Sugared Brioche Twists

I just bought this wonderful little book called Fast Breads: 50 Recipes for Easy, Delicious Bread by Elinor Klivans. The book was published September 2010 but somehow I hadn't seen it on the shelves until last week. It was the last copy and I didn't think twice about buying it. The recipes involve yeast which I love baking with. There is also a focus on sweet breads and comfort breads like sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, brioche, parker house rolls and butter twists.

Some reviewers mentioned that the breads a not really "fast" as they require overnight rising. However, the hands-on time is minimal and therefore, they really can be considered "fast" in my opinion. These breads also allow you a lot of flexibility because they can rest in the fridge for a few days, giving you plenty of time to build them into your schedule, no matter how busy you are.

I used Elinor's brioche recipe but instead of shaping it into a loaf I rolled it out thin and sprinkled sugar on it they rolled it up - cinnamon bun style - then cut it into pieces and twisted each piece to form a pastry of its own. They were beautiful. The delicate flavor of butter took centre stage, accompanied by a slight crunch from the caramelized sugar. The pastry is golden and light in texture.

They were so flaky and light. A lot like croissants but without all the work of making a laminate dough.



Sugared Brioche Twists
Makes 12 | Adapted from Fast Breads

1/4 cup milk
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbsp sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups butter, room temperature, 1" cubes
1/4 - 1/2 cup butter, for filling, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar, for filling

1. Heat milk to 110 degrees F on an instant read thermometer (or to just slightly warmer than body temperature). Transfer to a stand mixer bowl with paddle attachment. Stir in yeast and sugar and let sit until yeast is foamy, 5 mins.

2. On low speed, beat in eggs. Add the flour and salt and continue mixing until flour is incorporated and looks like thick cake batter, approximately 8-10 minutes. As you mix, scrape down the bowl and beaters as needed.

3. Scrape dough into a buttered bowl. Cover witih plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or up to 2 days. It will almost double in size.

4. After refrigeration, remove from fridge and roll out into a large rectagle, approximately 11" x 17" inches. Spread evenly with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Roll up into a log and pinch to seal the seam. Cut into 12 even pieces. Pick up each piece and twist it, pulling slightly, to form twisted pastries. Place on baking tray and cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap. Allow to rise for approximately 30 minutes. Sprinkle with additonal sugar if desired.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and dough is cooked through. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Cottage Cheese Pastry & Mini Jam Purses

This tender cottage cheese pastry is similar to cream cheese pastries but with less fat. It is a very easy dough to work with. The final product is not as flaky as your classic pie dough but it is a nice change. There is no sugar in the pastry which means these little purses rely on the jam for their sweetness. It pairs well with extra-sweet fillings like pecan pie or buttertarts.

The pastry is versatile and could easily be used in savory applications as well. Try mixing in some herbs and cheese and making breadsticks or for your next batch of mini-quiches.



Cottage Cheese Pastry

1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
1 cup cottage cheese, well drained
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 cup jam (optional, for filling)

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, cottage cheese, flour, and salt until dough is smooth. Chill at least 6 hours.

To make Jam Purses:
On lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into 2 1/2 inch squares. Place 1/2 teaspoon filling in the center of each square. Moisten edges of each square with a little water. Fold edges together to form a purse shape and place in a well-greased or lined mini-muffin tin. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove immediately to wire rack to cool, running a knife around the tin to loosen any stuck-on jam. Dust with confectioners' sugar just before serving.

DB: Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.





I loved the pie crust - pasta frolla - the american counterpart of the classic Crisco shortening-rich pie crust.

Lemon Tart

This tart was amazing through and through - From the tender, flaky shell to the tart filling dusted with powdered sugar for a touch of sweetness. I love making lemon squares and tasts like this one because they are so easy. No cooking or tempering eggs on the stove... just beat the filling ingredients together, pour into a hot crust and bake.

Presentation: Held its shape and sliced wonderfully.
Taste: Delicate yet bold.
Texture: Light, delicate crumbly crust and satiny filling.

I baked this in an 11" tart pan and had enough for a few extra mini tartlets. In my experience, tart pans, especially fluted ones, immediately up the "fancy-factor". These go from picnic to party just by changing their shape they are baked in. The recipe also halves well, just watch your baking time.



Lemon Tart
9 x 13 pan | Cook’s Illustrated, May 1998

Crust
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, cold, cut into 1-inch pieces

Filling
6 eggs, room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons grated lemon zest
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup flour
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Note:
The lemon filling must be added to a warm crust. The 30-minute chilling and 20-minute baking of the crust should allow plenty of time to prepare the filling. If not, make the filling first and stir to blend just before pouring it into the crust. Store in plastic wrap, refrigerated for up to two days.

1. For the crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 pan.

2. Pulse flour, confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt in food processor workbowl fitted with steel blade. Add butter and process to blend, 8 to 10 seconds, then pulse until mixture is pale yellow and resembles coarse meal, about three 1-second bursts. (To do this by hand, mix flour, confectioners’ sugar, cornstarch, and salt in medium bowl. Freeze butter and grate it on large holes of box grater into flour mixture. Toss butter pieces to coat. Rub pieces between your fingers for a minute, until flour turns pale yellow and coarse.) Sprinkle mixture into lined pan and press firmly with fingers into even, 1/4-inch layer over entire pan bottom and about 1/2 inch up sides. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, then bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.

3. For the filling, whisk together the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour. Pour over the crust and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool to room temperature.

