Alligator

It's so late now, so I'm going to make this entry short. (I was out having a fun conversation my friend, Sebastian, and his old friend Dan plus my boyfriend...very nice guys)

My mom and I LOVE this pastry from a local bakery (which now distributes to Gelsons Supermarkets in the area (or beyond, I'm not sure) called Alligator. I've made a few reicpes that call for maple syrup and when baked, it conjured up all kinds of memories of the delicious pastry which is now a bit expensive at $15 for a small sheet. So I found a recipe for Maple Pecan Squares in my handy Williams-Sonoma Baking book, but I overcooked it a little and aside from that, it still didn't have that Alligator taste (not real aligator, the pastry kind!). We read the ingredients on the box of the pastry and saw that they used some peaches in there and when my mom went to the market yesterday, she picked up some dried (kind of looks like those fruit jelly rolls you take to school) apricot to try to substitute for the peaches, used some baking dates and reduced the brown sugar...it worked! Next time, I think we'll put less filling and use a flakier crust, but until then, it's good enough for me!

I'll take pictures next time and post the recipe. It's late and I need sleep! Good Night!