Day 10

Day 10:

• Palmiers
• Pailles (framboise pépin)
  
• Sacristains
  
• Bichons (crème patissier au citron)
  
• Préparation du Feuilletage

Let me just start this post by saying that I’ve been looking forward to Day 10 since I got the syllabus at orientation back in December (I warned that there’d be gushing today.)

The reason? Palmiers.

Palmiers fall into the category of immaculate foods for me. I’ve loved the heart-shaped pastry since I was a little girl growing up on the wide Texas prairie (in Houston). While the shape was no doubt my initial attraction, after that first bite at a La Madeleine Bakery many years ago, I swore to love and cherish the pastry ’till death do us part. Flaky and crisp, sweet and delicate, they are a delectable mouthful of happiness.

So you see, palmiers have rested on this pedestal for most of my life and when I realized I’d be learning how to make them, I was both nervous and incredibly excited. Maybe it was my fascination with the pastry’s seemingly endless layers or maybe it was the fact that I always had to go to the French bakery to indulge in the treat, but whatever the reason, up until this class, I was convinced that palmiers were impossibly difficult to make. But they’re not.  In fact, aside from making the puff pastry (yes, I know that’s a big “aside”), the secret to palmiers is laughably simple. Doesn’t that make you happy?! Personally, I’m thrilled 🙂

The secret to the delicate sweet crisp? Sugar. That’s it. Now most of y’all are probably thinking, “Well, DUH!” but I honestly thought that palmiers required something…more? Heck, I don’t know what I thought, but when Chef D told me that palmiers were simply made from feuilletage sucrée, or puff pastry rolled out in granulated sugar instead of flour, it made perfect sense. By rolling out the feuilletage in granulated sugar, I was lodging countless crystals of sweetness between those buttery layers so that when baked, each feuille received a gentle shellac of sugary love, making the already flaky pastry transcendent. I think a celebratory cry is in order here. Shout it with  me: Sugar, banzai !

As for the cute heart shape: Roll out the feuilletage sucrée into a long rectangle, fold both ends 2x over towards the center leaving a small gap (approximately two fingers width) and then sandwich the folded sides together.  Chill the dough until firm and then cut the sandwich into slices and bake.  By the power invested in butter, the pastry will expand and you will have a gorgeous looking palmier.

I suppose I ought to give the other pastries their due attention, too...Pailles are scrumptious linzer sandwiches with feuilletage sucrée crisps serving as the “bread.” Sacristains are the ever-popular puff pastry twists (the shape/name come from Christian tradition) that are made in an array of sweet and savory flavors. The ones Chef D made during demo called for a chopped almond/sugar/rum topping and were Chef D-licious.  Bichons, made in a similar fashion to Day 9’s Chaussons aux Pommes, are puff pastry pockets filled with a lemon pastry cream and then covered generously with granulated sugar prior to baking.  The result is a delightful sugar-crusted pastry pocket bursting with warm lemon cream. MmMMm.

Yikes—I’ve rambled away again, so I’ll end the post here and leave you with some pics of pratique goodies. I don’t want to brag (too much :-)), but even Chef D said that my palmiers were kirei, Japanese for “beautiful.” That felt pretty awesome.  I would’ve been content if the course ended then and there (though I’m glad it didn’t). Day 11 continues with adventures in puff pastry…but what we do with it, you’ll just have to wait and see!

❤ Palmiers ❤

Pailles

Bichons