Smoked Salmon Pastry with Jennifer Worthley of It’s The Sweet Things Bakery

I am Chef Jennifer Worthley, the owner of It’s The Sweet Things Bakery here in Bellingham, WA. I found my true calling after completing the Pastry Arts program at Bellingham Technical College in 2018. After dabbling in a few different career paths, earning various degrees along the way, the food industry always had a way of pulling me back in.

I find a great deal of satisfaction in sharing my love of food with my community through not only the creations that we serve, but also the amazing interactions I get to have with people along the way. Nothing really compares to being a part of people’s happiest moments and celebrations. Seeing their faces when they bite into something that I have poured my heart and soul into is a feeling that I cannot put into words.

I started the business right after graduating in 2018 as a remote cottage food bakery that specialized in custom orders and events. I also co-owned a little coffee shop down at Squalicum Harbor for 3 years starting in 2018. The first two years were amazing, and the following two years (2020-2021) were a wild ride. 

The bakery moved from cottage kitchen, to commercial kitchen, and finally to storefront over the span of 4 years, and in August 2024 we celebrate two years as a brick and mortar!

I couldn’t be more grateful to have the opportunity to continue sharing my passion with the community every day, and to teach those that come work with me the things traditional ways of doing things, like I was taught in school, and a few things I have learned over the years along the way.

It is an absolute honor every time someone chooses It’s The Sweet Things, and I cannot thank you enough!

Smoked Salmon Pastry

Recipe by It’s The Sweet Things Bakery

Ingredients

• Filet of Smoked King Salmon from Lummi Seafood Market

• 1 Package of Pepperidge Farm Frozen Puff Pastry

• 8 ounce brick of cream cheese – room temperature (you could also use a vegan cream cheese if you wanted this recipe to be dairy free)

• 1 cup of marinated artichoke hearts

• 8 ounce jar marinated sundried tomatoes

• 1 bunch of fresh green onion

• Seasoned Pepper Medley Blend to taste

• Fresh Dill to taste

• Johnny’s Seasoning Salt to taste

• Cayenne Pepper to taste

• 1 egg (for egg wash)

Directions

Remove puff pastry from box and let set on counter to come up to temperature (somewhere between frozen and room temp)

Pull smoked salmon out of package, remove skin and break up into smaller pieces into a small bowl – set aside

Rinse and dice green onions – set aside

Chop up artichoke hearts – set aside

Place cream cheese into a stand mixer with paddle attachment (you can also use a mixing bowl and hand mixer for this if needed)
Beat cream cheese until smooth and creamy

Add spices/seasonings first while continuing to mix and simultaneously smelling

Then add green onions to taste/smell

Pull fresh dill off the stem and add to cream cheese mixture as it continues mixing

Stop mixer – scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue mixing

Add the last round of seasoning and spices to taste/smell and stop mixer

Unfold pastry and cut into even squares

Break egg into small bowl and wisk briefly to create an egg wash

Brush your egg wash on to the top right corner of each pastry square

Using a small cookie dough scoop, place even portions of cream cheese mixture on each square of dough directly in the center

Then place about ½ to 1 ounce of smoked salmon on top of the cream cheese

Place a pinch of artichoke heart pieces on top of salmon

Then place a pinch of sundried tomatoes on top of the artichoke hearts

Take the two corners that don’t have egg wash on them, stretch slightly and then join them together in the middle of the pastry

Then take your other two corners, with the non-egg-wash folding underneath the egg-wash piece and press together firmly, creating a square or rectangle shaped pouch where all of your delicious filling is now protected inside the pastry

Set in refrigerator for at least an hour – ideally overnight

Save the rest of your egg wash in the refrigerator

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Pull your tray of set (cold) pastry from the refrigerator and brush the tops with egg wash

Place in the oven and bake for anywhere from 20-35 minutes until golden brown and the pastry has puffed up and become lighter to the touch