recipe…3 sugar Palmiers

As I promised here is the recipe for:

Three-Sugar Palmiers (Palm Cookies)

Ingredients

1/2 cup each of Demerara, Azúcar Morena, and Sanding Sugars

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

2 sheets puff pastry
(I made my own a day ahead this time, and refrigerated it overnight.
But I have used pre-made frozen puff pastry many times, with good results.)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Combine the 3 sugars and kosher salt.

Pour 1 cup of the sugar/salt mixture on a flat surface such as wooden board or marble.

Unfold each sheet of puff pastry onto the sugar and pour 1/2 cup of the sugar mixture on top, spreading it evenly on the puff pastry.

Make certain that the pastry has an even covering of sugar.

With a rolling pin, using even pressure, roll across the dough until the sugar is pressed into the puff pastry uniformly.

Now with the tips of your finger, roll the sides of the square toward the center until you have what looks like 2 side-by-side “jelly-roll” shapes that meet in the middle.

Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes for easier slicing.


Slice the dough into 3/8-inch slices and place the slices, on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat silicone mat.

Bake the cookies for 6 minutes or until just caramelized and pale brown on the bottom.

Then turn with a spatula and bake another 3 to 5 minutes, until caramelized on the other side.

*** Watch these cookies carefully as they can very easily burn…!

If you have an older oven as I do, or are unsure about how hot your oven runs, get an inexpensive internal oven thermometer at the hardware store.
I got one last year about for $5.00 USD.

a tale of 3 sugars…

I was about to start baking Palmiers for Thanksgiving day and noticed that there was periously very little granulated sugar left in my cannister. Palmiers or Palm Leaf Cookies are made from Puff Pastry dough dough that is sprinkled with granulated sugar, folded or rolled and cut into thin strips.


I did have on hand ample amounts of Demerara, Azúcar Morena, and Sanding Sugar. Each of these sugars have different flavors and react slightly different to the heat of baking, but all are larger grained that than the common table or granulated sugar.

Demerara Sugar
Demerara is used as the generic name of a type of specialty raw cane sugar often used in home baking and in sweetening coffee and tea. Demerara is normally brown in color—the natural color of cane sugar.
Demerara has a coarse texture due to its large crystals. It takes its name from the Demerara colony in Guyana, the original source of this type of sugar, which is produced today mainly in Mauritius.
Demerara is a type of unrefined sugar with a large grain. Its colour is pale to golden yellow.
It comes from pressed sugar cane which is then steamed for the juice to form thick cane syrup. The syrup is dehydrated to form large golden brown crystals. As it is not refined much so it has a it is rich and creamy flavor and very crunchy texture.

Azúcar Morena Pure Cane Sugar
A granulized cane sugar common in Mexican regions that is processed into a fine textured sweetener. Slightly tannish-white in color, azúcar morena sugar provides a sweet caramel flavor when added to foods.

Sanding Sugar
Sanding Sugar has a grain slightly coarser than table sugar and is perfect for baking cookies because it does not melt like regular sugar.
It is also called pearl sugar or decorating sugar.
White sanding sugar is slightly silvery in color and "sparkles" because the sugar crystal grains are large and reflect light.


Armed with these three sugars I began the Palmiers, rolling the sugar mixture with a pinch of kosher salt into the Puff Pastry that I had made the night before. The layer of sugars looked like a sparkly fairyland with a soft sheen of the pale yellow Azúcar, the silver sparkle imparted by the Sanding sugar and the Demerara looking like zillions of tiny golden quartz crystals.

I made the Palmiers as usual, but as they baked, my house filled with an incredible aroma of caramel and vanilla.
The fragrance transported me immediately to my corner pâtisserie in Paris.


The taste of the Palmiers has also been transformed by use of the three sugars.
The wonderful part of eating Palmiers for me has always been that first incredible light and flaky bite with a gentle but satisfying crunch of the sugars. They were sweet, but I have to admit a bit bland.
These cookies had a bit crunchier mouth feel with the addition of the larger grains in this sugar combination, but it perfectly highlighted of the lightness puff pastry. They were also far more flavorful with soft and creamy buttery light caramel flavor with a slight vanilla back taste, and held the lovely fragrance that had perfumed my kitchen.

Clearly, the lack of granulated white sugar in my pantry forced me in discovering a new spin on a cookie that has been a favorite for years
all over the world.
Palmiers (palm cookie) recipe to follow tomorrow…

giving thanks...

Many thanks to my faithful blog readers, supporters and brand new readers.
I very much appreciate that you have taken the time to look at my photographs and read what I have written over the past 3 months.

I appreciate your comments very much, they really keep be going.

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you all...! ! !

Kitchen tip Tuesday…dicing through history…mirepoix

Most cooks know that mirepoix is the French name for the combination of onions, carrots and celery. In and effort to prepare ahead some of the ingredients for my Thanksgiving feast, I spent some time this morning chopping these three aromatics for the flavor base for some of my dishes.

