Archive for the ‘Pastries’ Category
I was shopping at Sur la Table the other day when I overheard a saleswoman trying to help a young French woman find a specific type of sugar for a recipe she wanted to make. There was a little bit of a communication problem taking place and as I listened in (I happened to be standing next to them and also looking at baking products, not simply trying to eavesdrop!) I realized what the girl was after: pearl sugar. It turned out that she wanted to make a batch of chouxquettes and needed the coarse sugar to lend them a crunchy exterior. I politely suggested the pearl sugar, and the saleswoman was able to find her a box and send her on her way – and I was left with a desire to head home and make a batch of chouquettes myself!
Chouquettes are cream puffs that have been rolled in pearl sugar before baking to give them a crisp, crunchy exterior. They’re not filled with cream of any kind, unlike regular cream puffs; they simply start out with the same choux pastry that cream puffs do. I didn’t see them when I was in Paris last year, but I first heard about them a few years ago when David Lebovitz mentioned making a batch of the popular French snack.
Choux pastry is not difficult to make and you can whip these treats up in just a few minutes at home, although you will have to wait a bit as they bake to indulge yourself in them. They’re light and eggy, with a lovely sweet crunch to them. They are absolutely at their best when they are fresh out of the oven. Use pearl sugar for the best sugary crunch and to get the same speckled look that these have. If you don’t have any and can’t find it, use another coarse sugar, or even some crushed sugar cubes, and generously sprinkle some on before baking.
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The dough used in danishes is similar to the dough used in croissants. It is a very flaky, buttery yeast dough that takes more than a little bit of time and patience to put together. Sometimes it’s nice to dawdle over a batch of pastry on a lazy weekend morning, but other times it’s nice to get something delicious onto your plate a little more quickly. One solution is to run to the local bakery and pick up some danishes, but another is to make a quick batch of danish using puff pastry instead of a more traditional danish dough. Puff pastry is easy to work with and produces a crisp, flaky delicious danish – especially considering that it takes so little time to make a batch.
The secret to making these danishes so good is the cream cheese filling inside. It is made with cream cheese and white chocolate. The white chocolate gives it a rich, creamy feel and just the right amount of sweetness. A good quality white chocolate (not white baking chips) will have notes of milk and vanilla in it, which will help round out the flavor of the cream cheese. The cream is delicious on its own and bakes very well, staying tender and moist within its crisp puff pastry shell.
Now, if you’re a purist, you could keep the cream cheese danish filling plain and serve the pastries that way. I used mixture of raspberry and peach preserves to sweeten them up a little more. Any flavor of jam will work here, but thicker jams and preserves will tend to spread less during baking and produce a slightly prettier danish in the end. This is another good example of a recipe that you can use as a jumping off point for creating your own variations. The 1,2,3 Puff! Contest that Pepperidge Farm is holding is still accepting entries and a mouthwatering Danish – or similarly enticing pastry – sounds like it would have a great chance of being a prize winner. The grand prize is an all-expenses paid trip to New York (along with some foodie bonuses, like a tour of NYC pastry shops and bakeries!), but that’s just the bonus of experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen.
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The name is unassuming, but the Vanilla Slice is an almost iconic dessert in Australia. Much like the chocolate chip cookie in the US, you can find it just about anywhere that pastries are sold, from coffee shops to bakeries. There is even a big competition held every year to find the best slice in the country! Much like chocolate chip cookies, there are just about as many ways to make vanilla slices as there are people to eat them. The standard slice has some sort of pastry bottom and top, and a thick, vanilla custard filling.
I like to keep things simple and a basic version of the slice is very easy to make. It may not win a national bake-off against a dozen other vanilla slice recipes (although that depends on the competition!), but it tastes great if you’re a fan of vanilla and custard. I used some sheets of puff pastry to make the top and bottom of the slice. The puff pastry is baked and cooled, the used to line the bottom of the pan before adding the custard. It is pretty much the easiest use of puff pastry I can think of!
