Palmiers

This recipe took a lot of courage. Until this point, I've heard over and over again what a pain pastry dough can be.. the amount of time it takes, the amount of butter, and love and care..But I bit the bullet, so to speak. Aided by the very rare and illusive three-day weekend, I conquered the pastry dough and found the ability to make these delectable pastries. That isn't to say that I wasn't skeptical every step of the way: worried that I didn't use enough butter, that I folded the dough the wrong way, etc.. but to my amazement (and sheer delight) they turned out were oh so delicious with all their buttery, flaky glory. Seriously, when I took these puppies out of the oven I literally jumped up and down. I was that excited.

As with the brioche, I converted the measurements from ounces so they may be a liiiitle bit off.

ingredients:

about 3 cups of flour
a tablespoon of salt (totally guessing with this one. It was .33 ounces but looked near a tablespoon)
1/3 cup of melted butter
about 1 1/2 cups of water

and 9.5 ounces of butter for folding.. (that's about 2 1/2 sticks of butter)

To make the puff pastry:
1. I'm sure it won't make a difference if you're used to mixing in a bowl, but I just used my work surface. Start by making a mound out of your flour and salt and then hollow out the center to create a well for your liquids.

2. pour the melted butter and water into the center and gradually stir from the inside outward to incorporate the liquids and you will have your dough. (sounds easy right? unless your well breaks and suddenly your table is covered in clarified butter. Don't break the well..)

3. once the dough has formed, knead it BRIEFLY. I've said over and over to knead until your dough is elastic (or have I?) but you don't want to do that with this kind of dough because if it gets to that point of super elasticity you'll want to die once you have to roll it out. Once your dough seems smooth, gather it into a ball and wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for 30 minutes (or longer, but it'll need at least 30 minutes)

Congratulations! You have dough! Now you get to start folding in the butter! (otherwise known as part two)

1. roll your dough out into a large rectangle.

2. Measure about 1/4 of a cup of softened (not melted) butter and place it between 2 sheets of plastic. Flatten it out by beating it, and roll it out into a rectangle about 2/3 the size of your dough)

3. remove the plastic from your butter (I took off one side, put the butter on the dough, and then peeled off the remaining plastic. It seemed easier, just sayin') and place it on the bottom 2/3 of the dough rectangle (if your dough rectangle is oriented vertically, you should place your butter horizontally). Then fold the top third of the dough over so that it covers half of the butter. Then fold the bottom third over the rest of the butter. It sort of reminded me of changing a diaper (that may or may not be a helpful mental image..) But the point is that your butter should be fully enclosed by dough. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for another 30 minutes.

4. You will need to repeat the fold (its called a "four fold") 3 more times (to give you four- four folds. That's 1028 layers of dough and butter..)

Once you've completed folding, your pastry dough is ready to become a Palmier!!

1. Start by thickly buttering a baking sheet and chilling it. Then preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

2. Scale one pound of pastry dough (should be about half of what you've made). Dust your work surface with granulated sugar and roll your pastry dough out to create a rectangle that is about 13 in by 17 in. Trim the edges with a sharp knife.

3. Fold the long sides into the middle so that they meet without overlapping. Brush them with a little water and then fold the long sides in half again, allowing them to meet but not to overlap. You should now have a rectangle about 3 1/4 in by 17 in.

4. Brush with a little water again and fold together to form a rectangle 1 1/2 in by 17 in.

5. Cut dough into 1/2 inch slices with a sharp knife and lay on the buttered tray in staggered rows (they will get bigger..) Press the slices down gently with the palm of your hand.

6. Bake at 375 until golden brown. Turn them over and bake until well colored. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. The total bake time in my oven was about 15-20 minutes (maybe even less) so keep an eye on them.

7. enjoy your palmier. That was a lot of work, but it was soooo worth it.

(I took this recipe from a book called Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen...just FYI..)