I’d never heard of them before. I wasn’t sure how to pronounce their name. But every time I paged through my “Best of America Traditional Regional Recipes” the picture of little cheese pastries called fromajardis called out to me.
This week, I finally whipped up a double batch, and my team of taste testers gave plenty of thumbs up, with Ed Lewis even saying he’d like to make some at home as a Super Bowl snack.
The ingredients — from butter and nutmeg in the dough to cheese and herbs in the filling — make the fromajardis smell great before, during and after baking.
And, while the fromajardis’ half-moon shape reminded Maria DiBou of an empanada and Bill O’Boyle of “a cross between a pierogie and some kind of ravioli,” Patrick Kernan said the dough’s lightness and flakiness reminded him of “something we would have passed around on a tray at a wedding” during a previous job.
Several taste testers really liked the dough, with Lyndsay Bartos marveling when I confirmed that, yes, I’d made it from scratch. But some pointed out they would have liked more of the cheese filling, and I have to admit I may have been too skimpy with it at times.
That was because when I tried to use a more generous amount, it seemed like the filling starting oozing right out through the seam before I even had the dough sealed.
Maybe I should have just accepted that oozing; the recipe says you can expect some leakage. But I didn’t want to be too messy.
After I made the fromajardis I found a similar recipe online. It comes from Maggi Smith Hall, whose filling ingredients include one tablespoon of flour per cup of grated cheese and 2 eggs. I’m guessing that flour would have made my filling less runny, which might have solved my dilemma.
Maggi also said to brush the pastries with melted butter before you put them into the oven (sounds good) and to cut slashes into them in the form of a cross. Then you can expect that “cheese will puff up through the crosses” while they bake. If I make these again, I’ll put more effort into making slashes that actually penetrate the dough.
The recipe I used, by the way, was in the Southern portion of my regional cookbook, without an explanation of its background. Online resources say fromajardis come from the cuisine of the Minorcan people who came from their Mediterranean island to Florida as indentured servants and worked on indigo plantations in the 1700s.
I also read people would traditionally hand out fromajardis as treats to singers who serenaded them during the week after Easter. According to a 2018 article from edibleorlando.com, the Fromajardis Serenade “still happens each year in parts of St. Augustine.”
The recipe I followed didn’t mention a hot pepper called datil, which is a traditional ingredient, but said to add hot sauce, to taste, to the filling. Not wanting to make the filling too spicy, I added only a tiny drop. Then I brought a bottle of sriracha sauce to the newsroom and handed out individual dipping cups.
While just about everyone appreciated the sriracha, taste taster Roger DuPuis said that without sauce it was easier to taste the herbs (I used a mostly dill, plus a little sage, parsley and rosemary). He also thought the fromajardis had enough cheese, so maybe he had one of the plumper ones.
“Given the opportunity, I could eat 10 of these,” he said.
Here is the recipe as it appears in “Best of America Traditional Regional Recipes.”
FROMAJARDIS
For the dough:
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons cold butter or shortening, or a combination of both
6 to 8 tablespoons ice water
For the filling:
2 eggs
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
hot pepper sauce
1 tablespoon minced mixed fresh herbs such as thyme, chives and sage
1. For the pastry, sift the flour, nutmeg and salt into a bowl. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter or shortening into the dry ingredients as quickly as possible until the mixture is crumbly and resembles coarse meal.
2. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of the ice water over the flour mixture. Combine with a fork until the dough holds together. If dough is too crumbly, add a little more water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Gather the dough into a ball.
3. Divide the dough in half and pat each portion into a disk. Wrap the disks in wax paper and refrigerate them at least 20 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
5. For the filling, put the eggs in a mixing bowl and beat well with a fork. Add the cheese, hot pepper sauce to taste, and the herbs.
6. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch or less. Cut out rounds using a 3-inch cookie cutter or drinking glass.
7. Place 1 teaspoon of filling in the center of each pastry round. Fold over to make half-moon shapes and press the edges together with the tines of a fork. A bit of filling may ooze through the seam.
8. Cut a few small slashes in the top of each pastry with the point of a sharp knife. place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until the pastries start to darken slightly, 18-20 minutes. To test for doneness, cut one in half; the pastry should be cooked through. Serve warm.
Makes about 40.
The cookbook authors say the fromajardis may be made ahead of time. Let them cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container. Just before serving, they recommend reheating the pastries in a preheated 375 degree F oven for 5 to 10 minutes.