This is a new thread for posting comments and pics for the participants test for the NYBaker's Book. A link to the original thread is as follows:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/18112/nybakersnorm039s-book-recipe-tests (backward link)
AND a "next" continuation #2 thread
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19159/nybakersnorm039s-book-recipe-tests-continuation-2 (forward link)
under Forums GEAR>BOOKS>NYBakers/Norm's Book - Recipe Tests
Hope this works for all
Ben
Week 7 Chocolate Roll. I was able to save the cake from being burnt, but it did dry it out somewhat. I spritzed it with water a couple times but it had lost most of its elasticity and just broke when I tried to roll it.
I think I misunderstood the directions on the melted chocolate part. I was thinking "Enrobed" and I think I should have been thinking "Drizzled". When I poured the chocolate on the cake it just sort of sat there, I was thinking it would ooze around the sides and completely cover the cake but it didn't. I grabbed a spatula and smeared it around. It was however delish and very rich.
Two Yums up for this one. I will try it again soon.
P.S. here are a couple of pics. notice the broken cake pieces and also the crappy job I did smearing the chocolate around.
I wish I had a slice right now! I have been through the cookie rotation and am now in the bread rotation and have the cake rotation yet to come. I hope this is in my group of recipes.
I posted to you on David's original thread. Let me know what you think about a thinner chocolate glaze.
I too was thinking enrobed. My thought was maybe it should have been 1 T, rather than 1 t of oil.
Betty
I have no idea what would have made the chocolate thinner. Maybe someone that does chocolate will clue us in.
Can you tell me what the egg white in the buttercream was for?
My husband just sliced a piece. It's very delicious. Very lemony, so I'm thinking I should have measured the lemon zest. I just used the zest of 1 average lemon.
A bit more oil, would have made the chocolate thinner.
I think the egg white was to give the buttercream gloss, but I'm not positive.
This recipe, IMHO, was the best so far!
Betty
1 the proten in the egg whites add body and act as a stablizer that prevents the buttercream from becoming curdeled and as the protens set so does the buttercream (taste a freshly made buttercream and it will be soft and creamy after a day (the drying of the egg whites) will cause the buttercream to set and you will see the bubble's ( a crumb so to speak) and taste a texture The butter cream will seem lighter and taste better because of the lightness.
2 as you cream the buttercream the egg white whips up like a meringe but in the butter cream so it adds texture and light ness to the finished buttercream
3 not reaqly gloss but it adds a flat texture or the finished which like paper will give a perfict surface to add decorations to and items like sprinkles will stick and hold on too
That all makes sense.
But I wonder, with all they hype about salmonella, If people will see it as safe. I have never worried about the egg thing, but I know people who wont eat eggs unless they are well done.
first most eggs today are pastureized and if your not sure you can buy frozen pastureized egg whites in the frozen food section or dairy section ask your store manager.
and with all the sugar as well as the small amount of salt ...well... lets just say that salmonella does not live here any more!!!
i have been using that buttercream formula for 30 plus years and well i look like it but have NEVER and i mean NEVER goten any food born illness from it or have any of the thousands of customers that i know of
so put your mind at ease and enjoy
is still fluffy and delicious..and no one has suffered any intestinal disturbances!
I do have to learn how to load upload from camera to puter and resize. I think my Patrick has finally tired of bread and cake pictures! I can upload and post to TFL by myself though!
Betty
PS..The best part about the Chocolate Roll recipe is that you will end up with enough buttercream to put away in the freezer for another roll..or a cake or...maybe whoopie pies..or ...
I was just digging around in my fridge looking for something yummy. I re-discovered the container of butter cream that I made for the Chocolate Roll. I opened the container only to discover that it is EVAPORATING!!!
That said, I took a large spoon from the drawer and made some more evaporate. It is absolutely delicious, still.
I have printed off the butter cream recipe separately and stuck it in my favorites folder.