4. Dust with Confectioners’ sugar and cut.

Raspberry Cottage Cheese Danishes

I'm not Jewish and I'm ashamed to say that I'm not sure what the rules around Kosher eating are. That is a whole world I've never been exposed to. Regardless, I picked this book up because it had one of my favorite bakers' names on it: Marcy Goldman of betterbaking.com and a CANADIAN!!! I didn't pay much attention to the food rules of the recipes and their Kosherness, I just tried the ones that looked good to me, as I would any other recipe book.

I was pretty impressed with this recipe that uses cottage cheese both in the dough and in the filling. She calls for "Dry Curd Cottage Cheese" which I have sometimes heard referred to as Baker's Cheese. I didn't have that so I strained regular cottage cheese in a sieve in the fridge for a few hours and it worked well.

The pastry is scone-like and the filling is danish-like. You don't even need the jam if you prefer, however, I think it adds a pretty splash of color. These are lower in fat than regular danishes because isn't cottage cheese 2% fat max? The best part - you won't even be able to tell there's cottage cheese in there.



Raspberry Cottage Cheese Danishes
Makes 24 | Treasury of Jewish Baking

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter, very cold, cubed
1 cup dry cottage cheese (I drained it for a few hours in a sieve)
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice

4oz cream cheese
1 cup dry cottage cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 egg
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp flour
1/2-3/4 cup raspberry jam

1. Dough: In a food processor pulse dry ingredients together. Pulse in butter cubes to form pea sized chunks. Add cottage cheese and process to form a soft dough. Blend in zest, vanilla and lemon juice then transfer to a bowl, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 3 hrs or up to overnight. No need to wash the food processor bowl before the next step.
2. Filling: In a food processor, process cottage cheese and cream cheese until very smooth. Stir in remaining filling ingredients. It will be thick. Refrigerate.
3. Assembly: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or silicone liners.
Roll out 1/2 of chilled dough into a 10" square. Cut both squares in half - you will have 4 rectangles of dough. Transfer rolled dough onto the cookie sheet then spread filling down the centre of each rectangle, leaving a 1 inch border. Dot raspberry jam down the middle on top of the cheese filling.
Bring the edges up around the filling and pinch together. You will have 4 rolls in all. Freeze for 10-15 minutes to firm the dough up then cut into 2-3" pastries. Be gentle so the filling doesn't spill out. Separate them slightly on the baking sheet so they are not like a log.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. The seams where you joined the pastry might split but they will still look pretty and taste great.

DB: Piece Montée, deconstructed

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

I must apologize... I am under a ton of stress right now so I didn't make this the real Daring Baker's way. I did cream puffs and a separate batch of toffee that I crumbled into bits to sprinkle on top of the whipped cream/ice cream to serve.

My stress is due to a HUGE due date coming up - the final report for my Accounting designation. If I pass this (last year's pass rate was 70%), I will be done done done with school. I will be a full fledged accountant!

I really enjoyed making the choux pastry and wondered why I don't make it more often! It's one of those little things that brings a smile to my face as the choux pastry "magically" rises in the oven into a light, fluffy, hollow pouf that is ready to be filled with whatever you can dream up. I've seen them used in savory applications although I think being the sugar-addict I am, I'll stick to sweet fillings.

I filled these with a simple vanilla pastry cream and made a separate batch of toffee brittle (instead of the hard caramel sauce). I think I'm going to fill the extra puffs with vanilla ice cream and freeze them for anytime-treats. I used Martha Stewart's recipes for both the pastry and pastry cream.

Check out the DB blogroll for real awesome croquembouches, unlike my cheater version.

Choux Pastry
Makes 2 dozen | Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, plus 1 large egg white if needed

1. Bring butter, sugar, salt, and 1 cup water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in flour. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture pulls away from sides and a film forms on bottom of pan, about 3 minutes.

2. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until slightly cooled, about 1 minute. Raise speed to medium; add whole eggs, 1 at a time, until a soft peak forms when batter is touched with your finger. If peak does not form, lightly beat remaining egg white, and mix it into batter a little at a time until it does. Use immediately.

3. Using a large plain piping tip, pipe 2" circles of pastry onto parchment paper or silicone-lined baking sheet. They don't need to be spaced very far apart as they don't spread, they just puff! Freeze for at least 30 minutes or once frozen, transfer to an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 weeks. Bake from frozen at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Store air tight at room temperature. You can also freeze these after they are baked and then to serve later, bring to room temperature and re-crisp in the oven for a few minutes.

4. Slice them in half and fill with sweetened whipped cream or pastry cream (recipe follows).

Pastry Cream
Makes 1 1/2 cups | Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Pinch of salt
2 cups milk
1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Whisk egg yolks until smooth in a large bowl. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan, and heat over medium. Stirring constantly, gradually add milk in a slow, steady stream, and cook until mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.

2. Whisking constantly, slowly pour one third of the milk mixture into egg yolks (this step is called tempering, which keeps the yolks from curdling). Pour mixture into remaining milk mixture in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a full boil and is thick enough to hold its shape when lifted with a spoon, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.

3. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a heatproof bowl. Cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap, pressing it directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled and firm, at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days).

Toffee Recipe from Recipezaar

Linzer Tart

When I pulled this out of the oven, my heart did a little jump because of how pretty it was. I was definitely proud to serve this tart and I got a lot of "you MADE that" comments because apparently it looked storebought!

The fragrant nutty tart pastry comes together in seconds and the filling is nothing more than simple raspberry jam with a splash of lemon. This tart is much more than the sum of its parts.



Linzertorte originated in Linz, Austria and is often served around Christmas. But... knowing me, I often make recipes out of season, like pumpkin cheesecake in the summer! This torte has stood the test of time since the 1700's with only a minor change that now many people include ground hazelnuts in the crust (I stuck to almonds though). Blackcurrant jam is most traditional but nowadays most common is raspberry.

