Salmon Pastry Appetizer with Lemon and Dill Cream Cheese Filling

Salmon slices marinated in lemon and dill, then baked in a bite-sized pastry dough square with a honey, lemon and dill cream cheese filling.

I almost didn’t post these because of how lemony they turned out. My hand may have gotten a little carried away squeezing the lemon juice over the salmon, but good heavens that salmon was begging for it! Ok, maybe I was begging for it. It took some serious will power to refrain myself from eating the salmon all by itself once I added the lemon. One small scoop of the cream cheese filling with this salmon had me swooooonnnning.

I’m the kind of person who will swoon at the sight of a freshly cut lemon that has been sprinkled with salt by the way. The thought alone as I type those very words is making my mouth water! I love lemon, I love salmon, and I most definitely love the two together.

So, naturally, I doused the salmon slices in lemon juice before baking them.

And then I ate some of the leftover lemon with salt.

Don’t judge me.

You don’t necessarily have to add lemon to the salmon before baking these appetizers, I just happened to be in a lemony kind of mood when I made them. If you’re not that much into lemon, but still like it every now and then, I’d suggest not using the lemon on the salmon and only use it in the cream cheese filling.

I considered making a salmon tartare and using the cream cheese filling as a base, but my goal was to make at least 12 pieces with one sheet of pastry dough and really make the salmon stretch since it can sometimes be expensive depending on where you buy it.

A five-ounce piece of salmon (which is slightly bigger and heavier than a deck of cards) ended up being enough to accomplish that, so that was awesome.

I hope you like them!

Steph

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Salmon Pastry Appetizer with Lemon and Dill Cream Cheese Filling

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 12 pcs

Author Stephanie Chavez

Ingredients

• 2 ounces cream cheese
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice (for cream cheese filling)
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill, divided
• 5 ounce salmon steak, skin removed
• 3 teaspoons lemon juice for salmon (optional)
• small pinch of sea salt
• 1 sheet store bought puff pastry dough, thawed
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine the cream cheese, honey, one teaspoon dill, and one teaspoon lemon juice in a small bowl. It will take a few minutes to combine everything well. Add the other one teaspoon of lemon juice, stir well again, and set aside.
3. Slice salmon steak into 12 thin slices. Arrange salmon slices on a large flat plate, sprinkle remaining dill, three teaspoons of lemon juice (optional), and small pinch of sea salt over salmon slices.
4. Cut pastry dough into 12 squares. Evenly distribute the cream cheese onto the pastry squares. Top each with one slice of salmon.
5. In a small bowl combine egg and water.
6. Fold one corner of the pastry square over the salmon, brush with egg wash. Fold opposite corner over the first fold, brush with egg wash to seal.
7. Bake 18-20 minutes or until salmon and pastry dough are fully cooked.

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