For the 2026 Great Griddle Off, I entered the “Food You’ve Seen in a Movie” category with a recipe inspired by one of my favorite animated food moments: Kronk’s beloved spinach puffs from The Emperor’s New Groove. The challenge was not simply recreating them. I wanted to figure out whether I could make real, flaky puff pastry entirely on a Blackstone griddle.

When Blackstone announced that one of this year’s Great Griddle Off categories would be Food You’ve Seen in a Movie, I immediately started thinking about recognizable movie foods.

There are plenty of obvious choices. Pizza. Burgers. Giant breakfasts. Elaborate desserts. Foods that have become almost as famous as the movies they appeared in.

But eventually my mind landed on a character who, frankly, never received enough credit for his culinary abilities.

Kronk.

If you have seen The Emperor’s New Groove, you already know where this is going.

Spinach puffs.

Kronk may spend most of the movie working for the wrong person, talking to squirrels, arguing with the angel and devil sitting on his shoulders, and occasionally pulling the wrong lever, but the man takes his spinach puffs very seriously.

So when I started thinking about what I could turn into a Great Griddle Off recipe, Kronk’s specialty felt perfect.

There was just one fairly significant problem.

Spinach puffs are made with puff pastry.

Puff pastry is normally baked.

And this was the Great Griddle Off.

Challenge accepted.

The Movie Inspiration

One of the things I liked about choosing Kronk’s spinach puffs is that they are not just random food sitting in the background of a movie.

They are part of the joke.

Kronk is supposed to be the henchman, but he is far more concerned with whether his appetizers are burning than whatever evil plan he is supposed to be helping execute.

At one point, everything else happening around him becomes secondary to the realization:

“My spinach puffs!”

I respect that level of culinary commitment.

Anyone who has ever been cooking for a party while everyone else is trying to get your attention understands Kronk perfectly.

Yes, yes, the kingdom may be in danger.

But what temperature are the appetizers?

The scene also gave me a recipe that people who know the movie would immediately recognize without requiring me to create a literal copy of something shown on screen.

I could take the idea and make it my own.

That became the goal.

The Real Challenge Wasn’t the Filling

Creating a good spinach filling was not the part of this recipe that worried me.

Spinach, bacon, shallots, cream cheese, feta, and Parmesan already sound like they belong together.

The bigger question was whether I could actually make puff pastry behave like puff pastry on a flat-top griddle.

I did not want to make a spinach-filled tortilla and call it a puff.

I did not want something that was technically edible but completely missed the thing that makes a spinach puff a spinach puff.

I wanted visible layers.

I wanted browned pastry.

I wanted the outside crisp while the filling remained hot and creamy.

Most importantly, I wanted someone looking at the finished picture to think:

That came off a griddle?

That is where the experiment became interesting.

Turning the Blackstone Into an Oven

A Blackstone is incredible at direct heat.

That is exactly what I did not want for the puff pastry.

Putting assembled puff pastry directly onto a medium-hot griddle would brown the bottom long before the rest of the pastry had time to rise and cook.

What I needed was indirect heat.

The solution was a warming rack and a large basting dome.

Instead of putting the pastries directly onto the cooking surface, I arranged them on a warming rack positioned above the griddle. Then I covered the entire rack with a large basting dome.

Suddenly, the griddle was doing something completely different.

The steel heated the air underneath and around the rack, while the dome trapped that heat around the pastries.

It was not exactly a conventional oven, but it created a small oven-like environment right on the Blackstone.

And that was the trick.

The puff pastry had enough time to rise.

The layers began separating.

The egg wash browned.

And instead of eight sad little dough pockets stuck to the griddle, I ended up with actual golden, flaky spinach puffs.

At that point I was pretty sure Kronk would approve.

Building a Filling Worthy of the Puff

Once I knew how I wanted to handle the pastry, I could focus on making the filling something more substantial than simply spinach and cheese.

I started with bacon directly on the griddle.

Cooking the bacon first did two things. Obviously, it gave me crispy bacon for the filling, but it also left rendered bacon grease behind on the cooking surface.

Rather than cleaning that away, I used it.

