*urp*

[torquill]

I spent the day trying to make puff pastry -- the stuff croissants and turnovers are made of.

I gave it five or six turns (I lost count), rolled it out to a quarter-inch, and cut it into rough squares. It was my first time, I wasn't going to get neat edges. :) Then I put apple-pie filling into the squares, folded them over, and baked until golden brown.

Not one of the books and websites I've consulted on puff pastry said anything about providing drainage while baking. Yow.

Despite the impressive amount of clarified butter that ended up on the pan, these things are RICH. Not greasy, fortunately -- but when I eat one, I can feel my stomach getting a bit uneasy because of the sheer amount of oil I'm dumping on it. They're still good enough that I ate two, and I'm eyeing a third, but I really don't want to be ill tonight. It's a good thing my metabolism is so resilient -- these are diet-busters.

I would say that this was a success, in that I believe it was (once again) a lack of technique rather than a recipe failure which kept them from being perfect turnovers; the edges are very crispy and flaky, and the interior with the apples is moist and comes apart in sheets. BUT... The recipe would need a minimum of two more tests to make it out of my house, and I'm afraid I would not survive eating the results. Even if I stretched out my attempts across a couple of months, still... damn. Maybe if I made the squares/croissants really small, I think they freeze okay after baking...

Comments

[kitabare.livejournal.com]

If you want test subjects you can always bring extras down to San Ramon. I'm sure my guards would be more than happy to critique for you. :)

[foogod.livejournal.com]

Between the pool of extra butter and the richness, it sounds like you just had a lot more butter in the recipe than you really needed (maybe because your dough doesn't absorb as much of it while cooking as regular puff pastry dough does?)

If you want guinea pigs to help you eat stuff, just let me know when you're planning on making more and I can come over and valiantly save you from at least a couple of them..

[amanda-nye.livejournal.com]

sounds heavenly.

[luna-torquill.livejournal.com]

My plan is to decrease the butter with each batch to see what the effects are; I'd like an amount which still provides the lift and layer separation, without the obvious excess fat. My hunch is that between 2/3 and 1/2 this amount is probably about right, but we'll see.

At least the best butter for puff pastry is the cheap stuff (it has more water, and thus produces more steam).