Hello Everybody!
Due to my schedule insanity, this post will have to fill in the gaps of the last (two? three?) un blogged about weeks. If only I could fill in the gap on my finger…but I’ll get to that shortly. I believe I have already blogged about making two types of laminated dough (doughs with layers of fat rolled into it and folded in onto itself to create hundreds of layers of dough and butter/lard/shortening) namely Danish and croissant. The crux of the last few weeks has been a third laminated dough, the most widely used dough in a kitchen.
Lauded for its transformative properties, its abilities to straddle the line between savory and sweet and its visual heights is the Puff. Puff pastry is something found in many home cook’s freezers. Why would you make it yourself when you could easily find it in your grocer’s frozen section? Because chef tells you it’s a must. And then she tells you it’s actually more cost effective to buy it in most cases because it takes a long time to make. Truthfully, if you want really astounding height and even rising, you should make it yourself- but for what you would mainly use for, you could BUY IT. Being the fancy pastry students that we are, we made puff pastry three ways; a fast puff, a classic puff and a machine puff. I won’t go into the nitty gritty of making puff pastry because it is very similar to making croissants, just without the yeast. Besides, I have more gruesome tales to share.
One classic dessert you could make with puff pastry is a napoleon. Napoleons, for the uninitiated, are layers of crisp puff pastry, layered with pastry cream and sometimes berries, topped with either powdered sugar or glazing fondant. They are generally regarded as delicious (by me and my family) and are a cinch to make. They are not, however, a cinch to cut if you want to maintain the beautiful and delicate layers. To do so, you need to use a long, sharp, serrated knife. I was packing up a classmate’s napoleon for her as she washed dishes- (who wouldn't swap cutting napoleons for dishes?), when I carelessly cut my finger. I had cut myself before, and no one was surprised to find me heading to the first aid kit. Luckily, I have two ex-nursing students in my class and they were able to place bandaids on my finger like pros. Chef spotted some blood on the floor before I was able to clean it up and insisted I remove the bandages and show her my cut, then hailed in another chef to ask her opinion. The consensus? HOSPITAL. I put up a fight until chef held up one of her fingers and told me how she no longer has feeling in it because she didn’t make it to the hospital in time. A classmate gave me a lift to Bellevue (a lovely hospital) where I was super glued back together (literally- I didn’t want stitches and asked instead for Derma-Bond. I would recommend stitches). I came in my uniform and was asked by no less than five members of the hospital staff why I hadn’t brought them any treats- they are used to seeing people in the culinary field and were disappointed that I had left my napoleon back at school.
My finger is on the mend, and I was back in school this week in time to make Sfogliotelle, Cannoli and Breton. I would describe these foreign treats (Sfogliotelle and canola are Italian, Breton is from Brittany) but my half hour lunch break has expired. Suffice it to say that Sfogliotelle are as interesting to make as they are to spell, and require lard -Look out for an upcoming experiment using Crisco and butter as substitutes. Cannoli are awesome and probably the next trendy sweet treat and Breton is pleasant enough but not all that exciting (I hope I haven’t offended those of you hailing from Brittany).
-Power Puff Girl
Fun fact: I was not allowed into the adult wing, but was made to use the children’s emergency ward because I wasn’t yet 25. A special thanks to my Mom for picking me up!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Strudel Elves
Hi!
I took a pretty long hiatus from this blog, over two weeks since my last post, I believe. This isn't to say that I haven't been baking treats, just that I have been to tired to report about them, busy celebrating various holidays and doing all of that other stuff that fills my time in between culinary classes. In my last six classes, we have made pies and tarts galore. There have been pie fillings in nearly every imaginable flavor (alas, no banana cream) and have experimented with different doughs, from the flaky to the sweet and back again. When it came time to roll out and bake traditional pies (I was assigned pumpkin) I crimped and rolled my dough-a Pate Sucre this time-with gusto. I know you will tire of hearing this, but making pie is fabulously fun and I would be more that happy to bake some with/for anyone who asks- after all, I need that practice.
My personal favorite type of pie was a galette. Galettes are rustic pies baked without a pie pan, free formed on a baking sheet. The filling simply placed in the center of your dough, which is rolled into a rough circle, and then the edges are folded in onto the filling, leaving some peaking out. Brush with cream, sprinkle with sugar and bake! Chef described it as an open faced pie (bad description chef- all pies without a top crust are "open faced". I would just describe it as a rustic pie, which I did only a few sentences ago.)
Last Tuesday night, we made something unusual and incredible to make- Strudel. Good old fashioned, old world strudel. The old world I am referring to Austria, or perhaps Hungary. Though we haven't all hailed from such places, chances are you have all probably eaten/seen strudel before. It is a flaky pastry filled with either cheese or apple and topped with powdered sugar. If you are lucky, whipped cream is served on the side. They are very very tasty. To make strudel, you make a pretty basic dough with flour, water, eggs and the like. Then, once it comes together, you form the gluten by slamming the dough against the counter. 100 times. No exaggeration, I was in charge of counting for my team. You pick up the dough, throw it hard against the counter (floured, naturally), fold it up and repeat until the dough is smooth and pliable. Then, once the dough has rested (and recovered from the brute treatment), the real fun begins.
