The Baking Answer Book (42 page)

3.
Transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer on low to beat in two of the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Do not overmix. The mixture should fall slowly from the beaters when they are lifted from the bowl, loose enough to pipe, but not runny. If it is too thick, stir in a little water until it is the proper consistency.

4.
Scrape some of the choux paste into a pastry bag fitted with a large (about ¼-inch) plain tip, filling it halfway. Pipe 1½-inch mounds of pastry onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each mound. Lightly beat the remaining egg and brush egg wash onto each pastry mound.

5.
Bake the puffs for 15 minutes, turn down the heat to 350°F (180°C) without opening the oven door, and bake until golden brown and dried inside, about 20 minutes. Turn the oven off. Use a sharp paring knife to make a ¾-inch slit in the side of each hot puff to release any steam. Return the puffs, still on the baking sheet, to the oven and let stand for 10 minutes to dry out. Transfer the puffs to a wire rack to cool completely.

6.
Whip the cream, vanilla, and the 1½ tablespoons confectioners’ sugar until it holds soft peaks. Split each cream puff in half with a serrated knife. Fill the bottom half of each puff with a dollop of whipped cream and replace the top half. Dust the cream puffs heavily with powdered sugar just before serving. Filled cream puffs will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 hours.

Q
Some cream puff and éclair recipes instruct you to drag the tines of a fork through the brushed-on egg wash before baking them. Is this purely decorative or is there another purpose?

A
Some cracking on the surface of cream puffs and especially éclairs (because of their elongated shape) can occur during baking. Dragging the tines of the fork along the surface will encourage the cracking to occur along those lines, making a decorative design.

Q
Can I make cream puffs if I don’t have a pastry bag?

A
Yes. Just drop mounds of the pastry onto a parchmentlined baking sheet instead of piping them. Use your index finger, moistened with cold water, to smooth each one into an even round.

Q
My cream puffs collapsed. What did I do wrong?

A
If they collapsed in the oven, you may have overloaded your baking sheet. Placing the pastry mounds too close together may cause them to deflate while baking. To prevent this from happening, be sure to leave at least 2 inches of space between the puffs when you pipe them. Or you may have opened the oven door early in the baking, when the structure
of the puffs wasn’t yet solidified. A blast of colder air might have caused the collapse of the not-quite-set puffs.

If your puffs collapsed as they cooled, then you probably took them out too soon. Cream-puff pastry that hasn’t dried completely will fall in on itself as it cools.

Q
I made twelve cream puffs, and I have six left over. Can I save them?

A
If you will be using them within a day, store leftover unfilled puffs in a resealable plastic bag at room temperature. Or freeze them for up to 2 weeks before defrosting them on the countertop (this will take less than an hour) and reheating them in a 350°F (180°C) oven for 5 minutes to refresh them. Then let them cool and proceed with your recipe.

Q
What exactly is phyllo dough? Is it related to puff pastry?

A
Phyllo (sometimes called “fillo” or “filo”) is a tissue-thin dough made from flour, water, egg, and oil. It originated in Greece, thus the name, which is Greek for “leaf.” Although it is possible to make it at home, it’s difficult to roll out the dough as thin as store-bought. Virtually all recipes in American cookbooks call for store-bought dough, which is widely available in the freezer section of most supermarkets and at Greek and Middle Eastern specialty foods stores. Rolled
up, it is packaged inside long narrow boxes like the ones that hold spaghetti.

Famous for its use in Greek dishes like spanokopita (spinach pie) and Middle Eastern specialties such as baklava, phyllo dough can be layered with melted butter and then baked to approximate puff pastry, but the differences in texture and character are significant. While a tart shell made with puff pastry is flaky, it has a yielding quality to it, a tenderness that is absent in baked phyllo dough. Phyllo, in contrast, is all crisp flakes with none of the softness of puff pastry. Although phyllo puffs slightly in the oven, due to the steam coming off of the melted butter, it doesn’t reach the heights of puff pastry, with its solid butter layers.

Q
What is the best way to defrost frozen phyllo dough?

A
Keep phyllo dough in its package and defrost it in the refrigerator overnight. In my experience, phyllo dough that is too cold will crack when unrolled. It’s a good idea to take the dough out of the refrigerator before you are ready to use it, and let it stand, still in its box, at room temperature for 30 minutes, to prevent cracking. Be aware that phyllo dough is extremely delicate, and even when handled with care it tends to break and crack. To be safe, always buy twice as much phyllo as you think you will need, so when this happens you won’t be caught short.

Q
When I take the dough out of the box, what’s the best way to prevent it from drying out?

A
Phyllo dough will dry out almost at the instant it comes in contact with air. So before you even open the box of dough, make sure that you have all of your other ingredients — your melted butter, your fillings — ready to go. Dampen two clean kitchen towels. Spread one of them out on your work surface and carefully unwrap and unroll the dough onto the towel. Quickly cover the dough with the other towel. Sandwiched this way, the dough should stay pliable. After you remove a sheet from the stack, quickly replace the towel to prevent drying.

Don’t rush, but work purposefully and as quickly as you can, because time is against you when it comes to phyllo. The longer the dough sits out, even under damp towels, the better the chance that it will dry out before you are done.

Q
I followed the instructions for thawing and unwrapping phyllo dough to a tee, but when I unrolled the sheets, every single one of them cracked into three or more pieces. Did I do something wrong?

A
Just as important as proper handling is careful purchasing. Buy your phyllo dough at a store where you know there is a high turnover, such as a busy gourmet shop or Greek specialty foods store. Phyllo dough that languishes in a supermarket freezer for more than a few weeks will become impossibly dried out even if properly packaged and stored.

