Now that we've had a bit of a baking warm-up with the breads, cakes and pastries to date, it's time to tackle the bakery equivalent of the 3-meter high dive. Danish or puff pastry. I'm a little breathless with anticipation, but it could also be the fear of a metaphorical 3-meter belly-flop, as well. 

This recipe, on p. 143 of the book, calls for either Danish laminated pastry OR blitz puff pastry, and can have either sweet or savory fillings. I  have shamelessly enlisted the help of a friend blessed with superior baking skills on this one (though she's never made laminated dough, either). Can't wait to see what we all turn out!

Pecan Roll

Cheese Pocket 

Both these pastries were made with the Babka Dough from Inside the Jewish Bakery by Stanley Ginsburg and Norman Berg.

My wife and I have fond memories of the Pecan Rolls from the long-closed Fantasia Bakery in San Francisco. Theirs were made with danish pastry and were coated with a sticky bun type glaze. The ones I made today were simpler and less sweet. After mixing and fermenting the dough, I divided it, wrapped it in plasti-crap and refrigerated it overnight. The next day, I rolled out a 16 oz portion, coated it with KAF Cinnamon Smear, sprinkled on toasted pecan pieces, rolled up the dough and divided it into 12 portions. These were placed in a buttered muffin tin, egg washed and proofed. Before baking, I put pecan halves on the tops and egg washed again. The rolls were not glazed after baking.

Pecan Rolls, proofing in a Brod & Taylor Proofing Box

Ready to bake

Baked and Cooling

Pecan Roll Crumb

When I was much younger, my favorite pastry from Karsh's Bakery was their Cheese Pockets. The ones I made today used the same dough as the Pecan Rolls and the Cheese Filling from ITJB. The dough was rolled out and divided into 4 inch squares. About 2 tablespoons of the cheese filling was put in the middle of each square, and the corners were folded in, overlapping to completely cover the filling. The seams were pinched closed. The pieces were egg washed before proofing and, again, after being sprinkled with slivered almonds before baking. A streusel topping would have been more traditional.

Thesse are not the same as Karsh's. The pastry is much more flavorful, and the cheese filling is smoother and richer. In my wife's words, a more "elegant" version. She liked the pastry more and the filling less. For me, it's still "a work in progress." Meanwhile, I will certainly enjoy eating this iteration.

Cheese Pockets

A Sampler

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting

I have made this recipe before & added extra flour to get the dough workable. This is from Justin Wilson, homegrown Louisiana cookin. The recipe is called Natchioches meat pies, my problem is there is something not right about the crust or pastry dough portion.

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup shortening

1 large egg

1 cup milk

mix the dry ingredients, cut in the shortening, add egg & milk mix well, refrigerate 2 hours. roll out cut 5 in circles, place meat mix on half, fold over & fry in oil till golden brown.

My question, is there not enough flour or way to much milk ? The dough needed almost twice the flour to get it workable. This taste great & I would like to make it again with a corrected formula. It's on page 158 if you have the book.

Charlie

Today was my first attempt at croissant making.  I was looking for something that was flaky, but could be used as a sandwich.  While mine turned out kind of small, I'm very pleased with my first try. 

I found this recipe on TFL, then changed it up.  This is what I did:

Mix 1/2 cup of starter, 1 3/4 c all purpose flour, 2 T oil (I used olive oil), 1/2 c warm milk together.  Add 1 1/2 t noniodized salt.  Knead LIGHTLY, for only a few minutes.  Place in oiled bowl with plastic wrap, and put in fridge over night.

Next day: 

--Beat out butter in sheets.  I beat out enough butter to cover the surface of the dough when rolled out.  Chill butter.  Roll out dough as flat as possible, chill

--Take dough sheet in squarish shape, place the butter sheet on the dough in a diamond (points hitting the middle of the dough's sides).  Wrap the dough around the butter like an envelope, making a smaller square.

--Roll out into long rectangle, using water for the rolling pin and hands to assist.  Fold the dough over into thirds--you should have three layers on top of each other.  Roll out.  Repeat folding and rolling again, then put in fridge.

--Repeat the folding and rolling twice, then put in fridge.

--Roll out dough again.  Cut into long triangles, making a wide bottom and a point at the top in the middle of the other two (help me here...what kind of triangle is this).  Roll up the triangle with the flat, two-pointed side first, ending with the top middle point.  Use light flour to help.

