Almond Croissants

Our very last croissant recipe, and it's a great one! Almond croissants take regular, usually day-old croissants, and re-purpose them with almonds, almond cream, and almond syrup. Not a bad fate for the humble croissant! The rich buttery dough marries quite well with the nutty and warm almonds. It's the perfect way to use up leftover croissants at a bakery, although at home that might not be a problem.

Pains aux Raisins

Continuing in the myriad uses of croissant dough, we have pains aux raisins. These delicious pinwheels are filled with pastry cream and rum soaked raisins, rolled up, sliced and baked. They are the perfect breakfast treat, and you can feel good about eating them because after all, raisins are fruit!

Pains au Chocolat

How can you make a buttery, flaky croissant better? Add chocolate, of course! Pain au Chocolat translates to chocolate bread, but there is no way that name can adequately express the deliciousness that is this pastry. The dough is the same croissant dough we used last week, but instead of cutting it into triangles, it's cut into rectangles, and rolled up over two chocolate baking sticks. The result is still an amazing croissant, but with rich and decadent chocolate in the center. If eaten while still warm, the chocolate is soft and melty, the ultimate indulgence. 

Traditional Croissants

Now that we have made our croissant dough, we can make croissants! First up, are traditional croissants. The crescent-shaped flaky buttery pastry is enjoyed all across Europe for breakfast along with a latte or cappuccino. It's too bad that tradition hasn't caught on here in America! Instead, we rely on ready-to-bake crescent rolls or croissan'wiches, a pale comparison to the real deal. 

Although this recipe takes some time, it's not complicated or difficult. Once the dough is made, rolling the triangles into crescents and baking them is a snap. With a little advance planning, it's quite easy to enjoy home made, freshly baked croissants as often as you wish. They even freeze well, so you can make a big batch and save some for later.

Croissant Dough

Moving on from puff pastry, we're making croissants for the next month. Croissants are a cousin to puff pastry, with the main difference being that croissant dough has yeast, where puff pastry relies solely on the steam from the butter to help it puff. Croissant dough introduces us to poolish, a fermentation starter that we'll be using a lot of when we reach the bread chapter. It is a mixture of equal parts water and flour, with a pinch of yeast to get the fermentation started. After 12 hours, you can see and smell the results. 

This dough is also folded and turned, but only 3 times. It's very important to keep the dough cold, to prevent the yeast from doing its job before you're ready. Over the next few weeks, we'll be making a few variations on the traditional croissant, but each one starts the same way, with this dough.

Allumettes Glacées

Our last recipe of puff pastry! This one is simple and elegant, nothing more than puff pastry and royal icing. Allumette translates to matchstick in English. And now we see how these pastries got their name, since they are indeed shaped like little sticks.
Puff pastry is first topped with royal icing, then cut into rectangles, and baked. This recipe has you bake them under a rack, to ensure uniform puffing. Quite clever! The finished pastry is usually served with champagne, and would have been a nice finish to a romantic Valentine's Day dinner. 
Next week.....Croissants! Waistlines, beware.

Tania

Finally, a recipe that is easy! Just roll out the puff pastry, spread on the icing, cut, and bake. A little bit of freezing in between steps, so it takes some time, but the baking time itself is quick and gratifying. 

I followed all the directions, making sure to make clean and precise cuts. When I baked the pastry, I found it look a bit longer to get them golden brown. I added about 5-7 minutes on to the baking time. When I took them out of the oven, the royal icing on top had cracked and run off mostly. I wonder if it was too thin? I baked the first batch under the rack as directed, but the second batch I just used the cookie sheet alone. They seemed to also puff up equally, so I'm not sure the rack is necessary. 

Although these didn't turn out looking like the photo in the book, they are still delicious. The rich buttery pastry and the tangy lemony icing are good complements to each other. I like that you could make these with scraps from other puff pastry recipes. I've even seen savory versions, with parmesan cheese and herbs. Yum! Maybe I'll try that next, with my remaining half batch of puff pastry. 

Mille Feuille

When you think of French pastry, the mille-feuille is what comes to mind. It means a thousand leaves, and is also known as a Napoleon. The dish is traditionally made of layers of puff pastry and pastry cream, topped with a glaze or powdered sugar. However, the Bouchon version has quite literally turned it over, presenting the pastry on its side. It's quite clever, as anyone who's eaten it can tell you. Trying to cut into the pastry and cream layers, the cream ends up squishing out all over. Turning it on the side, though, you can cut through evenly and get the perfect bite. Crisp, flaky layers of buttery puff pastry and, in this case, light and fluffy mousseline. Although a bit of time planning is required, it's not a difficult recipe to master, and would be fun to try with different flavor profiles.

