Sugar High Fridays 5 Round-up

I can't tell you how excited and relieved I am to see so many entries for this month’s Sugar High Fridays event.  After all, practically everyone is up to their heads in work this time of year, and puff pastry was certainly one of the most challenging themes to date.

In spite of all this, 31 bloggers from around the world rose to the occasion to create 39 fabulous desserts using puff pastry. 

So without further delay, I present to you the entries in the order they were received.

Our first entry comes from Zarah Maria of Food & Thoughts, who is quite literally ahead of her time.  After preparing her Richmond Maids of Honour a full week ahead of schedule, she later made a delicious Apple Galette from her remaining puff pastry.

Keiko of Nordljus brings us a most elegant creation that’s the photographic negative of classic chocolate-filled mille-feuille.  She sandwiches a luscious orange-infused vanilla pastry cream between flaky layers of chocolate puff pastry, which she made from scratch.  Be sure to check the other photos on her site.  They’re among the most beautiful and vibrant I’ve seen on any blog.

In San Francisco, Jeanne from World on a Plate prepares a beautifully rustic Quiche.  But realizing she hasn’t used any sugar, she quickly improvises to make an attractive set of chocolate croissants, and chocolate with orange zest turnovers. 

We travel to Lombardia, Italy to find Rowena of Rubber Slippers in Italy with a majestic Pear in Puff Pastry with Cinnamon Pudding in Wine sauce (Pera in pasta sfoglia con budino alla cannella).  Impressive in both taste and appearance, this is certainly a dessert you’ll want to have ready for special occasions.

Linda of Babyhippo Bakes brings a plate of Mini Blueberry Galettes to the table.  Her small rounds of puff pastry topped with blueberries look jewel-like and delicious.

Next up, Sue of KookyKookbook brings us Baked Brie in Puff Pastry with Honey Walnut Sauce. The combination of the crispy pastry, soft brie, and crunchy walnuts sounds divine.

From Tokyo, Lynn of To Short Term Memories experiments with Portuguese Egg Tarts, a reincarnation of the traditional Chinese dessert.  It all looks so wonderful.  Her puff pastry is made from scratch, and her custard has the colour of a golden sunset.

Soon to be available at a restaurant near you:  Cannoleons!  Julie of A Finger in Every Pie has combined the Cannoli and Napoleon to create this delicious dessert of puff pastry filled with cannoli cream.  She’s paired the cannoleons with a beautiful side of blood oranges poached in thousand-flower honey-Grand Marnier syrup.

In Los Angeles, Nicole of Baking Sheet makes us Sfogliatine con Crema di Mascarpone, a mouthwatering layering of chocolate puff pastry and Amaretto mascarpone cream.  It looks like an elegant after dinner dessert, but Italy it’s actually eaten for breakfast.

Over in Stockholm, Sweden, Anne of Anne’s Food was triumphant in overcoming her apprehension of puff pastry, and made delicious Petis Pains au Chocolat.  Her recipe includes detailed instructions for making her beautiful yeasted puff pastry.

Alice of My Adventures in the Breadbox makes sweet and simple Puff Pastry Cut-Outs just in time for Valentine’s Day.  Adding a few macerated strawberries, some whipped cream, and Grand Marnier makes this an adorable dessert to share with someone special.

Back in the UK, Moria of Who Wants Seconds? shares with us her Valentine’s Day-themed dessert of Vanilla Ice Cream with Pomegranate Molasses & Puff Pastry Hearts.  The trio of the ice cream, pomegranate molasses, and crisp puff pastry looks and sounds wonderful.  And surprisingly, she made her ice cream without using an ice cream maker.

In Ann Arbor, Michigan, Allison of Jinjurly provides a step-by-step pictorial guide to making Palmiers.  Quick and simple, but oh so delicious.

Johanna of the Passionate Cook always makes some of the most delectable and unique dishes around.  Her beautiful Baked Apple & White Chocolate Mousse Millefeuille, based on a dessert she had in Vienna is no exception.  Also included in her post are links to several other puff pastry recipes she’s previously cooked and written about.

From Paris, Melissa of the new and delectable Banlieu Blog brings us a spectacular creation of parma ham, fresh pear, and Brie de Meaux enclosed in homemade puff pastry.  This is definitely something I’d like to try making myself someday.

Andrew of the UK wine blog Spittoon improvises from his cupboard and offers a selection of two splendid desserts.  The first is a Baked Custard Filled Apple with Meringue Topping and Puff Pastry Straws.  Fearing that he would be “forever shunned and ridiculed by the Sugar High Friday fraternity” because the main ingredient wasn’t puff pastry, he later made a Cinnamon Spiked Baked Apple Puff Pastry Custard Slice.  Andrew – either dessert is good enough for me, but I’d recommend that you send all of us a sample as a precaution against future shunning :) 

From France, Requia of Chez Requia brings three magnificent fruit-filled pastries:  des Minis Chaussons aux Pommes (Mini Apple Turnovers), des Feuilletés aux Abricots (Apricots in Puff Pastry), and des feuilletés Belle-Hélène (Belle-Hélène Wrapped in Puff Pastry).  Each one looks so delicious and perfect.

