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.