--Let them proof.

--Bake 10-15 minutes in preheated 475 degrees Fahrenheit oven.

crumb view (sorry, poor camera)

constructive comments welcome

This is my first atempt at making Pain Au Chocolat or any type of pastry for that matter.  I made a typical laminated dough required for this kind of treat which wasn't as hard as I thought but I see it can be tricky if the dough is not kept cold.

As an experiment, I rolled up one version and put it in the freezer, one in the fridge and one I rolled straight from the cold dough from overnight.  In the morning, I let the freezer one thaw at room for 30, then proof an extra 1 1/2 hours, while the other two proofed straight from the fridg for 1 1/2 hours.  To my surprise, the frozen one had the most puff, and the one done without refreezing had the least amount of rise.  This seems backwards from what I have read, how can this be?

Also, can someone critique my over all and crumb?  Is it supposed to have a big hole like that where the chocolate is?    The only exposure I have ever had to these to compare to is from a local coffee house which probably buys them from some mass distributor.  

Thanks.

Here is the lesser of the three, other two didn't make it into the shot before it hit my mouth. LOL

When I was young fresh fruit was a great treat and not common in Icelandic diet. Today fresh fruit of many sorts is readily available year round allowing one to bake galette year round!

Pastry:

1 cup flour (125-130g)

4 oz. cold butter unsalted (113g) 

pinch salt (or more if you like)

ice water (30-50ml, enough to make pastry workable)

Finely cut cold butter into flour, add salt. Work with spoon or hand until well mixed. Add ice water until pastry can be formed into a ball. Refrigerate for a bit (15 minute). Press pastry into a disk on parchment or Silpat then roll out very thin (thin=flaky). Refrigerate again (cold pastry I find much easier to work) while you make filling of choice.

Apple Filling:

2 or 3 apple peeled and sliced thin

2T sugar, 1T flour, cinnamon to taste mixed.

1T  butter

1T sugar, sprinkle cinnamon

Spread flour/sugar/cinnamon mixture over pastry. Lay apple slices to overlap in circle pattern. Fold edge of pastry over. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over apple, chop butter over apple. Refrigerate 10 minutes.

Cook at 204C or 400F for 50-minutes to 1 hour.

Glaze with 1 or 2 T (to taste) apricot, peach preserve.

Make coffee, pour brandy, consume!

Hello,

I would like to make pastry but will have to make a few 'twists' in the recipe.

I am unable to have modern wheat but can have spelt and khorasan. I am also unable to have butter, butter substitutes or margarine, but can have Ghee (clarified butter).

Anyway I was thinking of making the pastry for pies and vegetable triangles using spelt flour and was wondering whether I could substitute ghee instead of butter in the recipe?

If so do I substitute 1:1 or how much?

Has anyone tried making pastry using ghee and what were your experiences?

The other alternative is just using olive oil but not sure that this would even work??

Thanks.

Back in the fall I promised my niece-in-law that I would make kolaches for her birthday at the end of November. Which I did, using the recipe from the point of departure. They were OK, but not quite right. Too dry, a little doughy and the flavor was not quite the same. Wait a minute, you say, not the same as what? What the heck are these kolaches of which you write?

Right smack in the middle of Texas there's an area that was populated by people of Czech descent. Well, a bunch of Germans, too, but right now we're interested in the Czechs. They brought a number of traditions from the home country that have worked their way into local culture, most prominently the sweet roll that makes a true Texan's heart do a little extra thump---the kolache. When I was little, the ladies from the Catholic church in Ennis would come up to our church in Dallas to fundraise by selling home-baked kolaches to the big city folks. We didn't get quite as excited as we would for Christmas that weekend but it was right up there with, say, Easter. Mom would buy six dozen and freeze five of them to be brought out for special occasions during the year. We got to eat one box that morning. Now, you have to realize that there are nine kids in my family. Add two parents and that meant that we each only got one kolache. And I still remember those five or six bites as a highlight of my year.