Buy pasteurized eggs, and refrigerate the cake for added safety.
get some biter sweet or semi sweet dark chocolat and melt it slowly in a bain marie or dry heat warmer. when th is melted add some very hot 180 Degree F WATER
YES I SAID WATER!!!!
the choc will cease up turning it into a lumpy paste that looks like something you ate and lost
the trick is to not stop keep adding hot water (slowly in small amounts you can add more but you can never take it out) untill the choco becomes smooth again and pourable like thick whiping cream doubble cream if you are on the other side of the water.
pour this over the chocolet roll checker board cake or seven layer or layer cake what have you.
when it is covered and stops driping place the whole thing in the fridg and wait the chocolet will set up not hard but to a fudge like consistency
play with it you can add sugar if you want it sweeter or even a little sweet butter for taste.
this is not for cookies because it will not get hard again but for a cake or pastry this fudge like coating is perfect
normaly i would not post twice the same thing but because this is a new continuing thread and i posted this on the other one i felt it would be a good thing to put it here as well. i hope the board gods will understand
That's exactly my concern regarding the Chocolate Roll!
David
Has anyone made the lace cookies yet? I don't have a pastry bag and was going to try to spoon the mixture rather than pipe it.
which one did you get
Hi Norm, I got the hot. I hope mine will turn out like your picture below.
You definitely have me out of my rut. Although you would never guess it to look at me (me = fat guy) I am not that into sweets.
I bet I am not the only one here that gets into a rut baking. I am having a ball trying the different recipes.
All the recipes have been new to me and some were quite a challenge but I have forged ahead. I think it's been a great expreience and has challenged me to try things I wouldn't have otherwise. I am now more open to trying things that aren't "tried and true" recipes others have made. I have really had a lot a fun doing this.
I made them twice. The first time I made them as written. They were more like a toffee than a cookie but they were popular. They were too sweet for me so I reduced the sugar and salt for the next batch and they came out crispier and more palatable. The chocolate was bypassed because the cookies were already very sweet for my taste. To dole them onto the baking surface, I just used two spoons, one to hold a bolus and one to scrape a "blob" onto the parchement. They came out just fine in shape because they spread into flat crispiness no matter what shape they start out being.
I also have the hot recipe, and I'm going to try this idea with the spoons, as I lack any pastry bags or skills (see my post on the sandwich cookies for further evidence of my lack of skills). But spoons? Yeah, I can probably handle that!
You guys are killing me. Now it's florentines, one of my favorites growing up. Do we have to wait another year for this marvelous book? It looks like one "must have" after another. Thanks, Norm and Stan.
I made these yesterday, and they are off the hook. Ridiculously yummy. I used almonds, and did pipe them hot, using a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off. I did circles, but also experimented with piping short stripes on the parchment paper, which turned into oblongs (think Pepperidge Farm Milano in shape and size).
I tried baking them on both parchment (Quillon) and a Silpat -- the parchment was the hands-down winner, much better at getting them to the crispy toffee stage than the Silpat. And the suggestion to use the back of a spoon to smear the chocolate on was an excellent one -- thanks for that!
Everyone who's had one so far raves about them. To me, they're reminiscent of Almond Roca, one of my favorite candies. I think these cookies are worth the price of the book. So good!
I'm back from vacation and playing catch-up.
I baked Aunt Lillian's Apple Cake today.
I baked this in a tube pan. I think I should have let it cool more completely before removing it. We had a slight issue with structural integrity, almost certainly due to user error.
However, this did not detract from the delciousness of the cake.
Pretty yummy stuff.
David
Beautiful David.
Exactly what mine would have looked like had I not burnt it.
I just love the big chunks of apple. What kind did you use? The big chunks not only add taste and texture, but the visual impact is stunning.
David,
I agree your cake looks very delicious! This has been one of my favorites - my wife has been out of town and missed it so I know I will be baking it again soon. I told her it was so good that I could just open the storage container and smell it and be pretty satisfied :-)
A comment for alabubba: Remember you said, "it is just lunch... about my Plavnik experience. Well, "well this apple cake is NOT just desert". If you burned yours you should bake it again ... just one man's opinion.
Ben
After tasting the cake, I decided to freeze it. I think cutting slices as needed should work fine. In my limited experience, this kind of cake freezes well.
Hmmm ... I hope the book has some guidance regarding storage of the products, which freeze well, etc.
David
Already planned. Have things to do this week, and will have to see what the next recipe will be, but my wife pointed out that jonagolds were on sale at the market.
I used Granny Smith apples. Of course, this is not the best season in the Northern Hemisphere for apples.
David
Cake was tasty and improved more with age.
Betty
Mine looked exactly like yours. Took your advice to cool well, before unmolding.
It was very good, but I wish it used a lot more cinnamon.
