Welcome to the La Petite Sweet Shop BLOG, where you'll find my ideas and musings about all things food, whether it be my own experiments, following recipes, or eating (my favorite) while I make my way through culinary school. There might be the occasional non-food related post, to keep me sane. La Petite Sweet Shop is my virtual bakery, both literally (the internet) and figuratively (it's my made-up bakery that I have yet to make realized, but hopefully I'll get there!).
*Above picture idea from Color Me Katie.
Puff pastry is a beautiful thing, my friends. Its history is magical and its journey is whimsical. This story begins where all good ones do, and that is with butter. Perfectly creamy, sweet butter. A simple dough encases the butter, and so our journey begins.
Roll out the dough (recipe after the jump) into a rectangular shape, as best and as even as you can. Create a sheet of butter by putting four sticks of butter between layers of plastic wrap, then whacking them flat with a rolling pin. The weight of the butter can be anywhere from 50-100% of that of the dough, but let’s be real here – equal the weight is the only dignified option. Whack it to two-thirds the size of the dough you just rolled out, and place at the bottom portion of said dough.
Fold over the top of the dough on top of the butter, one-third down, then fold from bottom to top, another third (like a letter to be put in an envelope). Roll it out again, into a long rectangle. Next, fold down the top edge of the dough to the center. Then fold up the bottom edge to the center, then fold in half. This is called a four-fold, and you’ve just completed your first of four, which will give your puff pastry 1028 layers of dough and butter. This is where the French word for puff pastry, mille-fueille, comes from (thousand layers). Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to one hour between four-folds.
I know this sounds like an extremely tedious process, and you’d be right. However, it is also an incredibly rewarding process. I don’t think I’d feel as proud of my palmiers, or Napoleons, pinwheels, or papillons if I had simply used a sheet of frozen Pepperidge Farms puff pastry (although I won’t think less of you if you do, in fact, I might have to try it next time – I’m beat). Also, don’t get too nervous, because puff pastry dough is surprisingly forgiving. Don’t fret over butter coming through the dough, just patch it up and keep on keeping on.
Palmiers are quite simple, yet incredibly elegant and impressive. Simply roll out your puff pastry dough in granulated sugar (instead of flour). Flip the dough over a few times to make sure the sugar really gets incorporated. (In the oven, where the magic happens, the sugar mixes with the melted butter, caramelizing and creating a slight crunch, and sweet and sticky palmier.) You can also mix your sugar with cinnamon and get a delicious cinnamon-sugar palmier! Mentally note where the center of the rectangle of your dough is, then fold one side halfway to the center, and do the same on the other side. Then fold each of these folds to the center so they tough. Finally, fold in half. Next, cut the dough into 1/2 inch pieces, as seen in the picture below.
When placing them on your baking sheet, smush them down just a bit, like so:
And you’ll have neat, nice little rows like these:
Place your baking sheet in the fridge real quick to harden the butter that has by now, through your working with the dough, softened just a bit too much. After 15-30 minutes, go ahead and place your sheet in a 375°F oven for as long as it takes (10-15 minutes, depending on how big you made your palmiers – mine were probably about 1 inch wide by 1.5 inches tall unbaked and they took about 12 minutes). Let cool, then enjoy immédiatement ! You should eat them the same day, as they can get soggy/lose their crunch the next day. Alternatively, you can get your palmiers all ready to go, but freeze the pieces instead and bake as you like!
***NOTE: I lied – you can, and with head held high, use less butter. I thought 100% was just a tad too much. Perhaps next time I’ll try 80%.
First photo of finished palmiers by Maura McEvoy, RealSimple. I would show you mine, but I forgot about them and they burned.
1. Roy Rogers the restaurant, not the cowboy actor, though I’m sure he’s great too if I’d ever seen anything of his… maybe he will be on this list after I do. All you need to know about RR’s burgers is that the buns are butter-toasted. Oh my. I love R² so much that I have found the back way to the rest stop so as not to get on the Turnpike — but believe me, I would in a heartbeat if necessary.
And here is the highly anticipated blockbuster event of the summer — right after Inception, which, by the way, was incredible and blew my mind; screw the New York Times — part two of my blueberry muffin challenge! (See part 1 here). The recipe is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated‘s May/June 2009 issue, via the Bitten Word.
These muffins are more cake-like than muffin-like, I must say, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I also want to note what a pain in the buttocks it was to swirl that jam into the filled-to-the-brim paper muffin liner. I think a better idea might be to first add some batter, then the spoonful of jam, then top it off with the rest of the batter, THEN swirl. Also, the recipe calls for the cups to be 100% full, but I think the usual 2/3 full would have done just fine, as my muffins were overflowing!
Even though I cut down the sugar, the muffins were still way too sweet for my liking. They were definitely a blueberry cake and not a blueberry muffin. I think I liked my regular blueberry muffin recipe better (had I not overcooked them), with a little butter. I will say that the lemon sugar topping was delish!
During one of my internet perusal sessions, I came across a recipe for what claimed to be the best blueberry muffins, from Cook’s Illustrated via The Bitten Word. The goal of these particular blueberry muffins is to compensate for the flavorlessness (I know this isn’t a word, maybe I’ll think of the correct word later on) of store-bought blueberries. This concept intrigues me, but as I live in New Jersey, where the state fruit is the blueberry, I’ve had no problem with flavorless blueberries. Would this recipe be overkill, or heavenly? To make this a fair challenge, I decided to also make the same old blueberry muffin recipe I’ve used all my life, from the Better Homes & Gardens checkered cookbook. The recipe is SUPER easy, as compared to the crazy Cook’s Illustrated one I’ll attempt soon. I always remember them being quite tasty, especially since my mother always sprinkled some sugar in the raw on top before they went in the oven.
So this post is part 1 of the blueberry muffin challenge. And here are the results of recipe #1:
As they baked, I did what I always do, which is park my behind on the couch and watch television. I heard the timer go off, checked on the muffins, and decided they needed another two minutes. But what did I forget to do, which I always forget to do? Set the timer again. And off I went to plop myself back on the couch, only to forget about my muffins. Long story short, I overcooked them. They were very dry and needed lots of butter (they’d probably always need lots of butter knowing me, though). They look pretty though, no?
The sun was really shining for this picture, whoa. I have to squint just looking at it!
, Amanda
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