Tuesday, September 22, 2009

TWD: Cottage Cheese Pufflets

First, can I start out by saying that hosting was so much fun! The validation of all the comments made my low self-esteem rise just a bit for the week. I'll get to do it again in about a year and a half. ;-) Seriously, thanks for all the great comments. Seems the recipe I chose was a winner.

Now on to this week. I really liked the finished product. All two of them that actually came out... This was a TOUGH recipe in execution. In theory, it's simple. Just whir together some ingredients in the processor, chill your dough, roll, and then bake.

If only.

My food processor is a big one -- 14 cups. I had to make the full recipe of dough or it wasn't happening. In hindsight, I should have used my (slightly hated) mini prep and quartered the recipe. The butter kept creeping up on top of the blade and I had to stop a zillion times to push it down. The rest of the ingredients went in just fine. I got my VERY sticky dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and I put it in the fridge. Four hours or so later, I took out a quarter of the dough and rolled it out in a plastic bag. (The rest was well wrapped and put into the freezer) The bag went into the freezer. After what I had read from other bakers I figured it was a safer bet.

In the time that it took me to cut the three edges of the plastic bag off, the dough had become soft. Back into the freezer. Then I realized that it was too thick. Now I put it between two sheets of plastic wrap, rolled some more, and then it went back into the freezer. It came out, I cut it into squares, and.... it was already too cool and wouldn't transfer to the pan. I got two squarish pieces, I dabbed some jam in them, and then I dumped the rest of the dough onto the pan.

They baked. They browned. They were delicious! They were, however, such a huge pain to work with that I'm not sure what to do with the rest of the dough. Any suggestions? What bummed me out is that I've done a recipe for cottage cheese pastry before and it was much easier to work with. Maybe I'll post that one later in the week.

Here are the two that actually came out shaped and filled.

Here is the "dumped" set. I scored them on the plastic wrap and tried to separate them. Didn't work. So I just turned it out onto the parchment and dabbed some jam on.

Anyway, we liked the flavor. Even the dumped and topped ones. Oh, I used some cherry jam that I made with this recipe from David Lebovitz.

Thank you to Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes for getting us to try something new. Go check out her blog to see what these are supposed to look like.

*** Edited to add: I just looked at my other recipe. It calls for the same amount of butter and cottage cheese but two cups of flour. I think that extra 1/3 of a cup makes a huge difference in handling.

22 comments:

ostwestwind said...

Better two shaped than none :-)


Ulrike @Küchenlatein

Megan said...

Oh yeah - I'm feeling your pain BIG TIME.

Life's too short to wrestle with dessert!

betty geek said...

I like your pick better than Jacque's. Ha!

I didn't care too much for cottage thing anything and I heard the dough was way too labor-intensive for the end result. Good thing I used phylo dough for mine instead.

You are so dedicated and I can tell by your pictures. Nice work.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

The homemade jam looks and sounds wonderful! My dough was fairly manageable with lots of fridge and freezer time, but still not really worth the effort, unfortunately. 1/4 recipe would have been perfect in the mini, 1/8 recipe wasn't enough.

I'd prob put more flour in your remaining dough and make turnovers.

cakeflower said...

Mine looked that too! Still tasted good...and my kids will eat anything.

Jacque said...

LOL, I had the same trouble with the food processor even with my medium sized machine. The dough was unruly all around.

Way to be a trooper and stick with it!

Flourchild said...

Yep the dough was a pain but they tasted good..pretty much what everyone is sayin!!

Cakelaw said...

Glad you enjoyed hosting - the turnovers were delicious. I am with you on this dough, except that I wasn't that keen on the taste, at least with a sweet filling.

Kayte said...

OMW, I love the photo of the dropped and topped ones...LOL. The two perfect ones look just that...perfect! These tasted good, but way too fussy for those of us around here. And, yes, you did a terrific pick...I had to make them again as the guys loved them so much!

Pamela said...

Well, at least you made them. I just decided I wasn't doing it. Seems lots of people had trouble with the dough, but still enjoyed the end product. Good for you for making them!

Unknown said...

mine were the same! i didn't even try to form them. i think they would be really good in mini muffin cups as little tart shells filled w/jam...

mike said...

Hey - it's better to get at least one or two good ones to photograph and "fool" everyone in thinking they all looked like that! :) Glad you added homemade jam - it looks and probably tastes much better than jarred! Nicely done!

margot said...

They turned out great, sorry the dough was so troublesome. I almost made a half recipe rather than a quarter since I new a quarter would be a pain in the FP. I've been thinking of getting a mini processor, not worth it?

Hindy said...

Isn't it interesting how the misshapen ones always taste so good?
On to better things next week!

Jacque said...

Sometimes you just gotta punt, LOL. Sorry these gave you so much trouble. They were challenging that's for sure.

Thanks for being a trooper and baking along this week :)

Anonymous said...

Your 2 pufflets look perfect! =) I like the idea of just dabbing jam on the squares and baking as-is. It might have turned out prettier for me...
I loved the flaky apple turnovers!! I definitely plan on making those again!!

Madam Chow said...

I am definitely looking forward to seeing a cottage cheese pastry that's easier to work with!

spike. said...

The taste is what matters, right?!

TeaLady said...

Yes, it was hard to work with. but your two good ones look perfect.

Jaime said...

I agree that it was a lot of work!! good idea to add more flour...that might help

Liz said...

Thanks for the advice about adding flour! I wanted these to work well, so if I try them again I'll definitely use 2 cups of flour.

April said...

I think the extra flour probably makes it much easier to work with like you said. When I try this again I'm going to add the extra flour.