The custard is purposely made very thick so that the slices are easy to slice. It uses a lot of cornstarch to thicken it, as well as custard powder to add a bit of extra flavor and color. You can use the same amount of instant pudding mix if you don’t have custard powder. Some butter is added to the custard at the end of cooking to give it an extra rich flavor and make sure that the thick filling stays very tender. The custard isn’t too sweet, although it seems like there is a fair amount of sugar in it, and you really need to finish off the dessert with a sprinkle of confectioners sugar to make the whole thing come together. When finished, the vanilla slices taste like a Napoleon with a whole lot of filling.
Speaking of puff pastry, the technique I used here would be great for other flavor combinations. You could use a chocolate or coconut filling instead of the vanilla custard, or even cook up a thick batch of apple pie filling on the stovetop and sandwich it between sheets pastry for a quick, pie-like slice! The 1,2,3 Puff! Contest that Pepperidge Farm is holding is still accepting entries and any of these would be great jumping off points. Just be sure to send me a post card if you win! The grand prize is an all-expenses paid trip to New York (along with some foodie bonuses, like a tour of NYC pastry shops and bakeries!),but that’s just the bonus of experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen.
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Since I’m one of the featured bloggers for the 1,2,3 Puff Pastry contest this month, I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about puff pastry and its applications. Fortunately, it’s pretty versatile. Vol-au-vents are cases made of puff pastry. They look like cylinders of pastry, with high, crisp sides and a light, buttery base. The top of the vol-au-vent remains open and can be filled with just about anything, although they’re primarily used for savory appetizers and main dishes. When they’re used for desserts, these same pastries are more likely to be called tarts or simply shells. I’ve stuck with that theme here and opted to call these caramel and pear filled vol-au-vents Caramel Pear Puff Pastry Tarts, instead.
These treats have a great combination of textures and flavors. A crispy, buttery shell is made very easily with puff pastry and the sweet, fruity filling is rich and satisfying. Eating one is a lot like having your own personal pie – only without the fuss of making a regular pie crust and waiting for the filling to bake. The filling is made on the stovetop, just a quick caramel sauce with lots of pears in it. I thickened the sauce with a little bit of cornstarch, since pears will release a lot of juice as they cook and you get a nice, thick consistency by helping it to thicken just a little bit. I used brown sugar and a hint of vanilla to accent the pears.
The cases are also easy to make. Start with a sheet of puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut out about a dozen 2 or 2 1/2 inch rounds with a circular cookie cutter. Cut a smaller circle out of the centers of half of those pieces. Stack the donut-shaped round on top of a solid piece, using a bit of water or lightly beaten egg to hold them together, and bake until golden. If you don’t want to make them yourself, it is possible to find this type of pastry shell ready-made in grocery stores, too. Both options are pretty quick to work with.
If all else fails, or if you simply have leftover filling, the pear-caramel mixture is great on top of vanilla ice cream, too.
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Palmiers are one of the easiest things that you can make with puff pastry because you only need two ingredients: sugar and puff pastry. I like the butteriness and sugary crunch of a plain palmier, especially with a cup of tea or coffee. I’ve made them with homemade puff pastry, but store-bought is an easy substitute and can save you a lot of time if you’re looking for a quick treat.
This batch is dressed up with some finely chopped toffee bits, which give them a little bit more depth and richness than your average palmier. Use a sharp knife to chop up some toffee. The pieces should be no more than half the size of a chocolate chip. The toffee will sort of melt into the palmiers as they bake, not adding crunch (the cookies are crunchy enough on their own), but lots of flavor. If you’re using a toffee with almonds or other nuts, you’ll get a bit of extra crunch and texture from bits of nut.
As you read the recipe, you’ll notice that it sounds like there is a lot of sugar in this recipe – and there is. This is because sugar is pretty much the most important ingredient in a palmier. It is what provides the crunchy sweetness that makes the cookies so addictive. The trick to a really crispy palmier is to make sure that the pastry gets enough sugar. I achieve this by coating my work surface with sugar as I work with the pastry dough, so I call for a lot of sugar in the instructions even though not all of it makes it into the finished product. I also tried to be as detailed as possible in the instructions for folding the dough so even first-timers will finish with perfect-looking palmiers.
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