It was really easy to make, but judging the doneness was a little tricky. Hard to judge with just the "tooth pick test". My tooth pick was still sticky after 75 minutes, but I knew it had to be done. It was.
with add-in's will not do well with the toothpick test because the apples or choc chips or what have you-- will stick to the toothpick. you could take the internal temp-- carefull because if you test to soon the cake will fall. or you could go by looks or feal. LIGHTLY (caps for a reason) touch the top of the cake in a place where there is no choco apples sugar ect. and see if the cake springs back. if it leaves a imprint the cake needs a few more minutes again do not touch to soon or the cake will fall
It looks like a number of us have been testing this recipe. It turned out great. I got up and made it for breakfast and it was still warn. Great with some coffee!
Crust
Crumb
Dwayne
Yours and mine. I used a bundt pan also. I guess I should have waited until it was completely cool because I did have some structual integrity problems as David, but easily disguised.
Yours look picture perfect!
Betty
Well, it is hard to believe this is week #7. The Chocolate Roll was a "skretch" for me but it is done - Norms advice of the chocolate icing was a big help. It was kind of messy - or may be I should restate that I was kind of messy (interpret that in either sense and you will be correct), but it was also a lot of fun. We have sampled the first piece and it is good too.
Did not know exactly what to expect, but here is what I got
Now, on to sponge cake ....and may be some vanilla ice cream and strawberries ...
Ben
I would like the recipe of the chocolate roll pictured above. I make a chocolate roll but sorry to say do not have picture, only of roll but not coated in chocolate. thanks qahtan
These are test recipes for Norm and Stan's new cookbook.
Betty
Hi,
I plan on making this today and I am doing the "Mise en Place" thing (getting all the duckies all lined up - My Son translated for me).
My Question is do you use the entire amount of Butter Cream that the Butter Cream Recipe makes or just a portion of it?
Just thought of another question. Which way do we roll up the cake? In to a log 12 inches long or 17 inches long?
Thanks,
Dwayne
You will have Butter Cream left over, I keep mine in a plastic container in the fridge, It will keep for a very long time. (or not, depending on those late night cravings).
A 12 inch long roll.
Has anyone had the same problem as I had? I followed the directions explicitly including baking in 2 bread pans. Unfortunately the only 8" bread pans I have are dark metal. I peeked into the oven and saw them browning too quickly, so I reduced the temperature to 350 from 375. I took the cakes out of the oven 8 minutes before the minimum time (40 minutes) and the end result was overly browned and dry cake. This is the first flub I've had and I wonder if it's because of the pans. How have you guys done with it? I ended up slicing the cakes and freezing them to use for trifle or something. I guess this cake would be good for the crumb bin if I had one here.
Betsy
Dear Dwayne,
I had a few issues with that cake. The cake ended up being about 1" high so rolling from the short end made a very large diameter. Personally I would roll it from the long side. As far as the chocolate buttercream, I halved the recipe and it was just about enough since I didn't want to store any. You don't want that stuff slavered on thick because it's so rich. Another thing I would do if I were doing it again is instead of covering it with another half sheet pan to keep in the moisture, I'd do what I was trained to do with this type of cake. I would dust a tea towel (thin type of towel) with confectioners sugar, turn the cake onto it, remove the pachment, and roll it up with the towel. Let the whole roll cool on a rack. Then, gently unroll to remove towel and carefully spread with filling. That would prevent the cake from cracking as mine had done.
Betsy
Hi,
I made that cake Thursday morning and I'm dying to know how other people did with it. My mother baked terrific sponge cakes and would be shocked to see mine!!
Betsy
Better than mom's?
Hi, Betsy.
My sponge cake came out of the oven about 30 minutes ago. I had some of the same issues you did plus a few others, some of which were simply equipment-related.
I haven't sliced it yet, but the crumbs that stuck to the pans sure taste good!
Added: The crumb is dense and dry. Not bad with sliced over-ripe nectarine. Maybe I'll slice it, dry it further and call it "biscotti."
David
My sponge cake didn't turn out, it was pretty dense/chewy.
However it made great crumbs for more of my cinnamon or sticky rolls!
Mr. Frost, my mother baked beautiful sponge cakes in tube pans. Mine looked dreadful compared to hers!!!
It was overly browned and dry. Although I don't particularly like sponge cake, my mother's was moist and light golden. I really think it was a function of the pans I used.
