Puff Pastries at SFBI

Day 4 at the San Francisco Baking Institute had us rolling out (or sheeting for those in the bakery biz) our puff pastry.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of the big sheeting machine we used, so just imagine that I rolled out a 6 foot long, 3 mm thick layer of partially frozen dough using only the strength of my forearms.

Yeah, right.

After sheeting, we rolled out our puff, cut it into 3 sheet pan lengths, then rolled Palmiers coated with sugar, folded turnovers filled with homemade apple butter, and baked one sheet whole, with another sheet pan on top, to make mille feuille for Napoleans.

Again, I don`t have a picture of the turnovers after we egg washed them (BAD!), but we did learn to put a little bit of coffee extract in with the yolks — this ensures a beautiful, dark golden finish to your product.

The mille-feuille looked very dark when it came out of the oven, but after one bite of the finished Napolean, I discovered that the dark brown mille-feuille provides a perfect contrast to the overpowering richness and sweetness of the cream.

Loaded down with our pastries, we rolled ourselves out of class to make our way back to our hotel rooms.

One day to go, and we still have several tarts and quiches to make!