Roll out a clean, think white table cloth and cover it with flour. The dough at this point is about an eight by eight inch blob, four inches thick. With the help of two or three classmates, this changes fast. You begin to stretch the dough, from the center out. Palms down, with the back of your hands (fingers poke holes) bring the dough from the center outwards. The goal is to get the dough so thin that you can read a paper through it. The eight by eight inch blob becomes a five by five foot blob that you can, indeed, read through. We made it through the process with only minor tears (it is very hard to remember to stretch with your palms down- reflexes tell you to stretch it with your fingers!). Then, brush the entire thing with melted butter and sprinkle with either bread crumbs or cinnamon sugar, depending on your filling. Place filling on one end, and then using the table cloth, roll up the filling over and over in the paper thin dough. Imagine using a sushi mat to roll up a California roll, only infinity larger, flakier and butterier. (i'm getting awfully annoyed at spell check for insisting that butterier isn't a real word). Brush with more melted butter and bake. Once cooled, sprinkle with sugar and slice. Though I couldn't taste it, the cross-section of this thing was enough to tell me how flaky it was.
Chef claims that there are old women in Europe who can do this process by themselves. These super human woman apparently have a huge arm span and the ability to fly; strudel elves. Would you doubt anything Chef says? Neither would I.
-Sarah, das strudel stretcher
I took a pretty long hiatus from this blog, over two weeks since my last post, I believe. This isn't to say that I haven't been baking treats, just that I have been to tired to report about them, busy celebrating various holidays and doing all of that other stuff that fills my time in between culinary classes. In my last six classes, we have made pies and tarts galore. There have been pie fillings in nearly every imaginable flavor (alas, no banana cream) and have experimented with different doughs, from the flaky to the sweet and back again. When it came time to roll out and bake traditional pies (I was assigned pumpkin) I crimped and rolled my dough-a Pate Sucre this time-with gusto. I know you will tire of hearing this, but making pie is fabulously fun and I would be more that happy to bake some with/for anyone who asks- after all, I need that practice.
My personal favorite type of pie was a galette. Galettes are rustic pies baked without a pie pan, free formed on a baking sheet. The filling simply placed in the center of your dough, which is rolled into a rough circle, and then the edges are folded in onto the filling, leaving some peaking out. Brush with cream, sprinkle with sugar and bake! Chef described it as an open faced pie (bad description chef- all pies without a top crust are "open faced". I would just describe it as a rustic pie, which I did only a few sentences ago.)
Last Tuesday night, we made something unusual and incredible to make- Strudel. Good old fashioned, old world strudel. The old world I am referring to Austria, or perhaps Hungary. Though we haven't all hailed from such places, chances are you have all probably eaten/seen strudel before. It is a flaky pastry filled with either cheese or apple and topped with powdered sugar. If you are lucky, whipped cream is served on the side. They are very very tasty. To make strudel, you make a pretty basic dough with flour, water, eggs and the like. Then, once it comes together, you form the gluten by slamming the dough against the counter. 100 times. No exaggeration, I was in charge of counting for my team. You pick up the dough, throw it hard against the counter (floured, naturally), fold it up and repeat until the dough is smooth and pliable. Then, once the dough has rested (and recovered from the brute treatment), the real fun begins.
Roll out a clean, think white table cloth and cover it with flour. The dough at this point is about an eight by eight inch blob, four inches thick. With the help of two or three classmates, this changes fast. You begin to stretch the dough, from the center out. Palms down, with the back of your hands (fingers poke holes) bring the dough from the center outwards. The goal is to get the dough so thin that you can read a paper through it. The eight by eight inch blob becomes a five by five foot blob that you can, indeed, read through. We made it through the process with only minor tears (it is very hard to remember to stretch with your palms down- reflexes tell you to stretch it with your fingers!). Then, brush the entire thing with melted butter and sprinkle with either bread crumbs or cinnamon sugar, depending on your filling. Place filling on one end, and then using the table cloth, roll up the filling over and over in the paper thin dough. Imagine using a sushi mat to roll up a California roll, only infinity larger, flakier and butterier. (i'm getting awfully annoyed at spell check for insisting that butterier isn't a real word). Brush with more melted butter and bake. Once cooled, sprinkle with sugar and slice. Though I couldn't taste it, the cross-section of this thing was enough to tell me how flaky it was.
Chef claims that there are old women in Europe who can do this process by themselves. These super human woman apparently have a huge arm span and the ability to fly; strudel elves. Would you doubt anything Chef says? Neither would I.
-Sarah, das strudel stretcher
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