After a couple of my brothers moved to Austin to go to the University (no need to qualify which university in Texas) our kolache supply got a little steadier. Anyone who made the drive between Dallas and Austin was required to stop in West, Texas (the name of a town, not a region that is in central, not west, Texas) and pick up a couple dozen. It was a regular enough occurrence that we could request certain fillings instead of just grabbing whatever was available. I always went for apricot first, cream cheese second. Or maybe prune. And then, I grew up. Moved away. Lost my source and only ever got a kolache fix if my visits to Dallas happened to coincide with an Austinite's. Joined that community of expat Texans who could only dream. Now and then I'd find a bakery that claimed to make them but they were never anything close to what I remembered. You know, if it's not right, it's just not right.

Now you probably think I'm crazy, just wierd to feel this way about a pastry, but I am not alone. My niece who requested them for her birthday isn't even a Texan, just married to one. When I went looking for a recipe on the internet, the passionate postings about dough and fillings were everywhere. They all seemed to point one direction, however. The recipe posted on The Homesick Texan blog seemed to be the place to go for the real thing. There were 138 comments on the post that all say pretty much the same thing, "Oh my god these are amazing, just the way I remember them." So I used her dough recipe exactly. I subbed in some other fillings since I was out of apricots but that's not important. It's the bread that matters. And now there are 139 comments on that post including mine which says, "Oh my god these are amazing, just the way I remember them."

I'm not going to reprint her recipe. You can go see it for yourself. I will just tell you that I found I had to bake them a little longer than her timing states, more like 20-25 minutes. It may just be that I need to check my oven temp. There are some tiny details that she leaves out that make them even more perfect like you should put them close enough together on the baking sheet so that the oven spring makes them just kiss each other and you wind up with a slightly squared off, not perfectly round finished product. I found the Posypka recipe needs either more butter or less flour/sugar to make it clump properly. She only includes a recipe for apricot filling but it seems more authentic to have a variety so I made three kinds. I used some Trader Joe organic strawberry preserves for some which, while cheating, still came out well. I took some plum conserve my brother made from his home-grown red plums, drained out most of the liquid and mashed up the plum bits. Those, too, were pretty successful. And I really wanted some raspberry ones so I just tried some raspberry jam I had in the fridge. This was way too watery and made a mess on the cookie sheet. They also got the 'best taste' vote from all my testers so I'm going to work on how to make a drier version next time. I also have a request for the cottage cheese/cream cheese filling from my nephew. Can't wait to try it.

Here is a wonderful opportunity for someone in the Chicago, IL area to attend a Culinary Art program. If you cannot participate please pay it forward.

2010 Washburne Culinary Institute Scholarship
http://culinaryschooladviser.com/?p=251 (Website)
Due Date: 3/14/2011 (It's not too late to apply)

Washburne Culinary Institute currently has a scholarship for continuing students in their culinary arts or baking & pastry classes.

Applicants must demonstrate the following...

* Minimum 2.5 GPA
* Demonstrate financial need with a copy of current City College financial aid report
* Be a current student with at least 1 more semester to attend for the advanced certificate or degree

Applicants also need to...

* Submit the application form
* Type a 1 page doubled-spaced essay about how you became interested in the culinary or baking/pastry field and your career goals.
* 1 or more letters of recommendation from a work, volunteer reference, college instructor in another subject area or high school teacher if you graduated within the last two years.
* Copy of your student aid report, qualified non-citizen form or transcript showing you already have a bachelor's degree.
* Copies of any awards or special recognition
* Instructor Evaluation Forms will be requested only after you have submitted your completed application.

While hunting bricks for a baking stone, I noticed some very nicely poslished stone slabs. They were fairly thick, at least one inch, perhaps a bit more.  I was told they were granite.  So I am curious if I had a 24 inch by 18 inch piece cut, would it work as a viable pastry board?  I understand that many bakers prefer to use wooden boards/tables for preparing their bread doughs, but that chilled marble is commonly used for pastry dough.  Since pastry dough is NOT available where I live in the Philppines, making it myself is the single alternative if I want some.  I have never made it before and I have been watching tutorials on youtube along with reading here and elsewhere for a better idea on what I should be doing. If a good cool stone would increase the chances of success for a good pastry dough, I'll work it into the budget down the road. I have a small-ish freezer I can use to chill the stone.  But would grainte suffice?   Marble is available in large squares, but not nearly so thick as the granite slabs I found. They are rather thin marble tiles, about 24 x 24 inches, commonly used on headstones here,  Which would be the better alternative?

Tatoosh