There's the first time for everything and "The Great British Baking Show" continues to inspire me to try new bakes in the kitchen...Today I tried Puff Pastry...Let's see how I did.
I have two rules when I am baking:
1) Watch something that is light and fun.
Today I watched Moonstruck while I baked and it was the perfect choice for these puff pastries. The Brooklyn accents, the Italian superstitions...Cher, it was exactly what was needed for this time consuming, stop in the middle to put the baby down for a nap, bake.
2) Bake with a glass of wine in your hand, but don't have more then two else you'll get sloppy. If its too early for wine...have a Mimosa!
Did I Nail-it or Fail-it...
Lets get to the recipe and see...
Cinnamon Sugar Elephant Ear Cookies
Recipe:
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Salt
8 oz (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter
A Bowl of Ice Water
Filling:
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
Cinnamon and Nutmeg to taste
Mix the flour and salt together.
Add Ice Water 1 Tbsp at a time while fluffing flour together until it comes together into a nice ball. Make sure the ball is smooth, not crumbly, but not really sticky and wet.
Press the ball down and shape into a rough square. Using cellophane can help shape the dough. Put it in the fridge to cool and take a sip of wine.
Put the butter in between two pieces on parchment paper. Using a rolling pin, smack the butter and roll it out into a square. Once I got the two sticks of butter smooshed together (thats an official baking term), I wrapped it loosely in cellophane which was a mold to roll into a square about 4"x4".
Put the butter in the fridge for about 30 mins. During this time I had to put the baby down for the nap but do normally I would use the down time to clean up my working space.
Pull your dough out of the fridge, flour your surface and roll it out into approximately a 8"x8" square.
Grab your butter and encase in the dough by putting it in the middle of the dough and fold the dough into the middle of the butter. Make sure there is no butter exposed.
Flip the dough over so the seam is down and roll out into as close to a rectangle.
Take one of the short sides and fold into the middle. Then take the other side and do the same, almost like your folding a letter for an envelope. Wrap in cellophane and refrigerate for 15-20 mins.
Repeat steps 8 and 9, 2 more times. This is how you get the lamination and layers in the dough.
After your last fold, roll the dough out once more and sprinkle your cinnamon sugar mixture all over the dough
Roll the sides of the dough into the middle so you have two curls meeting in the middle.
REFRIGERATE for about 10 mins
Cut the dough into 1/4 - 1/2" slices depending on how thick you want your cookies and place on a baking sheet with parchment paper..
REFRIGERATE for about 10 mins
Place in a 400 degree oven and bake for 10 mins. Then drop the temp to 375 and bake for another 10 or until your cookies start to brown on the last layer.
Here are my take-aways from my first time making puff pastry....
I LOVE them. They are flakey and yummy and versatile. I'm thinking I want to make savory ones for the holidays.
Do not forget to REFRIGERATE after each step once the butter is encased in the dough. I forgot steps 13 and 15 and I had A LOT of butter melting out of my layers while cooking.
Next time I should remember to add powdered sugar on the finished cookies to make them look more fancy.
All in all I feel this bake was a success. I give myself a solid B. I definitely would not get a Hollywood Handshake, but I also would not be at the bottom for this technical.
So what do you think...Did I Nail-it or Fail-it?