Something to know about me, is that I love a challenge. I love learning new things. So when I left my job and was looking for hobbies to get into, I decided I’d fill some of my free time with baking from scratch!(I blame my husband who I’m now confident, set me up for this by putting Great British Bake Off into the list on Netflix and encouraged me to binge watch it.) Leave it to me to not start simple with something like a batch of chocolate chip cookies or a simple cake, no, never that. No, I decided that since I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and LOVE a good savory snack, let’s just jump in the deep end of the baking pool with no floaties and no lifeguard on duty! Ha! That’s me to a T. “I shall be the Poseidon of these buttery waves of pastry layers!” (Umm…not quite.)
A fun baking magazine I’d just picked up in hand, I decide – yes, this looks tasty, let’s make….savory morning buns! Which of course required me to make Danish pastry from scratch. Ok, can’t be that bad…pastry dough looks easy enough when I’m watching Great British Bake Off. Yes, I can feel the eye-rolls and hear your collective scoffing. And, yes, once you get the hang of it, it’s really not that bad, ok let’s be honest yes it is, AND in my opinion totally worth all the effort. However, what I failed to take into consideration that first time, was, how many times I’ve watched people have to start over when making pastry on those shows. Laminated pastry is not for the feint of heart!
I was trying to explain to my mom what I was making and she just went “Huh, why would you do that?” Lol, my mom is queen of the shortcut! So she’s not inclined to take several hours let alone multiple days just to make a pastry – especially if 2 days of that multiple days is just making the dough to get started on the thing that you’re ultimately trying to make.
After my first two attempts at making this pastry – I can’t say that I blame her.
To be fair, my first attempt had me not only learning how to make this pastry dough, but also setting up and using a stand mixer for the first time. Yep, challenges and mistakes made there. So, fail #1.
Attempt numero dos: the challenges with the mixer resolved, and mixer finally set up and calibrated properly, I then overworked the dough in the mixer because I trusted a little too hard in the recipe and its’ timings and instructions. Lesson learned, you can’t always trust a recipe. However, having no baking instinct to go off of, what else could I really do? I refused to be defeated by some dough! I figured one more attempt, and if that fails… well nothing wrong with a batch of chocolate chip cookies right?
Don’t get me wrong, I’d baked from scratch before, but my catalog extends to spiced oatmeal raisin cookies and a firecracker apple cake (Thank you Bon Apétit Magazine for that one! –Again though another example of right into the deep end, only 6 years ago – so that one we can blame on the overconfidence and exuberance of youth).
Attempt #3: SUCCESS! Or fingers crossed anyway. No real way to know until it was baked and I saw if I got the lovely laminated layers I spent so much time trying to build. But the dough was sexy this time and was actually worth attempting the folds unlike the first two attempts which ended up in the trash before we could even try to roll, fold, repeat. Lo, and behold….there was indeed success!
The next time I made them they turned out even better, because I knew more about what to look for and was able to achieve even better layers. The most recent batch of savory morning buns was my best yet, achieving great lamination and buttery flaky layer upon flaky layer. The biggest takeaway for me from learning the art of lamination is patience and keep it cold, the freezer is your friend!! That and I need to build up my upper body strength for all of the rolling involved!
You can see a story that follows the progression of making savory morning buns in our highlights on our Instagram profile for more pictures.
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