The recipe comes straight from the book Baking for All Occasions by Flo Braker. No alterations and none needed next time either except that her recipe makes one 11" tart but I made one 9" tart and a baby 3". They were soooo cute beside each other. Of course my 3 year old had the baby one and it was 'just the right size'.



Linzer Tart
11" Tart | Flo Braker

Pastry:
2 cups flour
2/3 cup dried bread crumbs, fine
1 1/2 cups ground almonds
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2/4 tsp allspice (optional)
1 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
zest from 1 lemon

Filling:
1 cup raspberry jam
1 tbsp lemon juice

Egg Wash:
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
1. For Pastry, combine all dry ingredients. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add egg and lemon zest then flour mixture until it comes together into a dough. Divide in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap for 1 hour or until firm enough to roll. You can also freeze it for up to 1 month and just bring to room temp before rolling out.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine lemon juice and raspberry preserves.
3. Assembly: Roll out 1/2 the dough. Line your tart pan with the pastry and chill for 30 minutes (or up to 1 day). Spoon preserves into pastry-lined pan. Using a pastry wheel or knife, cut dough into strips to form lattice. Arrange lattice strips on top. Note: Linzer tarts do not have the lattice strips interwoven, they are instead laid all one way and then the rest laid on top of them going the other direction or diagonally.
4. If desired, brush tart edges and strips with egg wash. Bake 35-45 minutes or until pastry is done and golden brown. Cool fully before removing from tart pan and serving.

TWD: Fresh Berry Tart

Strawberries remind me of my childhood summers. We used to have a big yard and my dad used to have a ton of strawberry plants which bore the biggest, reddest, best strawberries. He used to lovingly slice them and arrange them on a plate, each slice overlapping the previous one just-so. Served with sweet whipped cream of course! As a little girl I felt so special picking berries with my daddy.

With summer around the corner, this tart is my way of welcoming Mr. Sun. I have been so cold all year long, even wearing a scarf in the office! I am ready for some heat and a chance to wear some of the cute summer tank tops and flip flops I've been storing in my closet. Some women have a thing for shoes - I have a thing for flip-flops!

There are 3 parts to the classic tart: crust, filling, berries. The filling would normally be a traditional stove cooked pastry cream but I opted for an easier and just as yummy alternative - a white chocolate cream cheese filling. Reminiscent of cheesecake with a tangy sweetness from the interplay of melted white chocolate. It's less finicky to deal with than 'real' pastry cream (no eggs, no stove!) and absolutely delicious to boot. This made a great Mother's Day dessert. This tart is one of those desserts that appears way more time-consuming and impressive than it actually is. Love it.

The recipe this week was chosen by Cristine of Cooking with Cristine. See her blog for the original recipe. I have posted mine including adaptations below as it is quite different from Dorie's.

Fresh Berry Tart
1 - 9" Tart | heavily adapted from Dorie


Sweet 9" Tart Crust
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon very cold unsalted butter, cubed
1 large egg yolk

1. Pulse together the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter cubes and pulse until resembles coarse peas. Add the egg and process in long pulses until the dough forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change. Turn the dough out onto the counter and gently/carefully knead.
2. Roll or press the dough into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes before baking.
3. Line the crust with waxed paper and pie weights then bake at 375°F for 25 minutes. Remove weights and bake another 8 minutes until firm and golden brown, fully baked. Storing: Dough can be wrapped and kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months. The fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, I prefer to freeze the unbaked crust in the pan and bake it directly from the freezer – it has a fresher flavor. Just add about 5 minutes to the baking time.

Easy White Chocolate Cream Cheese Filling
1 1/2 cups white chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened

In a small mixing bowl, beat melted chips and cream. Add cream cheese and beat until smooth. Spread over crust and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Berries, Glaze and Assembly
2 pints fresh berries/fruit (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, kiwi, pineapple, etc.)
2 tbsp apricot jam or strained raspberry jam
2 tsp water

1. Arrange fruit on top of the pastry cream in the crust. I find it looks best to put the tallest berries in the centre and taper out from there.
2. For the glaze: Combine jam with water then brush over the fruit. This keeps it from drying out and gives the tart a pretty sheen.

The tart is best served immediately but can be kept refrigerated for a few hours or up to a day (the only problem is the fruit juice seeping into the filling and coloring it).

Mini Caramilk (Chocolate n' Caramel) Tarts

You might never have heard of a Caramilk bar if you aren't Canadian. You're missing out!!! This milk chocolate bar features creamy Cadbury chocolate that encases a soft, flowing caramel filling in each square. Caramilk was first developed at the Masson Street plant in Montreal and currently is manufactured at the Cadbury Gladstone Chocolate Factory in downtown Toronto – the only place in the world where Caramilk is made.

These tarts are inspired by the Caramilk chocolate bar. They are a simple sweet fully baked pastry shell filled with melted milk chocolate ganache swirled together with creamy caramel. It's a good thing they're bite sized because they sure are rich! Note: Caramilk bars don't have almonds, I just garnished using an almond because they're pretty ;)



Mini Caramilk (Chocolate n' Caramel) Tarts
Makes 12

12 Mini Fully Baked Sweet Tartlet Shells (recipe follows)

Caramel
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp heavy cream

Ganache
200g milk chocolate, chopped
3 tbsp heavy cream
1 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 tsp salt

1. Bake the shells ahead of time and cool fully.

2. Make the caramel: In a heavy based frying pan, dissolve the sugar in water over low heat. Increase the heat until the syrup turns a deep amber colour. Don't stir the pan or the sugar will crystallise - you can swirl the pan a little to cook the caramel evenly. Take off the heat and leave to cool for 1-2 minutes, then stir in the butter with the salt. Set aside for 2 minutes and then whisk in the cream, beating until smooth and glossy. Transfer to a glass bowl and chill for 15 minutes to cool and thicken.

