I often write blog entries in my head while I cook. While I was rolling out the dough and forming these pufflets, I was planning to tell you that I do not recommend this recipe. That it was my least favorite Dorie Greenspan recipe so far. That the dough was impossible to work with. (I was also thinking: God [bleep] damn it, this stuff [bleep] sucks, give me a [bleep] break.)
In other words, the dough was really sticky. It’s a mixture of pureed cottage cheese, butter, flour, and just a bit of sugar. It wasn’t very sweet, and honestly, just didn’t taste all that great as dough.
After the dough is chilled, it’s rolled out, cut into squares, filled with jam, folded to enclose the jam, and baked. And this is where I was getting so frustrated, because the dough was so. darn. sticky. The whole thing was turning into a mess, so I baked the few I’d formed and threw the rest back in the fridge to worry about later.
But then when I ate one, I changed my tune entirely! They’re so good! The crust does puff up and get really light, and it’s a good thing it isn’t too sweet, because of course the jam provides plenty of sweetness.
The resulting treats are just too good to give up on this recipe because of the sticky dough. I think the best advice is just to leave yourself plenty of time while working with the dough to refrigerate it as soon as it gets sticky. Dorie doesn’t recommend a chilling time between rolling the dough flat and forming the pastries, but I really think it’s best to add one, probably about an hour long. With that in mind, I think these will be a lot easier to work with.
Jacque has the recipe posted for Tuesdays with Dorie. I didn’t make any changes, but I did find that marmalade (the same ginger zucchini marmalade I used on the brioche tart) didn’t leak nearly as much as the raspberry jam I also used.
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Wow these look so good! I had to skip this week because we were out of town- but I’ll definitely be making them sometime in the near future. I’ll be taking your advice on the extra chilling time too!
I love the blog post you had running in your head as you were baking – soo funny!
I’m so glad to hear that despite all the hassle of working with this dough, it came out beautifully and you loved the taste of it!
I’m going to attempt to roll out the dough tonight, wish me luck! =)
I still have a bunch of dough in the freezer. And my internal monologue was much like yours. Those look yummy!
They look great, and definitely worth the effort (and [bleep] swearing!
Wow–yours look great!! I agree–they were absolutely delicious! The end result was so worth the effort.
i really liked these, too. worth the fuss, and a good chill makes it much easier. looks good!
Wow, this is such a great dessert. Looks yummy.
These look great! It sucks that the dough is so hard to work with but if it taste great the payoff may be worth it:)
Beautiful job and yours look perfect!
I love that green plate!! So pretty with your lovely pufflets.
They look Puff Daddy good! I hear you on the pain in the butt…I was mad at the dough but so glad they tasted good in the end!
Wow after so many negative reviews, I’m surprised to read yours!! May try this soon!
Whew! I’m relieved you changed your mind about these. I, too, sometimes have trouble with these sticky, cheesy doughs but refrigerating always seems to help, along with a dusting of flour when they get rolled out. They look like such tantalizing little bites.
I’m glad to hear that you ended up liking these after all. They look fantastic and I’d never know you had problems, looking at the pictures.
Thanks for baking along this week 🙂
They Where So Good And Tasted So Great Thanxx For The Recipe!!!! <3