by a pruning knife. In Salmon Falls, there’s one in every pocket. 

Pepper digs in, untangling the tensions between Liz and a local restaurateur with eyes on a picturesque but neglected farm, a jealous ex-boyfriend determined to profit from Liz’s success, and a local growers’ cooperative. She’s also hot on the scent of a trail of her own, sniffing out the history of her sweet dog, Arf. 

As Pepper’s questions threaten to unearth secrets others desperately want to keep buried, danger creeps closer to her and those she loves. Can Pepper root out the killer, before someone nips her in the bud?

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

ALL GOD'S SPARROWS AND OTHER STORIES: A STAGECOACH MARY FIELDS COLLECTION, now available in in paperback and ebook 

Take a step back in time with All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection of historical short mysteries, featuring the Agatha-Award winning "All God's Sparrows" and other stories imagining the life of real-life historical figure Mary Fields, born into slavery in 1832, during the last thirty years of her life, in Montana. Out September 17, 2024 from Beyond the Page Publishing.  

“Finely researched and richly detailed, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories is a wonderful collection. I loved learning about this fascinating woman . . . and what a character she is! Kudos to Leslie Budewitz for bringing her to life so vividly.” —Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of Crow Mary

Available at Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Books-A-Million * Bookshop.org * and your local booksellers!

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest books are To Err is Cumin, the 8th Spice Shop Mystery and All God's Sparrows and Other Stories: A Stagecoach Mary Fields Collection, in September 2024. Watch for Lavender Lies Bleeding, the 9th Spice Shop Mystery, on July 15, 2025.

A past president of Sisters in Crime and former national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.