Mille-Feuille and the Roses of Summer

The roses are in full bloom in my garden and they look so beautiful.  I remember when we first moved into this house -almost 18years ago-there was one rosebush on the west side of the house.  I had been told that when the house was first built in 1919 the owner and his neighbor used to propagate roses and experiment with new strains.  Those roses were long gone when we bought the house.  I keep hoping that somewhere deep underground are the roots of at least one rosebush that someday will spring forward.  In the meantime I had a vision for the property when we bought it. I wanted a garden like Monet's.  I built my own trellis', put in rose arbors, sectioned out little beds , and now the entire yard is like wandering through Monet's garden.

 I am happy with my handiwork and love roaming through the garden and discovering a new little geranium popping up-transplanted by the winds or the many birds that visit.  We love to sit out on the deck in the evening and smell the vanilla scented Clematis or brush against the rosemary as we walk down the pathway.  We have been talking about selling the house, since retirement is quickly approaching. We talk about downsizing and moving into a smaller place -translation "Condo with no yard maintenance " !  When and if that happens, I will miss my gardens and can only hope that whomever buys the house,  loves to garden. It would break my heart if  I returned and the gardens were gone.  C'est la vie .

So to honor my garden in the present moment  I decided to do something with my roses and baking.  I started to search the Internet and remembered I had the link to Chef Eddy Van Damm on my home page.  I thought of him because his work is so beautiful,creative and delicious I had a feeling he might have something  that would inspire me-all of his work inspires me ! And  how serendipitous-the topic on his home page was a  Mille-Feuille with a Rose flavored Crème légère . And he used crystallized and fresh rose petals for the final touches.  The photography was so gorgeous and his final product looked exquisite-I knew it was the perfect way to honor my roses.

 Many thanks to  Chef Eddy Van Damm for his instructions and inspiration.  And for instructions on how to make your own crystallized roses go to Baking 911 or Martha Stewart. And if you have not discovered Chef Van Damm at this point in your baking experience please go to his website-you will be very happy you did-his work is incredible-and you will see why he is called the Prince of Pastry.  The book he co-authored , On Baking ,has been on my wish list for some time and after this baking experiment I splurged and bought it for myself.  You will probably be inspired to do the same once you visit his website !

Sorting through the petals from my garden

Rose flavored Crème légère.
Note a Crème légère is a pastry cream “lightened” by whipped cream.
1Cup (8 oz) Heavy cream
1 Cup (8 oz) Seedless raspberry puree
¼ cup + 1Tbsp (2.5 oz) Extra fine granulated sugar 
4  Egg yolks
¼ Cup (2 oz) Extra fine granulated sugar
4 Tablespoons + 1 teaspoon (1 ¼ oz) Cornstarch
½ Cup (4 oz) Milk, boiling
1 Cup (8 oz) Whipping cream
Rose essence to taste

In a saucepan bring the heavy cream , raspberry puree and sugar to a boil.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Add sugar  and whisk rapidly until smooth, add cornstarch and whisk smooth. Whisk in the boiling milk.
Pour the egg yolk mixture into the boiling cream mixture and whisk rapidly to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. Cover the crème with plastic food film and place in an ice bath to quickly cool the cream until cold.
Whip the whipping cream  until moussed (Soft peak). Add the rose essence to the pastry cream and whisk smooth. Fold in the moussed cream and gently fold together

Assembly
You can use a good quality store bought puff pastry for this recipe or if you are very brave and up to the challenge make your own !
Roll enough puff pastry to make about a half size sheet pan and 1/12 inch (2 mm) thick, bake at 400°F (200°C). Once the dough has quadrupled and the surface has gelatinized place a perforated sheet on the dough to ensure an even surface. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (180°C) or slightly cooler and bake until fully crisp.
When cold cut the dough into desired size pieces and sprinkle evenly with extra fine granulated sugar. Caramelize the surface evenly with a torch. Let cool.

Using the Rose flavored Crème légère , pipe a layer on caramelized puff pastry. Cover with another layer of puff pastry and pipe another layer of the cream. Finalize with another puff pastry layer and decorate with organic rose petals and crystallized rose petal.

PS BUY THE BOOK !

