I’ve been inspired to do some more baking, starting with more easy recipes. A couple of months ago, I [finally] got a hand mixer, which I have been wanting for a long time. I figured it would come in handy for many baking experiments I have been wanting to try.

Two nights ago, I tried this recipe that I found in the Raley’s shopper magazine that is available in the grocery stores. It’s an almond pear square, but I modified it a little bit. The recipe calls for a sheet of puff pastry (found in the freezer section), almond paste, diced pears, and chocolate chips. I deleted the almond paste and just threw on pears, chocolate chips and shredded coconut. Here’s how it looked:

The recipe said to fold up the corners of the square, but when I put the dessert into the oven, the sides of the square fell back down. So I just pushed the ingredients away from the edges of the square, and it was fine. The final result turned out pretty good, but I was disappointed that the chocolate chips weren’t entirely melted. In fact, they had barely melted, even after being in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees. I didn’t want to leave the dessert in the oven any longer because the puff pastry looked like it was getting too brown. I had hoped the pears would be a little softer, too. Oh well…it still wasn’t bad…you can’t really go wrong when you have puff pastry, fruit and chocolate. :)