3. Make the ganache: Heat the chocolate, cream, butter and salt in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring until smooth.
Set aside to cool a little.

4. Loosely swirl the caramel and chocolate mixtures together and to fill each tart case with a generous tablespoon. Decorate with a nut on top or a dusting of fleur de sel or leave plain as is. Serve at room temperature.

Miniature Tartlet Shells
Makes 12 – 1" shells | Adapted from Sweet Miniatures, Flo Braker

1 1/2 cups flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Put the flour, salt and sugar in a food processor bowl. Pulse a few times to blend. Scatter all the butter over the flour, pulse until the mixture has the consistency of cornmeal.
2. Whisk egg and vanilla together in a small bowl. With the motor on, pour the egg mixture down the feed tube. Process until the mixture forms a ball. Remove to the lightly floured work surface, press the dough together until it is smooth and cohesive.

3. Grease 12 mini muffin tins. Either roll out the dough then fit into the tartlet tins. Or, pinch about 1 tsp of dough and press into the tins to distribute the dough evenly. Don't make shells too thick. Freeze for 15-30 minutes while the oven is preheating.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F or until lightly golden and fully baked. Cool. When cool enough to touch, remove from tins and fill as desired. The pre-baked, unfilled shells can be kept at room temperature for up to 1 week airtight.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Butter-Tarts

I've been doing some Easter-Egg hunting of my own the past few days. Grocery stores are selling Easter candy at discounts of 50% off or more so I've been scooping up pastel M&M's, foil-wrapped lilliput eggs and Reese's PB bunnies. I'll admit, a few of the PB bunnies were sacrificed in the making of these tarts but it's all for a good cause: dessert!

This recipe was heavily adapted from the recipe for Chocolate Mixed-Nut Pie by Better Homes and Gardens. I have so many 'all-purpose' cookbooks - JOY, Betty Crocker, Gourmet Today, America's Test Kitchen - that I have developed a blind spot for this 3-ring-bound kitchen stand-by. I had forgotten what a wealth of recipes it contained.

Flaky pastry encases a sensory delight of flavors and textures. Melty chunks of Reese's pb cups (in my case, PB bunnies) are suspended in a buttery creamy filling. Salted peanuts provide a nice crunch and add depth to these rich little treats.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Butter-Tarts
Makes 24 | adapted from Better Homes & Gardens

1 batch - Double Crust Pie Dough
3 eggs
1 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cups chopped salted peanuts
1 cup coarsely chopped peanut butter cups

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. On a lightly floured surface, roll chilled pastry dough to 1/4" thick. Lightly grease 24 standard sized muffin tins or tart tins. Cut pastry into circles and place into prepared tins, pressing the pastry up the sides slightly.

2. For filling: In a large bowl, beat eggs lightly. Whisk in corn syrup, sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the nuts and the peanut butter cup pieces. Spoon Pour filling into pastry-lined tart tins, filling right to the top. I pur 2 tbsp filling in each tart tin and ended up with 23 tartlets.

3. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until center seems set when gently shaken. Cool on a wire rack. Store in refrigerator and drizzle with melted chocolate and a dollop of sweetened whipped cream to serve, if desired.

Quick Raspberry Cream Cheese Brioche Ring

This recipe (from Cook's Illustrated) looks long and time consuming but it's really simple and would make a great Sunday morning breakfast treat. Cream cheese is one of my favorite ingredients. This brioche ring reminds me a bit of a sweet cheese danish. Both the dough and the filling are made in the food processor. A push of a button and you get rewarded with pillowy soft brioche with minimal effort.

Quick Brioche Dough
Makes 1 ring | Cooks Illustrated Sept/Oct 1995

1 envelope (2 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm milk (about 110 degrees)
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

1. In small bowl, whisk yeast into milk, then stir in 1 cup of flour. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside.

2. Put butter, sugar, and salt in workbowl of food processor fitted with metal blade. Pulse at 1-second intervals, scraping sides of bowl several times, until mixture is soft and smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, and process after each addition until fully incorporated (even though mixture may look curdled). Add remaining 1 1/4 cups flour and yeast mixture from step 1, scraping sides of workbowl with rubber spatula. Pulse at 1-second intervals to form soft, smooth dough. Then process continu-ously for 15 seconds.

3. Turn dough (sticky at this point) out onto generously floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Place dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Make filling (below).

4. Shaping: Roll the chilled dough into an 8-by-18-inch rectangle. Spread the dough evenly with raspberry jam and cream cheese filling, leaving a 1 1/2" border on the long side farthest from you. Beginning at the long side nearest you, roll the dough into a tight cylinder. Transfer the cylinder, seam side down and coiling it to fit, onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or silicone liner. Cover with greased plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes. Mark the cylinder top at 1 1/2" intervals, then use scissors to cut almost, but not quite all the way through the cylinder. Turn each piece of dough, cut side up. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let it rise until almost doubled, about 1 hour.

5. While the dough is rising, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake the ring until it is golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Drizzle with a simple icing sugar and milk icing if desired.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Filling
Makes enough for 1 ring

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons flour

1 cup raspberry jam

1. Process cream cheese with sugar in workbowl of food processor fitted with steel blade until smooth. Add remaining ingredients; pulse until fully incorporated. Refrigerate until ready for use.

