Friday, November 11, 2016

puff biscuits, layers



He's very good with quite a lot of excellent videos and great ideas. I like Chef John a lot. What an imaginative guy. But he's no mathematician. He loses count immediately. 

The thing is, now think about this when you try it, and of course without question everyone wants to try something fun and excellent as this, when you sprinkle your butter cover only two thirds of the surface so that when you make your first fold that first folded layer of butter is not doubled. Here, let me show you what I mean, and help you keep count of your layers, so you'll know when to stop because one extra fold will become completely ridiculous. You don't have to sprinkle butter between each turn. If you don't then those layers without butter between them will smash together and become one. 

Butter is 20% water. When heated it steams off and that's what makes the dough puff. Using clarified butter with the water and solids removed produces a different type of dry toasted pile of flakes that puff less. It's still very nice, and melts in your mouth. If you coughed then dust would spray out of your mouth, toasted buttery delicious dust. 


27 x 3 = 81 
81 x 3 = 243
243 x 3 = 729
729 x 3 = 2,197 and that's just ridiculous.

Can you imagine how fantastic this is with bits of bacon in there and finely diced chipotle peppers with the adobo sauce smeared all over through the layers? 

Oh wow, I just looked, this page has has 1,118 page views. That's a lot for my little backwater site. It's called puff pastry with bacon and and chipotle in adobo. And I'll tell you, these things were a big hit. Everyone I offered them to took a few and couldn't keep off of them.  The page explains in words but not pictures. 

While this one is the same thing but called "feuilletage rapide" because that's what it is, fast leafage, an American expatriate living in Lyon named it that, it's her idea. The page has  a lot less page views, only 54, and that's a shame because it shows the whole thing in pictures. The first time was such a hit that Deena asked for them again for another party she hosted. The bacon I use now is 10x better. 

You should make them. It's a faster method than shown in the video. There's layers, yes, but the butter is mixed into the dough. French take shortcuts too. 

5 comments:

rcommal said...

Indeed.

ndspinelli said...

Biscuits are a weakness for me. I grew up in the northeast where they are not a regional food. But, when I got to the Midwest I fell in love. Don't like the biscuits and gravy thing. Just like a biscuit w/ eggs, sausage. Or, w/ fried chicken. There is a place in KC that has fried chicken, cinnamon buns and biscuits. It's Stroud's. Rush would eat there often when he lived in KC.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

It has so many views because it looks so delicious.

The Dude said...

I grew up in Damascus, and later I ventured forth to a valley a bit west of there. There I met a blade smith named Moran who made knives from Damascus steel. I was led to believe that the folding and refolding of steel and iron sheets was repeated a number of times until they were fully forged into a metal sammich much like those biscuits. The blades were less fluffy than the baked goods, however.

Chip Ahoy said...

Ha!

The blades were less fluffy because he didn't put butter between them. I bet.