A layer of these three humble vegetables, coarsely chopped and lightly sautéed in olive oil, is a perfect bed on which to roast my turkey. Chopped in a fine dice, used either raw, roasted or sautéed with butter or oil, you will find mirepoix in my Holiday dressing, sauces amd other side-dishes.

Traditionally, the ratio for mirepoix is 2:1:1 of onions, celery, and carrots, but I vary that according to taste of the recipe.

As I washed, peeled and chopped this morning, I wondered why this tridium of veggies was called mirepoix and if it meant different things in other types of cuisines.

My Food Lover’s Companion explained that there are many similar combinations, both in and out of the French culinary repertoire. Other combos may include leeks, parsnips, garlic, tomatoes, shallots, mushrooms, bell peppers, chilies, and ginger.

For the combination mirepoix au gras or Matignon, lardons or bacon are used as additional ingredients. When a mirepoix is used for making a fond blanc or white base, parsnips or pale mushrooms are substitued for carrots in order to keep the creamy color of the resulting dish.
I use fond blanc with mushrooms for making my white chicken stock that I use in risotto for that very reason.

In Cajun cuisine, a mirepoix is called “The Trinity” and is a combination of onions, celery and sweet bell peppers.

Soffritto is made both in Spain and Italy with similar ingredients, of anise seeds sautéed in pork fat then the aromatics of onions, green peppers, garlic are added. Soffritto means sub-fried, so the ingredients simmer in an emulsion of oil and very little water until the mixture becomes thick.

A chef at a local Hispanic restaurant explained to me that he makes Soffrito (slightly different spelling) with red onions, tomatoes and a Goya brand seasoning called Sazon. Sazon Goya is a mixture of salt, garlic, cumin, coloring, coriander, annatto, oregano, turmeric, black pepper, and lemon or bitter orange. He uses this savory starter that is also called a mir pua (mirepoix) as a base for Latin dishes

The Catalan sofregit of olive oil, tomatoes, and slowly carmelized onions is present in almost every sauced and stewed dish.

The town of Mirepoix in the Languedoc region

Mirepoix derives its name as many other elements of French cuisine from the patron of the chef who established it. My Oxford Companion to Food states that the chef de cuisine of the duc de Lévis-Mirepoix established the sautéed three vegetables that served as a basis for his culinary art. Since the 11th century this tridium of vegetables honors his patron.

Lévis-Mirepoix of the Languedoc region was a maréchal de France and ambassador of Louis XV.
The famed 19th century publisher Pierre Larousse called duc de Mirepoix “an incompetent individual…who owed his fortune to the affection that Louis XV felt for his wife.” Sounds as though Larousse had a major case of sour-grapes because he never had a any culinary combination or dish named after him.

I imagine that I will never look at the simple combination of carrots, onions and celery in the same way again, but as finely diced bits of history.

holiday surprise

Today I received a package in the mail.
I did not order anything, nor did I enter a contest, but there it was…
A beautiful, shiny new Wüsthof offset cheese knife…

WOW…!!!
Did you hear that loud thunk a few hours ago?
Well that was my jaw dropping…!

This cheese knife features an acid-etched blade to prevent cheese from sticking to the side of the blade. It was gorgeous to see and felt like an extension of my hand.
I had to try it out right away…!
Wrapping papers and box scattered, I gave the knife a bath in hot soapy water and a good rinse.
I then pulled out every cheese I had in my chill chest drawer and sliced away.

It was damn perfect…!
Firm cheeses and soft cheeses were sliced thick and sliced thin with my hand on this magical instument with barely an effort.

What a stunningly beautiful knife that handles like a dream and does what it says it does…slice cheese.
And it slices cheese perfectly.

Well…whoever is my magic and very generous gourmet elf, merci mille fois…!
I will thank you whenever I slice a Manchego or a Morbier, a Brie or a blue,
a Camembert or a Chevrotin du Mont Cenis…
and my guests will give thanks you, too.

Happy gourmet holidays...!

culinary pleasure: professional knife sharpening

"Get a knife that's balanced and weighted for you. There's no reason you shouldn't get fitted for a knife the way you get fitted for . . . a dress, a suit, or a pair of skis."
~ Tom Douglas, Seattle chef and restaurateur.

Nestled beneath the elevated train Green Line on Halsted and Lake Streets sits Northwestern Cutlery.
It has been rightly called "The Candy Store For Cooks".


This gem of a store is in a part of Chicago where restaurateurs used to do all their shopping for meat, fish and produce. Although it has an out-of-the-way location, it is easy to reach by the elevated train from most anywhere in the city and if you drive there, it has a super-convenient parking lot right next door.

I cannot think of a better recommendation for this store than that all of the restaurants, chefs, culinary students and meat markets in the surrounding west loop area come to Northwestern Cutlery for knife sharpening. Their prices are a bargain as they charge $3.50 for each knife.

