Eclair, You Stole My Heart!

Eclairs- So eclair is a french word, so clearly it originated in France. Its said to have originated during the 19^th century, the date isn't specific, but it was probably before 1860. 1860 was the year the word first appeared both I English and in French. It is said that Antonin Carême, “the” famous French chef, was the first to make these delightful pastries.
So the word Eclair is French for “lightening”; it's not really shaped like lightening, but I get the correlation. Eclairs are very traditional meaning there are not to many ways to make them and still call them eclairs. An eclair is made with pate choux dough, which is also used to make profiteroles (cream puffs) and other treats. The oblong shell of an eclair is piped through a piping bag and backed until its golden brown and hollow in the middle. It is then cooled and filled with a traditional pastry cream filling, either plain, chocolate, or coffee flavored. Once the eclairs are cooled and filled, they are coated in a chocolate fondant icing.

I remember my first eclair; I was 13, and it wasn't very good, but I fell for the idea of the eclair. The pastry cream was starchy and the fondant was anything but good, but I knew this dessert had potential to be better. Eventually, I had an amazing eclair my high school chef made, and that was it, I was a slave to this dessert. There was no turning back from that point, and I never plan on it.

Palmier!

Palmier, also called palm leaves get their name because of their resemblance to Pal tree leaves. It also resembles butterflies, but that's neither here nor there. The Palmier is a French pastry that originated around the early 1900s (turn of the century).

Palmiers are as simple to make as they are to eat. You start with a sheet of puff pastry, and instead of flouring you counter top, sugar it instead. Heavily sprinkled the dough with granulated sugar while pressing the sugar into the dough. Then the two ends are folded inward towards the center, and then it is folded in half. This folded dough is covered in more sugar and is then sliced in ¼ inch pieces. Once these sweet delights are baked, they puff up, turn golden brown, and all that lovely sugar gets all caramelized and sexy. Eaten warm or cold or served with coffee or tea, its a great treat either way.
 
 

 

Puff Pastry

Puff Pastry Dough is an unleavened dough close in relation to Danish Dough just without the yeast. It is also a close relatives to the Middle East's Phyllo Dough. Puff dough is associated with a French pastry chef, of course. Either way, they're all lamination doughs and they're all wonderful. It is written that in 1645, a French chef by the name of Claude Gelée wanted to bake a loaf of bread for his sick father. His father was on a strict diet, one where he was only allowed to eat flour, water, and butter. Gelée made a dough of flour and water and folded the butter into it, and repeatedly folded the butter and dough. Not knowing what the dough would come out like, he put it in the oven anyway, and was surprised by the shape and size the bread grew to be. He took his invention with him to Paris and later to Florence, creating great publicity for the bakeries he worked at. Gelée always made his puff dough in a locked room, and kept “his” recipe to himself until his death in 1682. Today there is no way to know if the recipes we have are the same as Gelée original, but I figure they are pretty close and work just the same.


References to puff pastry dough, or a similar dough appeared before the 1600s. The likely origin of puff dough would be Spain where a similar product was made. It was a thin sheet of dough spread with olive oil which was probably converted to a thicker dough made with butter (modern day puff dough) by either the Italians or Germans.

Puff pastry dough making is a very tedious process, and like most pastries, it requires an exact, mind-numbing precision. Puff pastry and all its attributed factors are a result of layers of fat in the dough. These layers are formed by folding the dough over on its self in a sing-song like pattern, “3 fold 4 fold 3 fold 4 fold”. When the puff dough is baked, those layers of fat melt and open up, which gives its its flaky open texture. There is absolutely no yeast or any other chemical leavening agent n puff dough.

Puff pastry is traditionally made with butter because its gives a better flavor and a cleaner mouth feel. Lard or shortening can also be used, but it doesn't taste as good.

To begin the strenuous puff making process, you simply combine flour, salt, butter and water. Once you have a dough mass, you roll it out into a rectangle, wrap it, and store it in the fridge. Then you take your absurd amount of butter and roll it out to about haft the length and width of the dough. See, they trick you with the simple dough production and the rolling out of the butter. Now that the easy parts over, here come the lock-in process and the repetitive folding (lamination). You now have to place the butter on ½ of the dough and lock it in by folding the dough onto it. Roll it a little to seal the edges. After the initial fold (lock-in) the dough is wrapped and held in the refrigerator for 30 minutes in between folds. Either you can start with a three fold or a four fold, alternating between the two, and resting the dough in between that.
 
 

 
At the end of the day, you'll have an amazing dough that you can pretty much use for anything. Its can be used for savory applications, but it is the basis for a lot of popular pastries. Do Napoleons and Palmier ring a bell? Savory puff pastry items just cant compete with the sweet one, its sad but true.
 

Baumkuchen!!!

Baumkuchen, which literally translates to “Tree Cake” is a popular special occasion or wedding cake. It is associated with the former East German Town of Salzwedel as its place of origin in 1820. However the first recipe for Baumkuchen was printed in Ein New Kochbuch or “A New Cookbook” in 1581, so its safe to say the Baumkuchen was around long before that. There are a few variations on the origin of this tree cake, like it started as a Hungarian wedding cake, but because the name is German, this story isn't very likely.


Baumkuchen is also very popular in Japan, it is one of the most popular pastries over there. Its is favored as a present to wedding guests because of it resembles a ring. It was first introduced to japan by a German man named Karl Joseph Wilhelm Juchheim during World War I. During this time, Juchheim was in Tsingtao, China, and when the war ended he and his wife were taken to Japan by the Japanese Army. He started to make and sell the traditional German pastry at a exhibition in Hiroshima (1919). The success from the pastry in Hiroshima allowed Juchheim to expand and move to Yokohama where he oped a bakery. Unfortunately his bakery was destroyed in the Great kanto Earthquake of 1923. Soon after he moved his bakery to Kobe. Years after World War II, Jachheim wife came back to open a chain of bakeries under the Jachheim name with the help of a Japanese Company. The bakeries are still open today and have helped spread Baumkuchen throughout japan.

Baumkuchen is not a traditional cake at all. Most cakes consist of a batter that is poured into a tin mold of sorts and baked as a whole. Baumkuchen however consists of individual layers upon layers that are poured over a revolving hardwood roller (or spit) over a heat source like an open flame. Baumkuchen starts out as one layer, which is allowed to bake thoroughly before the next layer of batter is brushed on. This cycle is repeated over until it reaches an average of 15-20 layer. Some overzealous pastry chefs have been known to make Baumkuchen with up to 25 layers, weighing over 100 pounds, and being 4 feet long. This cake is so time consuming and labor intensive, it is referred to as the “King of Cakes”. It takes ridiculous skill to produce an actual Baumkuchen because when the cake is finished and sliced, the inside is supposed to resemble the growth rings of a tree trunk. Each individual layer is allowed to bake and reach a golden brown color, then another layer of batter is added and baked the same way. The separation in layers are visible like golden brown lines.

A traditional Baumkuchen is made with simple cake ingredients like flour, butter, and eggs with a 1:1:2 ratio, and then sugar, salt, and vanilla. One can also modify the recipe with the addition of ingredients like nuts, rum, brandy, honey, or marzipan. Baumkuchen is then cooled and finished with jam, and then covered in chocolate or vanilla frosting.

Most people have never seen or heard of Baumkuchen, luckily I had. I had the pleasure of siting in on a Baumkuchen demonstration performed by two of my chefs from school. I can honestly say it was one of the magical experiences of my life. It looks absolutely absurd, but the end result was unlike anything else I have ever seen. I'm a bit of a dork, but that demo pretty much made my year. However, I never got to taste it, so people feel free to send me some!