Thursday, October 10, 2013

Croissant.....part deux

Boy am I feeling pretty 'chuffed'! My croissant dough has turned out beautiful.
I made some Pain au Chocolate.....and Croissants aux Amandes. Everything turned out....except my Pate Amandes leaked.....back to drawing board.

I used Julia's recipe for the almond cream...but I seem to remember a yolk was added with my french recipes. I will try again. No worries......family is pleased with my success and mistakes alike!







Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Puff Pastry.....1000 layers!

Back in the kitchen again!

I can't find any fresh cake yeast any where.....so I decided to make the next best dough. Puff Pastry.
You know, the mother of all pastry doughs! 
I always thought once you mastered this dough, you could pretty much accomplish anything! (that sounds pretty pompous!)







I dug out my trusty recipe, you remember, the one that started my whole teaching gig. I had some President butter in the fridge this time. My homage to France! I'm always surprised to find little French friends in the grocery. A cool morning and I was prepping my detrempe!

Again, all was well in the baking world and I had some great dough to play with.


Easy to roll out and shape. I had some Serrano ham in the fridge along with feta and thought a little lunch 'braid' would work well.

My next pastry temptation was a cream cheese cherry turnover. I added a little lime zest and it really brought the cream cheese mix to life.

Guess what I found at the grocery today? Yep.....fresh yeast. Got my Croissant recipe out again. I'm on my way to make some dough. I'm thinking Almond Croissant & Pain au Chocolate this time. What do you think??