Betsy
Dear David,
I had hosted a baking friend for lunch the day I had made it. Fortunately lunch was better than the dessert. I served homemade egg bagels (from testing) with assorted toppings, fresh chive light cream cheese and Nova Scotia salmon.
The dry sponge cake I topped with syrupy strawberries, Grand Marnier, and a dollop of Greek yogurt.
I was thinking of saving the sliced frozen cakes for trifle or tiramisu, but I like your idea of drying them further to create a biscotti. The flavor wasn't bad at all--it was the texture and dryness that was not up to par.
Betsy
Ok, so I messed up on slashing them "correctly," I thinned out the glaze and I didn't use corn meal on their bottoms. I also baked them longer and even applied potato starch glaze to their almost cold bottoms. Everything worked. I should have shaped them longer, narrower, but they taste good and I like caraway!
Mini,
These loaves are beartuful - the color and the shine are so nice. When you say you messed up on the slash what do you mean - the little crack in the loaf on the lef or what? I would have been very delited if my rye had come out even half as nice as yours.
I am in group A and have Classic Sponge Cake as my next recipe - I am hoping after all the comments there may be some guidance provided so I am not rushing to bake mine yet. Sounds like I will at least get some good tasting "crumbs" at a minimum. If anyone from a prior group has advice please share it.
Ben
Great looking rye Mini! Love the colour and shine.
I'll have corned beef & swiss with some mustard please!
Betty
Terrific job!
Cheers
Ross
Rolled each ball of dough big and flat using flour and cut into 8 pizza pie wedges. Rolling from the outside edge to the point and point under on the parchment. Then brushing lightly with oil & water to keep them moist while rising. Turned up the oven heat a wee bit and ZAP! Well it took a little longer... about 25 min. with fan on with lower heat to keep the pan of water boiling on the oven bottom. Had all 16 in the oven at once.
The dough is a nice one (as far as ryes go) to work with. Water is good to shape a loaf but to shape these, flour is better. My son ordered a batch for Friday but wants garlic stuffed into them before rolling up.
Might also make very nice bread sticks. Then the oven temp should be lower for baking.
Mini
Dear Ben,
I just sent a private message so check it out. Just a repeat of previous messages.
Betsy
Wow, Mini! Your rye turned out beautifully. Cross slashes or no, they need to put that pic in the book.
Sue
I can see that I didn't cook the custard long enough.
The baking time and temperature mods. seem right.
I still wonder about the time estimate for the custard in the recipe. I hand whisked - pretty much continuously - for way longer than the time estimate. I'm sure my whisking speed and vigor were way less than what I would have gotten with an electric hand mixer. I assume what I was trying was not impossible. Any thoughts on making the custard without an electric mixer?
David
you can do it by hand but unless you have arms like popeye or a bakers arm its a workout.
you can use a stand mixer with the wire whip but the eggs must be about 130 F so warm the eggs and the mixer bowl over simering water using the whip atachment to constantly move the eggs so they do not cook then put the warm eggs and the warm bowl and whip and beat the hell out of it about 15 minutes of longer on KA speed 6 any faster and you will break the bubbles you are tring to form
the oven should be hot at this point
when the eggs are whiped enough the folding in of the flour should take a minute the faster you fold the better the cake will be but be gentel as well, in order to keep as much air in the batter as possible. once folding is done that cakes should be in the pan and in the oven as fast as posable
and don't open the door for at least the first 15 minutes so the eggs will set. other wise the cake will look like that famous bridge in washington.
I may give the sponge cake another try, using your good suggestions.
David
Correct egg quantity in Sponge Cake?
4 - 5 large eggs, OR 11.6 ounces(which is about 6.5 eggs).
Seems that could make a difference.
I used 5 eggs. Still came out a little dry and chewy. 9 x13 pan, 30 min @ 350. Guess I should have gone for the 11.6 oz.
I weighed the eggs, It took 6-1/2. I found the cake to be dense and kind of tough but delicious.
Its the kind of cake that would hold up well as a base, Soaked in Grand Marnier, topped with fruit and cream.
Dang it, Now I have to go to the liquor store.
