Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Cottage Cheese Pufflets (TWD)


This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Jacque of Daisy Lane Cakes : Cottage Cheese Pufflets. I don't normally eat cottage cheese - I've actually never even tried it. The texture just seems so weird to me that I don't want to try it. But seeing as the cottage cheese is blended into the dough in this recipe, I was willing to give it a try. So this was technically my first time trying cottage cheese :)


The dough is simple enough to make, as long as you have a food processor. Working with the dough, however, was extremely difficult for me. Despite refrigerating the dough overnight, I found that it would warm up and soften much too quickly for my liking. I had to roll it out, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes, and then that would only buy me a few minutes to make a few pufflets before I had to put it back in the freezer. This resulted in a very long and drawn out process... (I even cut my block of dough into 4 pieces instead of 2, working with less dough each time to avoid having to re-roll the dough out in several batches.)


The result? The dough was slightly flaky but a buttery soft, melt in your mouth kind of texture. It was quite delicious and well worth the struggle. I'm not sure how puffy these pufflets were supposed to get, but regardless they were delicious.

I ended up doing two different variations... with half the dough I made triangular pufflets just like Dorie instructs you to. With the other half of the dough I simple folded the edges in and left some preserves exposed. I found that using this method allowed me to get a higher preserves to pastry ratio which I prefer. (Dorie calls these cookies but I think they're more like pastries.)


I made some with orange marmalade and some with apricot preserves. After making several kinds of pastries, I've come to the conclusion that my favorite fruit filled pastry is one with apricot preserves. So if you made yours with another type of preserve, I encourage you to try this recipe with apricot preserves :)


Thanks Jacque, for picking this recipe. I loved the pufflets and they were all gone by the end of the day (I hate to admit it, but my husband only had a few and I ate the rest!) If you would like the recipe, you can find it here. Make sure you check out the TWD Blogroll, to see how everyone else enjoyed these pufflets.

* Recipes notes:
- I did not poke a hole in my pufflets to vent them and they turned out just fine.
- I would definitely recommend cutting your refrigerated dough into 4 pieces, working with just one piece and leaving the rest in the fridge while you assemble the first batch of pufflets. Make sure you put the dough back in the fridge or freezer if it gets too soft, otherwise it is impossible to work with (also results in very messy fingers!)
- I baked mine for 12-14 minutes, just slightly longer than indicated.

- For more tips, click here.

18 comments:

  1. I like the one you folded to expose the filling. Really pretty. I was too lazy to bake this week, but I wish I had just to taste these. Great job.

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  2. Ahh, those pufflets!! Yet another nostalgic treat for me :-D

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  3. Gorgeous and yummy! Love your folded ones. And how smart--more filling! That's kind of why I used 1/4 of the dough for a nice (about 5 inch) galette. I'm liking it better because it has more stuff. (Although I LOVE flaky, crusty stuff.)
    My husband (you'll see from the title of my post) doesn't even like to hear the words "cottage cheese" or he cringes! It really isn't a pretty food! ;) Great Job, Jaime!

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  4. I'm telling ya... this girl has danish genes!!! I'm sure you do and don't know it! LOL LOL

    Those are amazing! Bravo!

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  5. I love how you converted these into little jam filled wonders! They look adorable with your new folding style! You really saved this recipe :P

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  6. Looks good Jaime! I hate to disagree with you but I think raspberry or cheese is the way to go, er fill! :)

    How are you and baby doing? Hope all is well!
    ~ingrid

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  7. nice way to break into cottage cheese consumption, jaime! the pufflets (what a great name) look perfect!

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  8. Great job! I prefer the way you folded them... kolachy style!

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  9. I really love how you shaped your puffs or pastries. They look beautiful!

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  10. They look great! I like your folding method. Glad that you liked them so much!

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  11. What a great way to fold your pufflets! They look beautiful! You're not the only one who had trouble with your dough, I've read several blogs about it... I'm glad you enjoyed these, and that the trouble was worth it for you in the end!

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  12. Your pufflets look just amazing! Great job!

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  13. Nice job, Jaime! I love the way you shaped yours. And apricot jam sounds fabulous as a filling.

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  14. Oh, how cool! I think you changed these for the better. They look fantastic! I'm glad you enjoyed them.

    Thanks for baking along this week :)

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  15. I wish I would have though to turn just the two corners up! I love more jam in them! Next time!

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  16. What a great way to eat cottage cheese for the first time!! LOL!! They look scrumptious Jaime, so soft and delicious!

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  17. Those look delicious. I found that they weren't worth the effort. Maybe with more flour...

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  18. Oooh these look and sound just perfect! I'm not a big cottage cheese person, but like this I probably could be :)

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