 

Forgive Me For I Have Sinned

I belong to this group called "Baked from Scratch" and every once in a while we are permitted to fall off the wagon so to speak.  So with that said forgive me fellow bakers but I needed something in a hurry for a breakfast this morning and yes I waited until the last minute. But that seems to be the story of my life this week.  My rationalization is that at least I didn't run off to the grocery store and pick up a pre-packaged something or other-like 10 day old cinnamon rolls.  I did use quality ingredients for my cheating Palmiers.  Since I didn't have the time to make my own puff pastry dough I defrosted some "just in case of emergency" puff pastry dough I had in the freezer.  It's Dufour Pastry Kitchens Classic Puff Pastry. And according to the packaging it's made with the finest churned sweet butter-something else I didn't have the time to do. What you don't churn your own butter ?   The New York Times quote on the cover is " One of the best sources for top quality puff pastry." and Details Magazine states : "The most buttery and flaky pastry you will ever find."  It also has a gold seal on the cover showing it was a Winner at the International Fancy Food Show !  So as you can see I at least tried to use the best pre made puff pastry !  See how good I am at rationalization ?
And if that wasn't enough reason for me to rationalize I found that one of my baking idols Dorie Greenspan had a recent recipe using pre made puff pastry dough.  She has two recipes on her web site , a sweet version and a savory version.  Ok, I'm off the hook,if Dorie can do it then so can I !

I rolled the pastry out to 18inches length on a cinnamon sugared surface.  Once I had the width I was looking for -about 4-6inches, I sprinkled more cinnamon sugar over the dough and folded it using a four fold (check out the video below to see how to do that).  I placed this in the refrigerator to rest for 30 minutes.  After it's little pastry nap I took it out and sliced off even rounds for the baking sheets.  I cut them about 3/4" wide-I wanted small dainty little Palmiers.  I placed them about 2 inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheet and sprinkled them with another light dusting of the cinnamon sugar.

Note to myself, don't mess with the basic Palmier shape !

Bake in a 375F oven on the center shelf.
Baking time is approximately 20-30 minutes.

About halfway thru the baking-after about 12 minutes-I took the pan out and carefully flipped the Palmiers and sprinkled more sugar on them. You don't have to flip them-if you don't, you end up with one side shiney from the carmelized sugar and once side with more of a matte finish.  I like the matte finish and I like the little crunchy trim that forms from the carmelized sugar when I flip them.  If you do flip them-do so carefully-carmelized sugar is very very hot !
You want to watch them carefully until they turn that lovely French Pastry shade of golden brown. Not white with brown highlites,not dark brown but that lovely just took them out of the oven in time French Pastry Golden Brown.

Note to you: Bake them through to the centers-otherwise you will have a dough pastry and really if its doughy you shouldn't even label it pastry but compost .
And you will be tempted to bite into one immediately-not a good idea unless you plan on not eating for a few days due to serious carmelized sugar burns on your tongue-and besides it's not a pretty site when you greet your loved ones !

And for all of you baking purists-come on I know you are out there-here is my recipe for Blitz Puff Dough-which is what I would have used if I had the time !

Blitz Puff Dough

1/2 lb bread flour
1/2 lb pastry flour
1 lb unsalted butter-cold & chilled
1/4 oz salt
8 oz cold water
Add the salt to the water and set aside.
Mix the flours together.
Cut in the cold butter-leaving large 1 inch lumps.
Add in the salted water and mix with the dough hook until absorbed.  You will still have chunks of butter in the dough and that is a very good thing.

Let the dough rest for 15 minutes covered.
Roll the dough into a rectangle 24"x15"
Give the dough three 4 folds,one after another,no resting.
For the Palmiers:
Roll to about 2 1/2mm thickness into a rectangular shape.
Dust the table with your cinnamon sugar,place the dough on top of that and sprinkle the top of the dough with more sugar. Using a rolling pin roll the dough out ensuring at least one side is 18" in length.  Trim with a french knife and fold into a four-fold. Freeze for 1/2 hour before cutting the Palmiers 3/4" in width.

I found a great instructional video for using pre made puff pastry -if you haven't made Palmiers before check this out-it's very well done !


Pastry:
How To Make Palmiers