These are from a few weeks back but I have been out of town and just now have time to post the pictures. This dough was also wonderful to work with, much like the poppy horn rolls and the flavor is great. I didn't change a thing in the recipe that I can remember. Topped half with poppy seed and half with sesame seed. I did cheat and look for a diagram on the Internet to see how to form these since I was having a heck of a time with just written instuctions. Even with a diagram I had issues so my more "mechanically" inclined husband ended up doing the forming of the rolls for me. I am left handed so maybe it's a left-brain right-brain thing?
David
I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with breads I probably wouldn't have attempted if it werent for this expriment for the cookbook.
Very nice job on the twists!
Betty
Thanks Betty!
Belated pictures of my Chocolate Roll. It was so warm that even after I refrigerated the roll for 20 minutes, I still couldn't slice it without smearing the buttercream. You know what, who cares! It tastes awesome!
Also, some pictures of my Sponge Cake. I don't know as I've ever knowingly had sponge cake, but I guess I must have. I heeded Betsy's adviced and baked at 350° for 40 minutes, covering with foil the last 10 minutes.
I had frozen the buttercream so I thought this would be a good way to use it up. I still have enough for another cake. This one leaves alot to be desired in appearance. I'll be keeping my day job!
Betty
This was the latest recipe I received. I made it with some skepticism since I've never used barley flour nor the seeds the recipe called for. I live in Omaha, NE and some of the more "exotic" ingredients for these recipes are not always easy to find. At first I thought I'd have to resort to shopping on the Internet but found the barley flour at a local health food store and the Charnuska seeds at our local Penzey's spice shop. This is one of the easiest bread doughs I've worked with so far. I did have to add about 2T extra water but other than that it came together beautifully. Baking time was a little longer than the recipe called for but we got two nice loaves. We waited an hour to slice the first one wondering what the flavor would be like since it was not like anything we had ever baked before and it was slightly warm when we took the first slices. The flavor is delicious! It's even better today after sitting for awhile. This is a real winner in our book and I would definitely bake again. Pictures are below:
I'd love to try some. I do love barley and can't imagine what it tastes like. Is this a yeasted bread?
Betty
The bread does call for instant yeast. Ingredients include barley flour, high gluten flour, salt, yeast, water and the charnuska seeds. It's a simple recipe and the bread is delicious. I think the seeds add a lot of flavor - they are added to the dough and sparingly sprinkled on top before baking.
I looked them up on Penzey's and am delighted to find that I already ordered them from Stan. Can't wait to try them. You say they are sprinkled sparingly, are they stong in flavour?
Betty
The flavor of the seeds was very subtle the first day but I noticed when I had a slice yesterday that the flavor was more pronounced. It's an interesting flavor - very good tasting actually. I think it might also work well in a rye bread. Edited to say that I think I could have sprinkled more seeds on top of the bread and it would have really added to the appearance and the flavor.
Makes me wonder how a barley poolish would do...
I'm a barley flour "virgin" so I don't have much of a feel for how it would work in a poolish. It would be worth a try and I can imagine that would make the flavor more intense. The texture of the flour is certainly different - more of a grainy texture like semolina I thought...
Just finished making them and trying to arrange them on the plate. Not so great at making them look good, but they are delicious, not too sweet and very delicate.
Betsy
Betsy,
I think you did a great job of arranging your cookies - they look very very nice ....
How did you shape them - a cookie press? I don't have one and these are my next assignment also - guess I may be buying one soon.
Ben
Piped from a pastry bag.
Cookies and china. This is my next assignment also. I have a dumb question, is shortening always Crisco? When a recipe calls for shortening, I've always used butter. This recipe calls for both.
Betty
Hi,
I would have put them through my cookie press, but the dough was a little too soft and the cookie press dough needs a certain consistency. I used a pastry bag with a 3/8" opening and jagged teeth. I don't do this stuff well, but I started from the outside to create a circle and filled it it. They taste better than they look.
b.
Betsy,
You did a great job - they are all the same size. Mine won't be for sure no matter what tool I use UNLESS I make one BIG cookie :-)
Ben
Betty,
I believe when a recipe calls for shortening, they mean Crisco-like. Butter is shortening. The addition of shortening to these cookies makes them much more tender than plain butter.
Betsy
Is vegetable oil processed to a semi-solid state (I think this is the evil trans-fat thing), butter has milk fat solids in it. The mixture of both shortening and butter is to provide the flakiness that the semi-solid vegetable oil provides along with "mouth appeal" of butter. I noticed that chocolate chip cookies made with only butter tasted radically different from the recipe I had used that called for only shortening and frankly, I preferred the shortening based cookies over the butter based cookies. Those little sour cream spritz cookies look wonderful and I'll bet they taste as nice as they look!!