All-Canadian Butter Tart Bars

Desserts such butter tarts make me proud to be Canadian. Butter tarts are flaky pastry shells filled with a sweet, chewy, buttery, gooey, nutty mixture. They are similar to the American pecan pie or British treacle tart, but in my opinion, so much better :)

The definition of a "perfect butter tart" can be controversial especially when it comes to the filling. Firm or runny? Raisins or currants? Pecans or Walnuts? With or without coconut? I personally prefer them in bar form rather than tart form. For one, it's easier and faster to press the crust into a pan than roll it out to line individual tart pans. My favorite combination is walnuts, raisins, no coconut and the filling just firm enough to hold together as a bar but still gooey enough to melt in your mouth.

Definitely give these a shot. They couldn't be easier. Once you've tried them in their "true" form, feel free to experiment and add chocolate chips, peanut butter, dates or craisins. For me, I'll stick to the classic. For another Canadian specialty, try these Nanaimo Bars.


All-Canadian Butter Tart Bars
8" pan | Adapted from "A Century of Canadian Home Cooking"

Base:
1/3 to 1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/4 cup ground pecans (optional)

Topping:
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped pecans
1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Base: Cream together butter and sugar. Add flour and ground nuts if using. When blended together and crumbly, press into the bottom of a greased 8" square dish. Bake 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from oven but leave oven turned on.

3. Topping: Combine all ingrrdients together well and pour over lightly browned base. Return to oven for approximately 30 minutes. Edges will pull away slightly from the pan and centre will be no longer jiggly.

TWD: Soft White Chocolate Cranberry Tartlets

Rachelle of Mommy? I’m Hungry! chose Soft Chocolate and Raspberry Tart on page 354 of Baking: From my home to yours. Check out her blog for the recipe. Or see my adapted version below.

I took quite a few liberties with this week's pick, using Dorie's original recipe as a starting point. I used ground hazelnuts in the sweet tart dough, swapped the chocolate for white chocolate and the raspberries for cranberries. These remind me of Christmas, both in appearance and in taste. Mmm... cranberry hazelnut white chocolate bark. I must make some of that soon. It's already been 3 months since Christmas, which means another 9 to go before I can step back into mass holiday-dessert-baking mode.

I was so happy to see this recipe come along so I could use my new tartlet pans from the dollar store. Surprisingly, there are tons of neat baking things at my dollar store. My 12 tins only cost $3 whereas in a baking supply store they'd probably be $3 each! I'm glad I made these small since they were quite sweet and rich. Definitely yummy but best in small servings. I can see why she used dark chocolate in hers, but no regrets here! This girl loves sugar.



I am posting the recipe since I changed it so much from the original. Just in case you happen to be a white chocolate lover like me. Even though she says to serve them warm, I prefer them cold straight from the fridge.

Soft White Chocolate Cranberry Tart
One 9" Tart | Adapted from Dorie

5 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1 9-inch shell Sweet Tart Dough with Nuts (below), fully baked and cooled

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Put the tart pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Set a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, add the chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally until melted. Remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, bring the cream, and butter just to a boil. Pour the cream-butter mixture over the chocolate and let it stand for 30 seconds. Working with a whisk or a rubber spatula, gently stir the liquid into the chocolate-start stirring in the center of the bowl and work your way out in ever-widening circles. When the mixture is smooth, stir in the eggs and yolk. Rap the bowl against the counter to break any bubbles that might have formed.

Scatter the berries over the bottom of the crust, then pour the chocolate ganache over them. Bake the tart for about 30 minutes-the filling should not jiggle if you tap the pan and a knife inserted into the center of the tart should come out a little streaky. Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

Serving: There are some people who like this tart ever so slightly warm, but the flavor and texture don't really come into their own until the tart is cooled to room temperature. Serve it cold and it will lose its lovely creaminess. Whatever temperature ends up being your favorite, do serve the tart with whipped cream or creme fraiche.

Sweet Tart Dough with Hazelnuts
one 9-inch crust | Dorie Greenspan

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup ground hazelnuts
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons)
very cold butter, cut small
1 egg yolk

Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter in and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in— some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the yolk, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.

Butter a 9" tart pan. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Don't be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes before baking.

Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes at 375 degrees F. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. Then fully bake the crust: bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.

Storing: Well wrapped, the dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 months. While the fully baked crust can be packed airtight and frozen for up to 2 months, I prefer to freeze the unbaked crust in the pan and bake it directly from the freezer—it has a fresher flavor. Just add about 5 minutes to the baking time.

Brown Sugar Cream Apple Pie

Here's an unusual twist on apple pie which I found on the Pillsbury website. As is the case with chocolate chip cookies, everyone has their favorite recipe for apple pie and there seem to be a million versions floating around. Personally, I love variation and have yet to meet an apple pie that I didn't like. This one here features a creamy brown-sugar filling that contrasts beautifully with the tart, crisp apples. It reminds me a little of caramel apples. Usually I like my pie with vanilla ice cream but this one needed no such accompaniment. It was good enough to stand alone.

From start to finish this only took me 1 hour including baking time! I highly recommend granny smiths in this recipe as the filling is quite rich and using a sweeter apple might make this pie a little too sweet.