Finely diced shallots went directly into the bacon grease until they softened and became translucent. Then I added a generous amount of fresh spinach along with a simple seasoning blend of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Ten ounces of fresh spinach looks like an enormous amount when it first hits the griddle.

Then, as spinach always does, it dramatically collapses into a pile approximately one-tenth the size while making you wonder why you were ever concerned about having enough room.

I continued cooking until the spinach was fully wilted and, importantly, until most of the excess moisture had cooked away.

That step matters.

Puff pastry and watery filling are not friends.

Making It Creamy Without Making It Wet

Once the spinach and shallots came off the griddle, I combined them with the chopped bacon, softened cream cheese, crumbled feta, and freshly grated Parmesan.

The result was rich and creamy, but still thick enough to stay where I put it.

The cream cheese created the base.

The feta gave it some tang and saltiness.

The Parmesan added another savory layer.

The bacon gave it smoke and texture.

And the spinach and shallots kept it from becoming nothing more than a pocket full of cheese.

Although, to be clear, I am not entirely opposed to pockets full of cheese.

We have standards around here, but they are flexible.

Shaping the Groovy Griddle Spinach Puffs

For the pastry, I used one box of frozen puff pastry containing two sheets.

After thawing the sheets until they were pliable, I lightly rolled each one to enlarge it slightly and then cut each sheet into four squares.

That gave me eight total puffs.

I placed a generous spoonful of filling in the middle of each square, brushed the pastry edges with egg wash, and then brought opposite corners together over the filling.

Rather than completely enclosing the filling, I pinched the pastry together into an open-ended pocket, leaving some of that creamy spinach mixture visible.

I liked that shape for two reasons.

First, it gave the puff a little personality instead of looking like a completely sealed pastry square.

Second, leaving some filling exposed meant you could immediately see what was inside.

Food photography has taught me that if the interesting part of your recipe is hidden, sometimes the best thing you can do is simply let people see it.

Then Came the Moment of Truth

Once all eight puffs were assembled, I transferred them to the warming rack and brushed the exposed pastry with egg wash.

Then the rack went onto the center of the Blackstone.

The dome went over the top.

And I waited.

This is one of those cooking moments when staring at the food does absolutely nothing to improve the outcome, but you do it anyway.

I periodically checked underneath the dome, looking for some sign that the pastry was actually puffing instead of becoming warm, floppy dough.

Eventually, the layers began appearing.

Then the pastry started browning.

Then they actually looked like spinach puffs.

At roughly 15 to 20 minutes, I had golden pastry with visible flaky layers and a hot, creamy filling.

It worked.

I had effectively baked puff pastry on a Blackstone.

No oven.

No air fryer.

No sneaking the puffs inside when nobody was looking.

The entire recipe was cooked on the griddle.

Why That Mattered for the Great Griddle Off

This was probably my favorite part of the entry.

I did not want to submit a recipe where I cooked the filling on the Blackstone and then moved the actual spinach puffs into an oven.

Technically, I could have made a delicious appetizer that way.

But for something called the Great Griddle Off, I wanted the griddle to matter.

The method became part of the recipe.

Using the warming rack and dome was not simply a workaround. It demonstrated another way the Blackstone can be used.

Most people look at a flat-top griddle and immediately think about smash burgers, hibachi, bacon, breakfast, cheesesteaks, or tacos.

Nobody’s first thought is usually:

“Puff pastry.”

That is exactly why I wanted to try it.

Sometimes the Weird Idea Is the Best Idea

This is something I learned when I won the Great Griddle Off in 2023 with my blueberry brie dessert grilled cheese.

Competition recipes do not necessarily need to be complicated.

They need to be memorable.

The blueberry brie grilled cheese worked because people understood what it was immediately, but it was different enough to make them look again.

I approached the spinach puffs the same way.

The idea itself is simple.

Kronk makes spinach puffs.

I make Kronk-inspired spinach puffs.

But then there is the twist:

I baked them on a Blackstone griddle.

That becomes the part of the story I think people remember.

The recipe is not unusual merely for the sake of being unusual. The technique serves a purpose.

That is usually where I think the best creative Blackstone recipes live.

The Recipe: Groovy Griddle Spinach Puffs

If you want to make Kronk proud—or simply want to surprise somebody by serving puff pastry that came off a flat-top griddle—here is how I made them.