There are many brands of shortening out there, I've always used Crisco - probably because it's what my mother and grandmother always used - they both made the flakiest pie crusts ever. Weird how brand loyalty works some times....
Sorry. I didn't read over my note. Butter IS NOT SHORTENING. Pies made with Crisco are flaky, but Crisco doesn't taste good. Pies made with both taste good and have a flaky texture. That's why the cookies are so good--they're made with both.
Good night.
lift with a spatula and will sit on top of the flour in the bowl. All margarines, criscos, butters and lard in solid form. Crisco is not artificially colored but I have seen it with butter flavor. I think white shortening turns us off simply due to lack of color. Winter white butter can have the same effect. There was a time when the coloring was sold with the margarine in a capsule and one could pop this and knead the sack until the shortening was yellow like butter. There was also a time when margarine was so much cheaper than butter, that most recipes were made half and half to get the flavor but save on butter. Turned out to work well and caught on like wild fire in the 70's.
Mini
TY Betsy and Franchiello. OK..I'll get some Crisco...but it makes me shudder! It has ick factor for me.
Betty
Mini and Franchiello are spot on with their definitions, and Mini's observations about the relative appeal of butter over hydrogenated vegetable fats is right on the mark.
a couple of important points:
first, US butter is almost 20% water, vs 0% in shortening which has a radical effect on the behavior of baked goods in which it's used. so to get the same impact of 8oz/227g of shortening, you'd need almost 10oz/285g of butter ... at the same time having to increase the flour to absorb the extra liquid or reduce the other liquid in the formula, etc, etc.
second, the role of the fat in laminated and puff pastries is to separate sheets of dough so that the steam generated in baking can leaven the product. you'll note that there's no other leavening in the puff pastry -- nor in Danish dough, croissant dough or any other laminated dough or pie crust. that's so the leavening action of the steam can work.
hope this helps
Stan
PS ... vegetable shortening is great stuff, in its place
I believe croissant and Danish dough do, indeed, contain yeast as a leavening agent.
SteveB
www.breadcetera.com
like puff paste, Danish and croissants are laminated, but they do indeed contain yeast.
Stan, Thanks for elaborating, it all makes sense now and I've learned something. It's a good day. I've picked up my Crisco and sour cream, ready to go...
Betty
Looking through this recipe, I'm having trouble understanding some of the directions, and also have some doubts as to whether this one is going to be adaptable to hand-mixing. If it is not, I figure there's not much point in my re-reading it countless times to try to envisage what to do.
Anyone tried it yet and can venture an opinion on hand-mixing (or maybe Norm or Stan could bib in here)?
Cheers
Ross
what you are making is a puff pastry using the german blitz method
the flour and part of the butter are mixed to lub the gluten and starch particals then the water and eggs are added to form a sticky dough not mixed more than 1 or two minutes at max one is better
then the rest of the butter or fat (so to speak) is added to the dough in golf ball size pieces (should be chilled or cold butter the same consistency of the dough) and mixed so thay are throughout the dough about 30 seconds (you should still be able to see very large hunks of butter
place the dough on a board that has a lot of dusting flour and roll out as instructed
hope that helps
Norm
Hi Group C
I made the pastry & elephant ears today. Lovely sunny winter's day here, 18°C in my kitchen so ideal for pastry making. I apologise upfront that I don't have a camera so have no photos to share (and is why I don't usually post about my baking adventures).
I worked by hand, it wasn't hard, Ross (have you had a go yet?) Mixing in the bowl I gently used two large chopsticks rather than my warm hands, to bring the dough to the shaggy stage. Adding the rest of the butter I didn't really get the dough beyond the shaggy stage using my chopsticks, so put the mix on the bench and gathered it together the way I do with a scone dough, taking care not to overwork or warm it and it came together, then I pressed it out to the rectangle. At this stage the mix looked reminiscent of a rocky road mix, lots of lumps of chilled butter dispersed amongst the dough. I need to declare that using grams I made up 1/4 of the pastry formula and so had a quantity of dough that was easy for me to manage. Following the folding instructions, I kept to a rectangle ratio and focused on the dough thickness to be sure I was achieving the correct pastry, despite the quarter quantity. It was easy to follow the instructions.