Brown Sugar Cream Apple Pie
Makes 1 - 9" pie | Adapted from Pillsbury

Pastry for double crust pie

Cream Layer
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup whipping cream

Apple Layer
3-4 tart apples, peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze
1/2 cup icing sugar
5 to 6 teaspoons whipping cream

DIRECTIONS
1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare enough pie crust for a double crust pie. In a small saucepan cook brown sugar, 1/2 cup whipping cream and the butter over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until hot and butter is melted.
2. In small bowl, stir cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and 1/4 cup whipping cream until smooth. Add to mixture in saucepan; cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from heat. Cool 10 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl combine apple layer ingredients. Pour cream layer mixture into crust-lined pie plate. Arrange apple layer mixture evenly over cream layer.
4. Cover the pie with the other half of your pie dough. Brush with egg wash or milk if desired. Bake 40-45 minutes or until golden brown and apples are tender, covering edges of crust after first 15 minutes of baking. Cool 1 hour.
5. In small bowl, stir together glaze ingredients. Drizzle over pie. Refrigerate 1 hour before serving. Keep pie refrigerated.

Pie Dough Apple Strudel

This is almost exactly like an apple pie, just in strudel form/shape. I think the dried fruit in this recipe really makes it pop, providing a nice contrast between tender apples, flaky pastry and chewy craisins. It also travels really well and can be eaten without a fork, unlike traditional apple pie. It's not as pretty, but I can live with that.

I used my favorite apples: granny smith. A lot of people find them too tart to be eaten out of hand but I love their bite and sharp, juicy crispness. Perfect for pie too!



Pie Dough Apple Strudel
12 servings | Marcy Goldman of betterbaking.com

Crust:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening, cold
1/2 cup butter, cold
4-6 tbsp ice water

Filling:
6 cups sliced apples
1/2 cup dried cranberries and/or dried chopped apricots
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp lemon juice

Combine dry pastry ingredients. Pulse in shortening and butter until resembles coarse crumbs. Pulse in ice water, just enough to form a dough that holds together. Refrigerate covered at least 1 hr or up to overnight.

Toss all filling ingredients together in a large bowl.

Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Roll out each one out as thin as you can, about 9 x 12 inches. Transfer to rimmed cookie sheet. Spread 1/2 filling down the long end of each. Roll up, flattening slightly. It's ok if some fillig peeks through. Cut slits down the length of each to vent apples. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 375F for 25 minutes, rotate pan then bake another 20 minutes at 350F or until golden brown and filling is bubbly.

TWD: Tarte Tatin aux Pommes

Today's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Tarte Tatin. This week is extra special because it was picked by the person who started TWD in the first place - Laurie at Slush. Check out her website for the recipe.

I was super excited to make this. I love all apple baked goods and I've never made an upside-down anything before, not even an upside-down cake! so it was a nice challenge for me. The dish smelled sooo good as the apples bubbled away happily on the stove top. However, in the end I was so disappointed! I didn’t brown mine for long enough before bakingso they ended up pale and anemic looking. I was afraid of burning them as I couldn't see the color properly in my dark pan and so I was overly cautious. As I pulled it out of the oven and prepared to flip it, my heart was pounding. I just kept replaying the scene where Julia Child flips something over and it falls all over the place. Overall the flipping went well although a minimal amount of juice/caramel did fly out during the flip.

I ended up making a caramel sauce afterwards and pouring that over the apples (shown in the first picture) for more color and more caramel-ly taste. See the huge difference between the first and second pictures?

**Tip: Improvising the pan**
I had no idea how to execute this recipe since I didn't have an ovenproof pan. My cast iron skillet had a wooden handle which I wasn't sure could be put into the oven. After talking to a sales associate at a kitchen store, I found out that you can wrap your wooden handle in foil to protect it from the heat and proceed to put it in the oven! Worked for me!

The other option is to cook the apples on the stove then carefully slide them onto a bake-safe dish such as a pie plate (ceramic if you have it). Rearrange the apples nicely after transferring and proceed with covering them with pie dough and baking.



Tarte Tatin history: Tradition says that the Tarte Tatin was first created by accident at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France in 1898. The hotel was run by two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. Stéphanie started to make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. She tried to rescue the dish by putting the pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven. After turning out the upside down tart, she was surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated the dessert. (Wikipedia)


Hotel Tatin

Raspberry Jam Breakfast Bars

It's fortunate that this recipe makes a lot of bars because they are so addictive. Nancy Silverton describes these as "the single most addictive pastry" that they sell in her bakery. The recipe comes from: Pastries from La Brea. I don't know why this book only got 4/5 stars on Amazon. I loved it and thought it was a real gem! The only negative I can see is that some recipes are more involved and require some advance prep for chilling/rising times, but the results are always stellar.

Don't be put off by the 1 lb of butter called for in this recipe. It makes a lot of bars - a whole jelly-roll pan full!!! With a food processor they come together in minutes (but require 1+ hrs to chill before baking). These sturdy jam bars travel well and unlike other crumble topped bars the topping actually stays on instead of falling off when you pick them up!

Raspberry Jam Breakfast Bars
Nancy Silverton | 10"x16" tray

crust
4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup corn starch
2 cups butter, chilled and cubed

2 cups raspberry jam

streusel
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
10 tbsp butter, cubed
1 egg, beaten

DIRECTIONS:
1. For crust, combine all dry ingredients in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until dough begins to come together. Turn onto floured surface and roll into a 10x16 inch rectangle. Place on jelly roll pan lined with parchment or silicone liner. Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.
2. Prepare the topping. Combine all streusel ingredients in a food processor except butter and egg. Add butter and pulse until resembles coarse meal. Transfer to a bowl and add beaten egg, tossing with your hands. It should be crumbly and uneven. Chill until ready to use.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake crust for 20-25 minutes until lightly golden. Spread raspberry jam over the crust, leaving 1/4 inch uncovered around the edges. Cover with steusel topping and bake for another 40 minutes, until golden. Cool thoroughly before cutting into bars.

Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry Sticks

Whenever I make pies I look forward to the bits of extra pastry left over from trimming the edge of the pie crust or the dough scraps from when you cut out tartlette rounds. I can't stand to throw food out, so I coat them with cinnamon-sugar and bake them on a cookie sheet until golden brown. They come out buttery and crisp and are perfect to nibble on while waiting for your pie to be done baking.

Today I was in the mood for a sweet baked treat but didn't feel motivated enough to measure out a bunch of ingredients (and do the accompanying dishes afterwards). I was happy to find a plastic-wrapped ball of pie dough in my fridge I had made a few days ago. Whwnever I make pie crust, I always make extra and either freeze or refrigerate it because you never know when you might need a quick crust (like today!)

In the time it took to preheat the oven (to 425F), I had rolled the dough (1/4" thick), cut it into little (1/2" x 3") sticks and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar (1/3 cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon). After baking for 10-15 mins they were ready. Super-easy and almost no dishes!

You could do this with any pie dough but here's the one I used: my favorite all-butter dough from Gourmet. No icky shortening here! An all-butter pastry dough is a little less flaky than a dough made with a blend of butter and shortening, but you’ll love the end result — the taste of butter really comes through - mmm-marvelous!



All-Butter Crust
1 - 9" Single Crust | Gourmet, Sept/09

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 to 5 tablespoons ice water

1. Blend together flour, butter, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender just until most of mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps.
2. Drizzle 3 Tbsp ice water evenly over mixture and gently stir with a fork until incorporated. Squeeze a small handful: If it doesn'tt hold together, add more ice water, 1/2 Tbsp at a time, stirring until incorporated, then test again. (Do not overwork mixture or pastry will be tough.)
3. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather dough together, with a pastry scraper if you have one, and press into a ball, then flatten into a 5-inch disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour or up to 3 days.

Cinnamon Puff Pastry Twists

I am in love with the puff pastry dough by Dorie Greenspan for the book "Baking with Julia". There is a link to the pastry recipe below. I have never made real puff pastry from scratch (although I have made quick/rapid/rough puff pastry before). To my surprise, it was so easy and the results were so satisfying. I completed the turns over 2 days (4 turns the first day, 2 the second day before rolling and cutting the pastry). It was a great feeling of accomplishment when I opened the oven door and saw how beautifully they had risen. Even more magical was the experience of biting into one of these twists to reveal all the paper-thin layers and knowing that they had been created by my own hands. Sorry Pepperidge Farms, I'll be making my own puff pastry from now on.



Baking in the oven

Cinnamon Puff Pastry Twists
Makes 16

1 lb Puff Pastry Dough (half the recipe)
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1. In a bowl, mix the sugar with the cinnamon. Dust the work surface with cinnamon sugar. Roll out dough to an 8" square. Scrape it up and rotate it regularly, dusting all the way with sugar. Roll it to an even 1/8" thickness. Sprinkle with lots of sugar.
2. Cut into strips about 1/2" wide using a pastry wheel, and then twist into straws by both ends in opposite directions at once. Place the straws on a parchment lined baking sheet and press each end onto the sheet to secure. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 12 minutes, or until they are browned and lightly crisp. Cool for 15 minutes. Storage: Put leftover sticks in a ziplock bag or freeze for up to 1 week.

DB: Vols-Au-Vents

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

I had so much fun making these. What a sense of accomplishment and pride when you see your puff pastry rise in the oven and when you bite into a piece to reveal the beautiful layers. This has been my favorite Daring Baker's Challenge so far. Thank you Steph for this challenge! I have always been afraid of making puff pastry because of its reputation but it is actually not difficult at all. This recipe is one I will be using again and again.

I chose a very simple filling (sweet rather than savory of course, because I have an insatiable sweet tooth!) I filled them with a sweetened whipped cream, which complemented the buttery puff pastry wonderfully.


The butter block.


4 dots to mark 4 turns completed.


Filled with a simple sweetened whipped cream. Mmmm


Layers!!!

Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry Dough
Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan | 2-1/2 pounds dough

Steph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.

There is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). They do seem to give slightly different ingredient measurements verbally than the ones in the book…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book. http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups (12.2 oz/ 354 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cups (5.0 oz/ 142 g) cake flour
1 tbsp. salt (you can cut this by half for a less salty dough or for sweet preparations)
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz/ 300 ml) ice water
1 pound (16 oz/ 454 g) very cold unsalted butter

plus extra flour for dusting work surface

Mixing the Dough
Check the capacity of your food processor before you start. If it cannot hold the full quantity of ingredients, make the dough into two batches and combine them.

Put the all-purpose flour, cake flour, and salt in the work bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade and pulse a couple of times just to mix. Add the water all at once, pulsing until the dough forms a ball on the blade. The dough will be very moist and pliable and will hold together when squeezed between your fingers. (Actually, it will feel like Play-Doh.)

Remove the dough from the machine, form it into a ball, with a small sharp knife, slash the top in a tic-tac-toe pattern. Wrap the dough in a damp towel and refrigerate for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the butter between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and beat it with a rolling pin until it flattens into a square that's about 1" thick. Take care that the butter remains cool and firm: if it has softened or become oily, chill it before continuing.

Incorporating the Butter
Unwrap the dough and place it on a work surface dusted with all-purpose flour (A cool piece of marble is the ideal surface for puff pastry) with your rolling pin (preferably a French rolling pin without handles), press on the dough to flatten it and then roll it into a 10" square. Keep the top and bottom of the dough well floured to prevent sticking and lift the dough and move it around frequently. Starting from the center of the square, roll out over each corner to create a thick center pad with "ears," or flaps.