Pear Feuilletes

No surprise as to what is inside the pear feuillete - it's in the shape of a pear! This week's pastry is a somewhat of a combination between the apple turnover and pithivier that we made the past two weeks. Poached pears and almond cream are encased in puff pastry, the top in a lattice pattern to reveal the slices of pear inside. 

Jenn

I made a pear feuillete and turnover this week. I'll admit when we came to the week for apple turnovers, I wasn't too excited about the apple puree filling. I wanted something more so I held off till this week. The combination of almond cream and poached pears is so lovely.

To create the pear shape, I free-form cut the shape on two pieces of puff stacked so they would be the same size, top and bottom. For the lattice top, I didn't have a lattice cutter so I used the paring knife for to make cut outs. I didn't take into account the filling inside the pastry so my lattice top was a bit too small and I had to stretch it quite a bit to cover the poached pear and seal at the edges.

Poaching the pears was really simple as it was a partial poaching. I made the poaching liquid and soaked the pears in it overnight. The pears finished cooking in the oven. After baking for 30 minutes, the pear feuillete was perfectly golden. I ate it warm because it was sizzling from the caramelization and it smelled so buttery and sweet. The white wine in the poached pear was a wonderful touch to contrast the mellow flavor of the pear. The almond cream added richness and nuttiness that I loved. To round it all out, a flaky, buttery puff shell that was so good, each week of this chapter, I'm continually reminded that homemade puff pastry is truly worth the effort. My favorite puff creation so far!   

Pithiviers

Pithiviers is a deceptively simple pastry. It's so elegant in appearance, yet consists of only two components: puff pastry and frangipane. The top of the pastry is usually scored in a fanciful pattern, and brushed with egg wash to create a shiny exterior. 

Traditionally, this pastry is made on January 6th, the feast of the Epiphany, when the three kings visited the baby Jesus in the manger, bringing gifts. When a small bean or trinket is enclosed in the filling, it's better known as a galette des rois. Whoever gets the slice with the trinket is required to buy the next galette. Although a similar tradition exists in Louisiana around the time of Mardi Gras, the king cake is totally different from the French version. 

In any case, this pastry is a crowd-pleaser, elegant enough for a dinner party, but easy enough to make that it won't take you all day, especially with a little advance planning. It can be enjoyed any time of year.

Apple Turnovers

These apple turnovers are a classic way to use puff pastry. It's like a French version of America's traditional apple pie. Or perhaps the Americans borrowed their national dessert from the French, who knows? Either way, this is a delicious snack, dessert, or even breakfast treat. The flaky layers of puff pastry are folded over a cooked apple filling, much like a compote. It's not too sweet and not too big, making it the perfect indulgence. 

Palmiers à la Framboise

Now that we have learned how to make puff pastry dough, let's put it to good use! Palmiers à la Framboise is the first recipe to utilize the dough we so painstakingly labored over. However, this version is a bit different, in that the last two turns incorporate granulated sugar, and that the finished pastry is rectangular shaped. Traditionally, palmiers resemble elephant ears or butterflies or palms. The pastry dough is rolled up and then sliced, resulting in a spiral-like shape. Thomas Keller, of course, found a better way. In his version, the dough is sliced and baked flat, letting the dough puff up, and exposing all the beautiful buttery layers. Then, two pieces are sandwiched together with jam and dusted with powdered sugar, for a truly decadent delight.

Puff Pastry

A new year and a new chapter. We are delving into the world of laminated doughs, with Puff Pastry and Croissants. A laminated dough has layers of dough and butter, folded over and over again. When heat hits the butter, the water turns into steam and creates light flaky layers. The end result should shatter slightly when cut. 
Making puff pastry from scratch is a long, drawn out process. A large block of butter is encased in dough, then rolled out, folded over, and repeated 4 more times. After every turn, the dough must be chilled 2 hours, making this a day long project. But since the dough must rest overnight before rolling, and again overnight after the last turn, it's really a 3 day project. Once made, though, the dough can be frozen for a month, so its a good idea to make it when you have the time, to use later. In this chapter we will be making many recipes with this dough, so I imagine we'll get to be quite proficient at it rather quickly.