Day 31

Since we had a 3-day weekend, everybody was pretty groggy coming back to class.  Nobody got a whole lot done but we did have some fun.

We worked with our puff pastry today and I managed to get a couple of things done and some of the other prep work finished.

I decided that I first needed to get my croissants from last week done....

So I cut them out (doesn't that look awesome??)

And rolled them up

And filled some with Almond Paste (mmmm)

And baked them

Oh so tasty and flaky!

With the croissants out of the way, it was time to start on the Puff Pastry stuff.  First, I had to roll out my puff dough that I made and laminated last week (not the frozen stuff) and cut it into the correct sizes.  Once done, a couple of those pieces got put on a sheet pan, covered in parchment and squished by another sheet pan to be baked.  That way, you get all the flaky layers of the puff without the height...more on why we did this tomorrow.

Since we had 4 things to make up with puff and I was running out of time, I decided to go with the two simpler ones for the night.  First, the Bouchees (As in, Bobby Bouchee, teehee).  These are little cups that you use to fill with either a sweet or savory filling.

First, you cut out a 3" circle and place it on the sheet pan.  It gets eggwashed around the rim (but not down the sides!) and then you cut another 3" circle but cut a 2" circle out of it and place the ring that you now have on top of your first disc.

Then they bake up looking like this!  You deflate the middle bit and then fill it with tasty pastry cream or chicken salad or something.

Just a note, if you don't eggwash well enough, this happens....

lol

I also made my Carres, which are a similar product but a different shape.  This time you start with a square and make it a triangle by folding over one side.  While it's folded, you make two cuts from the base toward the point but not enough to sever the dough and then unfold. The square that's now the inside gets eggwashed and the two strips you have get folded over....

Like so

After baking, they can also be filled with just about anything...mmmm, puff cups

Tomorrow I'll be making some more interesting things with the puff dough and we'll be learning Blitz Puff (which, as far as I can tell, is much like flaky pie dough...but more butter).  :-)