Q
My equipment and ingredients are organized, my dough is unwrapped. Now what?

A
Most phyllo dough recipes will instruct you to remove a sheet of phyllo from the stack, brush it with melted butter and perhaps sprinkle it with sugar and maybe some ground nuts, lay another sheet on top of this one, and repeat the process until you have as many layers as you need. The melted butter will keep the dough soft and pliable, so there’s less of a worry that the dough layered this way will dry out when you start to work.

Use a soft-bristled pastry brush to brush on the butter, making sure that you butter all the way to the edges. Once the entire sheet is lightly moistened with butter, stop. If you put too much butter between the layers your finished pastry will be greasy.

Don’t panic if occasionally one of the phyllo leaves develops a small crack. If you are concerned about larger cracks in the dough, brush some butter over the crack and then place a smaller piece of dough on top to patch it. Don’t forget to butter the patch after you place it on top. You may find, when you unroll your dough, that each piece is cracked in the same spot. If this is the case, take care to turn the pieces as you layer them, so your finished pastry won’t have a large crack running through it.

It’s a good idea to work on top of a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper. Not only will it prevent the dough from sticking to the counter, but also it will help when you roll and fold the dough after it is filled, if that’s called for. By lifting and shifting the paper, you’ll be able to manipulate the delicate pastry without poking holes through it with your fingers.

Q
If some of the sheets crack as I’m using the dough, should I discard them, or is there some use for cracked and torn phyllo dough?

A
Try this: Let the dough dry completely on the counter for several hours or overnight. Then crumble it with a rolling pin or crush it in a food processor and use the phyllo crumbs instead of breadcrumbs for coating chicken breasts or fish fillets before pan-frying. You’ll get a deliciously crisp and unbelievably light crust. You don’t have to use the crumbs immediately, by the way. Place them in a resealable plastic bag and freeze them until you need them.

Q
Can I freeze leftover phyllo dough?

A
The package will tell you to rewrap and refreeze leftover dough, but in my experience refrozen dough always dries out and becomes unusable. Wrap the dough in plastic and keep it in the refrigerator for a few days if you think you will have a need for phyllo in the near future.

Q
Can I freeze pastries made with phyllo dough?

A
Yes — before baking. Phyllo dough pastries are perfect do-ahead desserts. Unbaked, they freeze beautifully,
wrapped well in several layers of plastic wrap. To bake, just unwrap and place on a baking sheet. There’s no need to defrost the pastries, just put them directly into the hot oven. If you are planning on holding the pastries just for a day or two, you can wrap them and refrigerate them instead of freezing them.

Baked phyllo dough pastries are best eaten soon after they are baked, because the crisp leaves of dough will begin to soften within hours. The exceptions are syrup-soaked phyllo pastries like baklava, which will keep at room temperature, well wrapped, for up to 10 days.

Q
What is strudel, and does anyone ever make it at home?

A
Strudel is a long, rectangular pastry made from many layers of very thin dough wrapped around a sweet or sometimes savory filling, sprinkled with breadcrumbs, and baked until the pastry is golden and crisp. The pastry is then cut crosswise into individual servings. Traditional strudel dough is made by mixing and kneading a dough made from bread flour (which is high in gluten), eggs, oil, and water and then slowly and carefully pulling and stretching it on all sides until the dough is paper-thin. High-gluten flour prevents the dough from tearing as it is pulled. At least four hands are needed for the project. Two bakers work together, pulling and stretching the dough over a floured table and moving frequently around the table in order to stretch the dough evenly into a very large sheet.

It is rare to find people who uphold this tradition; instead, bakers who want to make strudel at home use phyllo dough, which is widely available and very similar in taste and texture to traditional strudel dough when baked. If you are a fanatic for authenticity, it will please you to know that the strudel recipes first developed in Austria and Hungary hundreds of years ago were in fact inspired by baklava, a Turkish dessert made by layering phyllo dough with sugar, chopped nuts, and spices.

Q
My strudel came out beautifully, but when I tried to slice it the pastry shattered and the slices looked terrible. Is there a way to cut this pastry so the servings are intact?

A
Try lightly scoring the strudel with the tip of a paring knife, taking care not to cut through the dough, before you put it in the oven. The score marks will create weakened spots on the pastry, where you will be able to cut through it without a mess.

CHAPTER 10
Yeast Breads

Compared to recipes for cakes, pies, cookies, and even biscuits, most bread recipes have enviably short ingredient lists — in many cases just flour, water, yeast, and salt. Yet even the most avid home bakers are often happy to leave bread baking to the professionals. Some have been scared off by myths about the difficulties of baking bread successfully. Some have had a bad experience with a homemade whole-wheat bread that was heavy enough to function as a doorstop.

Many bread-baking books describe the process in scientific terms that a Nobel prizewinner might have trouble understanding. These explanations can mystify rather than enlighten. In researching bread, I often came across questions such as, “If the osmotic pressure exerted by salt does not significantly change the fermentation rate of the dough, why does the dough rise so much more slowly when salt is added?” Most home bakers, including myself, are more likely
to wonder, “My Dad is on a low-salt diet. Can I leave out the salt in the bread I’m making for him?” The two questions are related, but the second one is posed in terms that are relevant to someone contemplating baking a loaf of bread at home. I sometimes felt as if my head would explode as I tried to understand bread baking in scientific terms; but in the end, I was happy to gain a better understanding of the science behind bread, because it meant I made fewer mistakes when baking.