Sponge biscuits misbehave

[Baking Bad]

Many thanks for posting that video; my wife and I very much appreciate your generosity in making time; apart from anything else, we both liked the — shall we say — casual atmosphere of your kitchen (Right up our street, she remarked).

At the weekend, I will try to emulate your unusual and inspirational method of making puff pastry without ever refrigerating the dough between turns, which you clearly make work to stunning effect, and with such ease.

I was intrigued by your adding oil (a quarter of a cup, you say — would that be 60 milliliters?) to the détrempe which, presumably, makes the dough more elastic (?).

All the best and thank you again.

 

[retired baker]

Many thanks for posting that video; my wife and I very much appreciate your generosity in making time; apart from anything else, we both liked the — shall we say — casual atmosphere of your kitchen (Right up our street, she remarked).

At the weekend, I will try to emulate your unusual and inspirational method of making puff pastry without ever refrigerating the dough between turns, which you clearly make work to stunning effect, and with such ease.

I was intrigued by your adding oil (a quarter of a cup, you say — would that be 60 milliliters?) to the détrempe which, presumably, makes the dough more elastic (?).

All the best and thank you again.

you can add butter to the base dough, or margarine or oil, its lubrication, you can also leave it out but some sort of fat helps.
In the other video I added 4 oz of butter, but you can't tell the difference in the end. I avoid food snobbery, when chefs say 'I only use butter', I wonder whats in the deep fryer. Its kinda difficult to make mayonnaise without oil.

The method isn't unusual, even in Florida they did it the same way in massive batches, I watched a swiss baker use 50lb of butter in his batch, it was divided into 6 chunks of dough but impressive, using a rolling machine he made quick work of it.
He used ice water to chill the dough somewhat. Once you see something is possible you'll aspire to it, if your source of knowledge is limited to books it might never even dawn on you to try.

I have lots of free time, being retired in a rural northern location, theres nothing much to do, winters are bitter , average 10 feet of snow so we stay indoors and putter around.
I'm going to make some savory turnovers, bacon, onion, mushroom and swiss with a bit of balsamic to give a tang.
I'll shoot a video if I think of it.

 

[Baking Bad]

Yes, a video of your turnovers using the puff pastry you made yesterday would be great! Looking forward.

 

[retired baker]

Yes, a video of your turnovers using the puff pastry you made yesterday would be great! Looking forward.

working on the car now but I went and grabbed the ingredients.

 

[retired baker]

the measurements I posted are a just a random recipe I found on youtube, it turns out its not enough butter, I advise increasing the butter to equal the flour weight. The recipes I have are huge commercial batch size , I should have just scaled mine down.

I stored the dough on the back deck wrapped in plastic, the raccoons got into it...or something did.
I'll have to set the critter cam up and see what wild creatures are coming around, we have bears but I don't think its anything big.

 

[retired baker]

the dough, or what was left of it.

 

[Baking Bad]

Who would have thought? Not quite there yet, but my Puff Pastry jynx has been broken, thanks to the meticulous observance of your excellent demonstrations and advice.

Pictured are the cases and their respective fillings of Brie and Cranberries over Bechamel Sauce – Spinach, Walnuts, caramelized Onions and Goats' Cheese:

 

[Baking Bad]

Who would have thought? Not quite there yet, but my Puff Pastry jynx has been broken, thanks to the meticulous observance of your excellent demonstrations and advice.

Pictured are the cases and their respective fillings of Brie and Cranberries over Bechamel Sauce – Spinach, Walnuts, caramelized Onions and Goats' Cheese:
View attachment 4699
View attachment 4700

I should mention that I had given the pastry FIVE turns; the Larousse advocates seven ... Would seven have made the pastry rise more and be lighter?

 

[retired baker]

you could try it, the most I'd go is 6 turns.

on the bouches, the taller you make them the more they want to tilt sideways during the rise but theres an easy fix,

after you eggwash the top , if you put a sheet of baking paper over them and press it to stick to the tops it will keep them vertical as they bake. Remove the paper before they complete baking.