September 2026 Recipe: Herb & Garlic Savoury Pastry

Keeping up with my 2026 Bingo Card, I'm making one new recipe each month. With this recipe, I wanted to test out two things: Can I actually bake something, and have LLMs gotten any better at making recipes?

When LLMs first came out, I tried to make a lot of recipes with random crap I had in my house. It gave me so much incomprehensible garbage that I once accidentally made that liquid that turns solid when you try to move it around. To be fair, this time I gave it something to work with by showing it the ingredients in Tim's version. It kind of, sort of worked it out in theory, but we're going to see how well it holds up when I make it. Usually I use someone else's recipe so I can feature them on my site, but it seems like no one cares enough about Tim's savoury pastry to make a copycat. :(

I don't really enjoy using LLMs for creative tasks, so this will be the first and last AI recipe I make for the blog.

Ingredients

1 head of garlic
1 garlic clove
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp sour cream, softened
2 tbsp fresh chives, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
120 ml milk
1 cup cream cheese
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp white vinegar
Salt, to taste
400g puff pastry
1 large egg

Tools Needed

A small pot
Cutting board
Whisk
Hand mixer
Mixing bowl
Baking sheet
Aluminum foil
Plastic wrap
Parchment paper

Preparation

Cut the top off the head of garlic.
Finely chop the chives and parsley. Grate your garlic clove. Set them aside on a side dish.
Start thawing your pastry (if it's frozen).
Soften your cream cheese.
Preheat the oven to 200C.

Cooking

Roast the garlic: Place the garlic on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle the olive oil over it. Wrap it up in the foil. Place it on a baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes. Once it's done baking, squeeze out the cloves and mash them into a paste.
Béchamel time: In a small pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Whisk in your flour and cook for 4 minutes. Don't let it brown. Slowly whisk in your milk and keep whisking until it has a pudding-like consistency. Scrape the béchamel into a small bowl and press plastic wrap right onto the surface so a skin doesn't form. Let it cool to room temperature.
Filling creation: In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the béchamel. Add the sour cream, mashed roasted garlic, freshly chopped greens, grated garlic, lemon juice, white vinegar, and salt. Mix until you're satisfied. Put it in the fridge until it can hold its shape on a spoon.

Pastry cutting: Lightly flour a work surface. Roll out your puff pastry. Cut it into 12 identical squares. Place 6 of them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Filling: Crack an egg into a bowl and beat it with a little bit of water. Put 2 tbsp of the filling in the middle of each square on the baking sheet. Brush the edges of each square with the egg. Place the other 6 squares on top of the filled ones. Crimp the edges with a fork and cut a hole in the top to vent steam. Brush the top of each pastry with more egg. Put them in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Baking: Bake at 200C for 20 minutes. Once they're done, let them stand for 20 minutes.

Final Thoughts

Even with all the effort this took, I had a fun time making it, unlike my lentil loaf. This was the first time I've ever successfully made a roux come out with the proper consistency. What tripped me up the most was not reading over the instructions before I started. I wanted to use my lattice cutter to make it look more like Tim's savoury pastry, but I sealed the pastry before I realized what I was doing.

The puff pastry doesn't seem like it was a good idea, either. There's too much puff and not enough filling. Another dough will need to be used next time, for sure. Overall, I'm happy with it, and I'm excited to make it again knowing what I know now.

My partner's thoughts: Butter puff pastry was not the most ideal pastry to use for this. It puffed up way too much lol. The filling is wonderful and creamy, but way too garlicky for my liking. Maybe less garlic, or maybe it needs to be cooked longer to make it less pungent.

My thoughts: I'm shocked by how much the pastry puffed up. When I cut one open, it barely looked like there was any filling in there at all. If I make this again, I'm going to use croissant dough and way less garlic. The original recipe called for half a head, but I used the whole head because I thought it would taste better. I wanted to recreate the Tim Hortons herb & garlic savoury pastry, and it kind of worked. Next time I make them, I'm going to use my lattice cutter properly and use a different dough for sure. And less garlic.