Guess what I worked with today??? You guessed it, more puff pastry!! I actually don’t mind working with it. I think the only negative attributes the dough has is the fact that it gets soft pretty quickly and you can’t re-roll it. When the dough gets soft, the butter is warming up, which can cause it to stick to the table, and is very difficufult to handle. In between rolls, it is best to stick it in the fridge or freezer to let it get stiff. The reason you can’t roll it is because there is a chance that the flakiness of the end product will be compromised.
We were able to pick from a few recipes today and decide what we wanted to make. I chose to make the apple tarts, paillettes, and coques. While the apple tarts tasted wonderful, I wasn’t a fan of the presentation and the way the book told us to assemble it. You basically put half of a sliced apple on the puff pastry and bake it. When it comes out of the oven you are wondering how to eat it! The paillettes were hard to assemble because my dough became soft and I had a hard time twisting them, but WOW were they so aromatic and delicious! The recipe called for parmesan and paprika, but really I’m not a fan of paprika. I substituted basil and oregano for it. My chef couldn’t stop eating them. He said they were “dang good” and decided that would be his new catch phrase. The coques came out nice and are a pretty simple pastry. You just cut the pastry dough with a cookie cutter, roll into an oval and strew some sugar on them.
All in all it was a good day! Pics below!
Reigh
Peace. Love. Pastries. 