Though I’m technically onto another project, it’s hard to say no to more questions about butter. The topic is just that interesting. Reader Austin asks:
You mentioned that winter butter has more saturated fat in it than summer butter. Why?
Great question. The reason is simply because pasture grasses have more unsaturated and polyunsaturated fats in them [...]
Reader Nicole writes:
You mention in several places the importance of relatively dry butter, and it got me thinking – could you make laminated dough with cooled browned butter, since the cooking process will drive off some water? How about something more solid at room temperature, like cocoa butter or coconut oil (the kind that comes [...]
Reader Diane offers a flurry of interesting questions:
I was under the impression that salted butter has more water content than unsalted butter. I may be wrong. And it seems you wanted drier butter for Kouign Amann. So why not use unsalted butter in Kouign Amann? Also when buying salted butter I do not know how [...]
So what’s winter butter? That’s a good question, and the answer is pretty much what you’d think: butter that’s produced in the wintertime. However it isn’t just cold weather that effects the texture of butter, it’s the winter diet of the dairy cows who give the milk. On a traditional farms, cows graze in the [...]
For all those who’ve put off getting their hands dirty with laminated doughs, kouign amann is a great place to start. Somewhere between a bread and a Danish, it only requires a couple of “turns” of the dough, and they need not be perfect. This is a rustic pastry, so your standards need not be [...]
It isn’t possible to make it in America. At least not as it’s made in Brittany. The reason: ingredients. Traditionally, kouign amann is a layered (laminated) pastry with a special difference: it’s got sugar layered into it along with butter. This is a major no-no where laminated doughs are concerned, at least in America. Why? [...]
This week we’re off to the Middle East, the region where — most historians agree — the first layered pastries were invented. Laminated sweets have come a long way since then, but they still don’t get much more decadent than kouign amann, a Lebanese speciality so sweet and delicious that…oh no wait, that isn’t right.
If [...]
Been under the weather the last couple of days and haven’t gotten much pastry work done. Back with finished tiramisu on Monday.
Next month will mark the debut of the new film Kings of Pastry, a documentary that chronicles the run-up to the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition in Lyon. It’s a sure bet that it will clean up in the Baking & Pastry category at this year’s Cannes Film festival, and from there, well, who knows? [...]