I come here a few times a year to get my Le Cordon Bleu Wüsthof knifes expertly sharpened ”while I wait”. But for me, a consummate lover of all things related to food, I also come here to drool over and purchase a few of the very reasonably priced cookware, knives, kitchen gadgets and culinary supplies as often as my budget allows.

The carry a mind-blowing selection of the finest cutlery, at prices better than I have seen surfing the net for bargains.
The wide variety of knives includes Global, Henckels, Wüsthof, Mac, Shun, Masahiro, Kershaw Wasabi, and Messermeister. They also have a wall that is chock-full of colorful Victorinox Swiss Army knives.


They have the best prices on a great selection if cooks tools and other unique and often hard-to-find kitchen items (like fish spatulas and real crepe pans.)

I also found the best prices on my favorite, Le Creuset. I love the colorful enameled cast-iron cookware that comes from the foundry in Fresnoy-Le-Grand, France, since 1925.
This cookware has a worldwide reputation for its cooking excellence and the pieces are made to last a lifetime. They are safe for use in refrigerators and with all heat sources; gas, electric solid or radiant plates, vitroceramic glass, induction, and ranges fired by gas, oil, coal or wood.
I know where I am going to spend my “money from Santa” this year…

Northwestern Cutlery also supplies the culinary students at nearby Kendall College with their gear. They have a separate room for Chef Wear: chef jackets, shoes, pants, aprons, toques and hats.

When I arrived to have my Wüsthof knife-set sharpened there were several chefs and culinary students in line ahead of me. However, for a kitchen tool aficionado like me, there was so much to see so the 20-minute wait flew by in what seemed like seconds.
After my knives had their beauty treatment, I spent a great deal of time asking questions and talking to the very personable and very knowledgeable staff.



Eddie packing up my "babies" in their knive case after their beauty treatment and ready for Holiday slicing and dicing...

In particular, a man named Eddie, was more than helpful and very patient answering my questions on knife maintenance and care. He has worked at Northwestern for many years, assisting and educating customer and skillfully sharpening knifes for customers form celebrity chefs to humble home cooks like me.

He was also so kind to take out some of the most expensive knives in the store for me to photograph. Eddie gave me a bit of history about how and where each knife was forged and manufactured. These knives were gorgeous works of art, hand-crafted artifacts form another era but yet right here in front of me.

This kind of customer service and attention is rare today and was very welcoming and welcomed. I know from past experience and from local chefs that this is the norm at Northwestern Cutlery.

If you think Williams Sonoma or Sur La Table is a cook's mecca, here is a place where you can shop along side people who cook for a living and know where to find value and quality.

If you live in the Chicagoland area or planning a trip here soon and are crazy about food and kitchen tools, Northwestern Cutlery is well worth a visit. It is a great place to find a gift or a stocking-stuffer for the foodies on your Holiday gift list.
For those of you that live elsewhere in the foodie universe, they also have a marvelous website so you can visit from the comfort of your home.

Northwestern Cutlery
810 W Lake Street
Chicago, IL 60607
(312) 421-3666

kitchen tip Tuesday…a sharp knife is a safe knife

Your knife should always be sharp.

But when faced with a dull knife, use the portion of the blade that is closest to the handle. This part of the blade sees less use, it will be much sharper than the mid-portion of the blade that that gets a workout everyday. A small tip to help you work smarter and safer.

But as soon as you can, especially with the upcoming holiday season, when we foodie people cook to excess, do your self a favor and get your knives professionally sharpened…

a sharp knife is a safe knife...

It may seem like an excess expenditure in these days where everything seems to cost more, but it makes your work easier and much safer. And it saves time...more time to spend with your family and friends and less time spent in the Emergency Room.
Dull knives are the greatest danger in the kitchen.

my babies after their "beauty treatment"

Kitchen rant…
I was watching one of my favorite cooks on TV produce a complex recipe and she scraped the ingredients that she had just julienned with the blade end of her knife…screech…………..

EEEEEEK…!

She was using a beautiful and very expensive knife.
But I imagine on TV you can do that to your knives…sigh….
But in my world, in my small kitchen, that would be a major faux pas and mortal sin of the highest degree.

Bonus kitchen tip:
After slicing and dicing whatever you need to cut for your recipe, turn your knife over and use the knife’s spine side of the blade to scrape your cutting board into the vessel that is awaiting the ingredients.
Naturally, your knife will stay sharper and be safer much longer.

I imagine for me, this kitchen tip goes back to a basic premise.
As I strive to become a better cook with each dish that I do, as I try to learn to cook wonderful and tasty dishes, the bonus has been that I have learned to respect my ingredients.
In the process, I have also learned to respect and take very good care of my tool.

These are the very same tools that get my food to…the yummy and the "this tastes marvelous"
and the general chorus of "mmmmm's..." heard all around the table…!

My next post will be a field trip to Northwestern Cutlery, a Chicago culinary mecca and my friendly neighborhood professional knife sharpener.

Do not miss it…!