Sunday, September 27, 2009

Daring Bakers Sept 2009 - Puff Pastry

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

In Steph's words, "Puff Pastry (aka pâte feuilletée) is something most of us usually buy at the grocery store, but in order to be really daring, we should make our own at least once in awhile, right? Kitchens should be getting cooler in the northern hemisphere, and are hopefully still cool-ish in the southern hemisphere, so I’m hoping you will all join me in making homemade puff pastry from Michel Richard’s recipe, as it appears in the book Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan. With our homemade puff we’ll be forming vols-au-vent cases to fill with anything we chose."

Hummm... Puff pastry? I've never given it much thought, but I'm a Daring Baker now so I gave it a whirl. In honor of the first day of Fall (Tuesday September 22), I decided to cut my puffs into the shape of leaves and acorns and fill with cinnamon apples. Welcome Fall.