Thursday, December 25, 2008

Holiday Fun

Does this ever happen to you? You get it in your head to try something and you just can't relax until you finally do try it. Am I the only one who obsesses over such things as homemade pain au chocolat? Ever since I saw Isa's post on Homemade Chocolatines, I've been dying to try making some. But then it's the Holidays and there are so many things to do, presents to buy and wrap, cookies to bake, cards to send... Now is not the time to try pâte feuilletée for the first time.

Since the Holidays wouldn't be the same without a little added stress, on December 23rd, I made the brioche dough for the chocolatines and did a little research on how to properly fold the butter into the dough to make it flaky. I read so many posts and techniques on how to make pâte feuilletée it was enough to make my head spin!

It's a wonder really that the chocolatines turned out as well as they did because, seriously, I have no idea what I did. I rolled out the dough, spread the softened butter onto it, folded the dough over, refrigerated it a while and then, things got fun. I had no idea which way to roll the dough again, how to re-fold and roll again, I was all mixed up! It was in no way the recipe's/instruction's fault, I think I just wanted to do everything a little too quickly. Again, the Holidays were probably not the best time to try my hand at pâte feuilletée. But, be it beginner's luck or a small Christmas miracle, we had a delicious Christmas Eve breakfast. :)

The recipe I used for the dough was from Les gourmandises d'Isa and can be found here (it's in French but can be translated through Google); I found this post from Susan at Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy very helpful for the folding technique (though I should, and will, read it again, more carefully); and also, Fanny over at Foodbeam has a great tutorial for pâte feuilletée.

Whether you're having fun in the sun or knee deep in snow, I hope you all had as fun and relaxed a Christmas as I had, filled with family, friends and good food.


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22 comments:

Rajani said...

These look great! i think inspite of all the confusion whats more important is knowing that they taste good. and nice to know you had a great chirstmas with your family.

Gretchen Noelle said...

That does look like perfectly flaky dough and I am sure it tasted perfectly good too! Hope you had a wonderful, blessed Christmas!

Manggy said...

Ooh, great job Lynne! It's nearly impossible to make pate feuilletine here at home-- I had a hard problem doing a simple flaky dough last night! I'm glad you had a fun time doing it too (and fun eating it, I bet! :)

Anonymous said...

haha!!! I understand completely...they looks great! :) Happy Holidays!

Chef said...

Just an FYI for next time, fold the dough like you were folding a towel, outside to the middle, then overlap the other side. roll out again, and fold again. The more times you do it, the more flaky 'layers' you will have.

They look really good, thanks for sharing with everyone

La Cuisine d'Helene said...

I saw these on Isa's blog and did not try to make them yet. Yours looks so perfect and so good. You really did a great job.

Gigi said...

oh man do those look great! i wish i had one right now! happy new year!

Nic said...

I can be pretty obsessive at times too, glad I'm not the only one!
Merry Christmas to you and your family!!

Sandy said...

oh, those rolls look sooo good. but i have to stop eating now! LOL!

Julius said...

Looks delicious!

Happy Holidays :)

~ Julius
from Occasional Baker

PheMom said...

You are my hero! I have been trying to get around to making these too. Yum!

TeaLady said...

Looks like you did a wonderful job to me. And what's a little extra stress at Christmas. We are bakers, hear us ROAR!!!!! These look fantastic!

grace said...

well, we have no snow and no sun. just gray. but my family's together and we're having a blast and eating tons, so no complaints here. :)

Anonymous said...

These look really great! I'll have to try these later in the year, perhaps when things have settled down some. I love, love, love pain au chocolat!

Di said...

Oh, yum. Those look fabulous. I've really been wanting to try making pain au chocolat. I'll have to check out those posts.

Anonymous said...

Oh wow...my two favorites rolled into one....I am salivating! Happy New Year!

Jessica said...

Yummy! These are one of my favorite treats. I have made a wheat roll with chocolate in it but I will have to try this kind!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

I'm glad it worked out! They look heavenly!

Happy 2009!
~ingrid

Brilynn said...

Pain au chocolate brings back wonderful memories of being in France!

Anonymous said...

they look beautiful!

AmyRuth said...

Divine....so yummy and a great experience, I'll bet.
Do you like living on the edge?
Amyruth

Anonymous said...

Lynne, if you'd like to see yet one more post with step-by-step instructions (with video) on how to make pain au chocolat, have a look here:

http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=117