On to the elephant ears, Stan won't be in the least bit surprised to hear I chose to do the miniature version! Ross, I can see why you struggled with the instructions - they need work. Having read right through I could visualize what was to be achieved, but it seems to me that the detailed instructions for the large size are inaccurate. Ross, can I suggest you get two pieces of A4 paper to experiment with. Join them together on the short side, you will get a piece of paper around about 60cm long (but only 21 cm wide, not 45cm wide as the pastry will be). With the join perpendicular in front of you, start folding/rolling the right hand end of the paper over 5cm at a time, towards the centre. You will make four folds and have five layers by the time you reach almost to the middle. Repeat with the left hand side of the paper. Finally make one last roll, drawing the two 'rolls' together. Doing this with paper, I end out with five layers on one side (i.e. 2 and a half circles), and six layers on the other side (i.e. three full circles) - the same happened when I worked with the dough, one more layer (half circle) on one side. If you were my 4 yr old nephew you would now play with this rolled up paper, using it as though it were binoculars to look out the window to see if there are any whales in the sea! (He and I did have the pleasure of standing on my deck watching a whale making its way round the coast a fortnight ago) Can you see the spirals as you peer down the binoculars, with the bottom of the "U" facing up?
Having got it rolled up I popped it back in the fridge for a few minutes to firm. Then I turned it upside down so that the bottom of the 'U' was facing up and I used my bread knife to slice it up. Working with the miniature version this was very easy and looking at the large paper version I just made, I imagine it would similarly easy.
Having made the mini-version, I needed to keep an eye on them in the oven. I flipped after 15 minutes, and after a further 5 minutes removed from the oven the few on the outer edges of the tray that were already well coloured. I took the rest out after a total bake of 30 minutes. I'd made a simple syrup with lemon zest.
Finally after an hour I got to taste them. They have crisped up nicely. They look very cute with all the pastry layers as well as the rolled layers having puffed up. They taste good too but I'm going to have to share them - too much fat, too much sugar in there for me! I was glad I used lemon because it cuts the richness a bit.
Now I'm looking forward to doing the chiffon cake.
Regards, Robyn
Thanks a lot.
I wasn't anticpating that the pastry dough part was going to be difficult (but glad to hear from you that it wasn't!). Also, I probably wasn't very clear in my post, but I wasn't having trouble understanding that part. It was the shaping of the elephant ears that I found indecipherable. The link I posted to another recipe which included a pic clarified it, but your description is even better - fabbo!
I was intending to make a 1/3 quantity, but I think I'll follow your lead now, and make 1/4. Like you, the ultra-high fat content cools my ardour for this type of product...although I'm looking forward to the sampling. They sound yum.
And your deck...oh me, oh my. What a wonderful outlook you must have. My partner and I have been churning over the possibility of leaving my spoiled home city of Perth (goddamn the bloody mining 'boom')and moving to an artisan community in a regional centre where we're more likely to find some kindred spirits. We were looking at Tasmania, but probably can't afford it. We have been rolling around the theoretical possibility of NZ, and your post has just taken it out of the theoretical and placed it into the must-take-a-look category. Deriving a livable income is always the hurdle...
But I digress. Will stop right here.
Cheers and thanks again!
Ross
After a lot of procrastination, I finally bit the bullet and made these. As Robyn commented, not hard at all. It was only the unintelligble (for me) shaping instructions I was baulking at, but over time I let the whole thing assume elephantine proportions of difficulty. Silly.
I have to say, these babies are LETHAL. Horrendously high in fat content, they are so delicious you just can't stop at one! My doctor would be glad I followed Robyn's example and only baked a 1/4 quantity...although I am not so glad!
Cheers all
Ross
Elephant ears = palmiers ... except thicker.
They look deadly (from a medical perspective). I want one!
David
...I suppose we have to be glad of the limitations of web technology. Once they perfect matter transference, there'll be medical catastrophes aplenty, and lemme say, folk like you and HansJoachim - to name but two of many here - would have a lot to answer for in my lil' corner downunder!
Cheers!
R
but you can't call them that in a jewish bakery (you know why) the jewish people would never buy them. kind of like the chevy Nova in spain.
I'm glad they are at your hacienda!! well sort of..maybe just one!
Betty
Dear Mini,
It looks really good to me. Call it the wild yeast of Austria.
b.