Festive jam stars

Festive puff-pastry stars with prune jam are very traditional Finnish treats around Christmas time. However, there are no official rules why you may not enjoy them all year around!

You need
* 1 pack puff or croissant pastry, defrozen
* Ready-made prune jam. Tip: Apricot jam is another, often used alternative.

If you like to make prune jam by yourself, try this:

Jam
* 300 g pitted prunes
* 4 tablespoons of sugar
* water, just enough to cover the prunes in a medium sized saucepan
Optional: Add 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger, ground cinnamon and nutmeg, or just cinnamon and vanilla. 

Measure prunes, sugar, water and optional spices, if you like, to a saucepan.  Bring it to boil and then reduce heat to let the mix simmer under a lid approx. 20 minutes or until the prunes have completely softened. Stir often. For smooth texture, puree the jam in a food processor or for a chunkier version with fork.  

On top
* dusting sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 225c. 
2. Cut each pastry sheet into squares (about 7 x 7 cm, how the sheets cut evenly).  
3. Make cuts from each corner of square, halfway to the middle. Tip: To avoid tips from burning, make the cuts a bit further down from the tip)
4. Create stars by taking each corner of pastry and pressing it in the middle, repeating with the three other corners until a star forms.
5. Place a dollop of jam in the middle. 
6. Bake in oven for 15 minutes, or until pastry looks golden brown.
7. Let the stars cool down and top with powdered sugar. 

Xmas stars