Learning about Puff Pastry- Palmiers & Croissants!

Have you ever made Puff Pastry? I hadn't until this week and I can now say I love it! Now let's just say though, it was not love at first sight! As you know, I am attending Le Cordon Bleu and have a brilliant Chef Instructor in the Baking & Pastry class- Holly Pugliese. She is an extremely accomplished baker and has the patience- and the humor

Chef Holly Pugliese

style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

to coach our group of non-baking culinary students. I get it. I can't be a Chef without knowing the funadamentals of making various doughs, breads, pastry etc. It is challenging but turns out it's fantastic. I have a new-found love for puff pastry. Now let's just say though, it was not love at first sight. You start with lumps of butter and a crumbling, falling apart mess of flour. And it's an enormous pile of flour. But then you start shaping and rolling it; folding and rolling some more. And you end up with this puffy masterpiece that you can turn into many different things. Magic. We concentrated this week on making Palmiers and a Galette. We also made apple turnovers and Croissant dough leading to Croissants! Making Palmiers was a revelation and it truly changed my view of what it means to bake and create sweet desserts. Here's the picture story- you'll see Chef Holly making the Croissant dough and incorporting the butter block above. The series of pictures above Chef Holly are of my palmier making process, as well as the final product- beautiful Palmiers. Altogether and very challenging but satisfying week!