Place the cold butter in the middle of the dough and fold the ears over the butter, stretching them as needed so that they overlap slightly and encase the butter completely. (If you have to stretch the dough, stretch it from all over; don't just pull the ends) you should now have a package that is 8" square.

To make great puff pastry, it is important to keep the dough cold at all times. There are specified times for chilling the dough, but if your room is warm, or you work slowly, or you find that for no particular reason the butter starts to ooze out of the pastry, cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it . You can stop at any point in the process and continue at your convenience or when the dough is properly chilled.

Making the Turns
Gently but firmly press the rolling pin against the top and bottom edges of the square (this will help keep it square). Then, keeping the work surface and the top of the dough well floured to prevent sticking, roll the dough into a rectangle that is three times as long as the square you started with, about 24" (don't worry about the width of the rectangle: if you get the 24", everything else will work itself out.) With this first roll, it is particularly important that the butter be rolled evenly along the length and width of the rectangle; check when you start rolling that the butter is moving along well, and roll a bit harder or more evenly, if necessary, to get a smooth, even dough-butter sandwich (use your arm-strength!).

With a pastry brush, brush off the excess flour from the top of the dough, and fold the rectangle up from the bottom and down from the top in thirds, like a business letter, brushing off the excess flour. You have completed one turn.

Rotate the dough so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Repeat the rolling and folding process, rolling the dough to a length of 24" and then folding it in thirds. This is the second turn.

Chilling the Dough
If the dough is still cool and no butter is oozing out, you can give the dough another two turns now. If the condition of the dough is iffy, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes. Each time you refrigerate the dough, mark the number of turns you've completed by indenting the dough with your fingertips. It is best to refrigerate the dough for 30 to 60 minutes between each set of two turns.

The total number of turns needed is six. If you prefer, you can give the dough just four turns now, chill it overnight, and do the last two turns the next day. Puff pastry is extremely flexible in this regard. However, no matter how you arrange your schedule, you should plan to chill the dough for at least an hour before cutting or shaping it.

Forming and Baking the Vols-au-Vent
Yield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent

In addition to the equipment listed above, you will need:
-well-chilled puff pastry dough (recipe below)
-egg wash (1 egg or yolk beaten with a small amount of water)
-your filling of choice

Line a baking sheet with parchment and set aside.

Using a knife or metal bench scraper, divided your chilled puff pastry dough into three equal pieces. Work with one piece of the dough, and leave the rest wrapped and chilled. (If you are looking to make more vols-au-vent than the yield stated above, you can roll and cut the remaining two pieces of dough as well…if not, then leave refrigerated for the time being or prepare it for longer-term freezer storage. See the “Tips” section below for more storage info.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll the piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/4-inch (3-6 mm) thick. Transfer it to the baking sheet and refrigerate for about 10 minutes before proceeding with the cutting.

(This assumes you will be using round cutters, but if you do not have them, it is possible to cut square vols-au-vents using a sharp chef’s knife.) For smaller, hors d'oeuvre sized vols-au-vent, use a 1.5” round cutter to cut out 8-10 circles. For larger sized vols-au-vent, fit for a main course or dessert, use a 4” cutter to cut out about 4 circles. Make clean, sharp cuts and try not to twist your cutters back and forth or drag your knife through the dough. Half of these rounds will be for the bases, and the other half will be for the sides. (Save any scrap by stacking—not wadding up—the pieces…they can be re-rolled and used if you need extra dough. If you do need to re-roll scrap to get enough disks, be sure to use any rounds cut from it for the bases, not the ring-shaped sides.)

Using a ¾-inch cutter for small vols-au-vent, or a 2- to 2.5-inch round cutter for large, cut centers from half of the rounds to make rings. These rings will become the sides of the vols-au-vent, while the solid disks will be the bottoms. You can either save the center cut-outs to bake off as little “caps” for you vols-au-vent, or put them in the scrap pile.

Dock the solid bottom rounds with a fork (prick them lightly, making sure not to go all the way through the pastry) and lightly brush them with egg wash. Place the rings directly on top of the bottom rounds and very lightly press them to adhere. Brush the top rings lightly with egg wash, trying not to drip any down the sides (which may inhibit rise). If you are using the little “caps,” dock and egg wash them as well.

Refrigerate the assembled vols-au-vent on the lined baking sheet while you pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). (You could also cover and refrigerate them for a few hours at this point.)

Once the oven is heated, remove the sheet from the refrigerator and place a silicon baking mat (preferred because of its weight) or another sheet of parchment over top of the shells. This will help them rise evenly. Bake the shells until they have risen and begin to brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on their size. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC), and remove the silicon mat or parchment sheet from the top of the vols-au-vent. If the centers have risen up inside the vols-au-vent, you can gently press them down. Continue baking (with no sheet on top) until the layers are golden, about 15-20 minutes more. (If you are baking the center “caps” they will likely be finished well ahead of the shells, so keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven when browned.)

Remove to a rack to cool. Cool to room temperature for cold fillings or to warm for hot fillings.

Fill and serve.

*For additional rise on the larger-sized vols-au-vents, you can stack one or two additional ring layers on top of each other (using egg wash to "glue"). This will give higher sides to larger vols-au-vents, but is not advisable for the smaller ones, whose bases may not be large enough to support the extra weight.

*Although they are at their best filled and eaten soon after baking, baked vols-au-vent shells can be stored airtight for a day.

*Shaped, unbaked vols-au-vent can be wrapped and frozen for up to a month (bake from frozen, egg-washing them first).