Ingredients

• 4 slices bacon
• 2 large shallots or 3 small shallots, finely diced
• 10 ounces fresh spinach, roughly chopped
• 1 to 1½ teaspoons salt, pepper, and garlic powder seasoning blend, or to taste
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 6 ounces crumbled feta cheese
• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 box frozen puff pastry, 2 sheets, thawed until pliable
• 1 large egg, beaten

Directions

1. Cook the bacon. Preheat the Blackstone griddle to medium heat. Cook the bacon directly on the griddle until browned and crisp. Transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate to cool, but leave the bacon grease on the griddle.

2. Cook the vegetables. Add the diced shallots to the rendered bacon grease and cook until softened. Add the chopped spinach and season with the salt, pepper, and garlic powder blend. Continue cooking until the spinach is completely wilted and most of the excess moisture has evaporated.

3. Make the filling. Transfer the spinach and shallots to a bowl. Chop the cooled bacon and add it along with the cream cheese, feta, and Parmesan. Mix thoroughly until the filling is creamy and evenly combined.

4. Prepare the pastry. Lightly roll each thawed puff pastry sheet to make it slightly larger and thinner. Cut each sheet into four equal squares for eight total pieces.

5. Fill and shape. Place a generous spoonful of filling into the center of each pastry square. Brush the edges lightly with beaten egg. Bring two opposite corners together over the filling and pinch firmly. Continue pinching the adjoining edges toward one end to create an open-ended pastry pocket with some filling still visible.

6. Prepare for griddle baking. Place the assembled puffs onto a griddle warming rack and brush the exposed pastry generously with egg wash.

7. Create the griddle oven. Set the Blackstone to medium heat, position the warming rack in the center of the cooking surface, and cover the entire rack with a large basting dome.

8. Cook until puffed and golden. Allow the puffs to cook beneath the dome for approximately 15 to 20 minutes, checking periodically, until the pastry has risen, developed visible flaky layers, and browned on top.

9. Cool briefly and serve. Carefully remove the puffs and allow them to rest for several minutes before serving.

The recipe makes approximately 8 Groovy Griddle Spinach Puffs.

Would Kronk Approve?

I choose to believe he would.

There is bacon.

There is cheese.

There are flaky layers.

Nothing caught on fire.

And, perhaps most importantly, there was no need to shout “Wrong lever!”

Although I will admit that every time I lifted the dome during the test cook, there was a tiny part of me expecting the whole experiment to have gone horribly wrong.

Instead, those puff pastry layers actually rose.

That may have been my favorite moment of the entire recipe.

More Than Just Recreating Movie Food

The fun of the movie-inspired category was not simply making something recognizable.

For me, it was taking the inspiration and asking what Blackstone Cooking could add to it.

If I had put Kronk’s spinach puffs into a conventional oven, I might have ended up with a great appetizer.

But I would not have learned anything particularly new.

Trying to bake puff pastry on the Blackstone forced me to think differently about the equipment.

That is one of the things I continue to enjoy about griddle cooking.

Once you stop asking only what foods traditionally belong on a flat top, the possibilities get much more interesting.

Instead of asking:

“Can you cook this on a Blackstone?”

I usually start asking:

“How could I cook this on a Blackstone?”

Sometimes the answer is obvious.

Sometimes it requires a warming rack, an oversized basting dome, and an unreasonable amount of faith in puff pastry.

Final Thoughts

I only entered one category in this year’s Great Griddle Off, so I wanted the recipe I submitted to be something I genuinely enjoyed creating.

Groovy Griddle Spinach Puffs checked all the boxes.

They have a movie connection I love.

They have a little humor built into the idea.

They taste great.

Most importantly, the Blackstone is not an afterthought in the recipe. Figuring out how to use the griddle as a makeshift oven is part of what makes the entire dish work.

Whether the entry ultimately wins anything or not, I am happy with that.

Cooking competitions are fun because they give you a reason to attempt something you might never have tried otherwise.

In this case, that meant standing over a Blackstone wondering whether puff pastry would actually rise underneath a basting dome.

It did.

Kronk’s specialty officially went griddle.

And thankfully, nobody had to pull the lever.