Mia of the Skinny Epicurean brings us the best of both worlds in her Puffy Egg Tarts by successfully combining the flaky puff pastry base in a Portuguese egg tart, with the smooth and shiny filling of a Hong Kong egg tart.

Using recipes from Pierre Hermé and Thomas Keller, Alan and Jenny of Sweet & Savory created two mouthwatering mille-feuilles in their quest to make the ultimate puff pastry.  They first attempted Mille-feuilles de Chocolat à la Banane, and later made Puff Pastry with Whipped Ganache.  They’ve also gone to great lengths to provide recipes, including detailed instructions for making Pierre Hermé’s Carmelized Chocolate Puff Pastry.

Winnie of Hodge Podge Kitchen serves up Puff Pastry 3 Ways by filling puff pastry with mangos and whipped cream, chocolate and hazelnuts, and lemon sorbet.  I was quite surprised at the combination of sorbet and puff pastry, and it turns out it was the best of the three fillings.

Kirsten of DomestiGirl makes Lemon Sabayon Raspberry Cups.  The molten sabayon, crispy puff pastry and raspberries look like a very nice combination.

Fellow Canadian, Liz of Truffle Mutt brings us a spectacular Bananas Foster Napoleon.  Her creation layers bananas foster and caramel pastry cream in between circles of sugared puff pastry.  She tops everything off with a luscious scoop of coconut whipped cream.  Like myself, Liz also had great results in making Pierre Herme’s inside-out puff pastry.

Owen of Tomatilla, who’s also the energetic founder of the Paper Chef competition, serves up a quick and delicious dessert just in time for Valentine’s Day, that he calls Love Puffs.  The raspberry-blood orange sauce looks and sounds magnificent.

Our previous SHF host, Viv of Seattle Bon Vivant succeeds in dazzling us yet again with her Rose Petal Tart which she made in the midst of her busy, yet fascinating life.  The puff pastry tart base is topped with whipped cream and rose-flavoured yogurt before being garnished with pristine crystallized rose petals.  Incredibly elegant and very delicious, I’m sure.

Jennifer of the Domestic Goddess, founder of Sugar High Fridays, fellow Torontonian, and baker extraordinaire brings us two delectable puff pastry creations.  Her Chocolate Turnovers and Palmiers are both relatively simple, but are ‘utterly scrumptious.’ 

From my hometown of London, Ontario, Canada comes Christine of I Like to do Stuff with her creative Deconstructionist Tarte Tatin.  I can imagine that the combination of baked apples, twisted puff pastry, and ice cream would be a very comforting and delicious dessert.

From sunny Melbourne, Australia, Niki of Esurientes writes about the legacy of Aussie Vanilla Slice, a staple of Australian cuisine.  She also compares her homemade version to one that’s commercially available – and her’s wins hands down. 

Alberto of Il Forno, and founder of the Is My Blog Burning? empire brings a splendid Millefoglie con panna allo zabaione to the table.  The layers of puff pastry sandwiching zabaglione whipped cream look wonderful, and the sprinkling of hazelnuts and the addition of caramel stripes are touches of perfection.

Jeanne of Cook Sister!, and co-founder of End-of-Month-Egg-on-Toast-Extravaganza makes a delightful Valentine’s Cherry Millefeuille.  The combination of cherries, and cherry-flavoured whipped cream sandwiched between three heart-shaped layers of puff pastry is gorgeous to look at and should be equally delicious.  Be sure to check out the Wine Blogging Wednesday event that Jeanne will be hosting on Wednesday, February 16th.

Finally, here in Toronto, I made Puff Pastry with Peanut Ice Cream, Chocolate Leaves, Praline Ganache and Condensed Milk Cappuccino.  Fortunately, I was able to get great results using Pierre Hermé’s recipe for inside-out puff pastry.

So that’s a wrap.  Thirty-one terrific entries and many, many ways to use puff pastry.  A big thanks to everyone who participated, especially to Jennifer who helped organize the event.  It’s truly been a pleasure and honour hosting SHF 5.  If I’ve missed anyone, or if you still have an entry that you’d like me to add, please e-mail me at alacuisine@gmail.com.  Hope to see everyone again next month!

Comments

[Jeanne]

I guess you missed my email--I did chocolate croissants and a quiche.

Sniff Sniff.

Jeanne

[veronica]

hello from France

i'm a beginner in blog not in kitchen
could you explain me how can i participate to your SHF
bye bye and thanks you

[Clement]

Hi Jeanne, I'm very sorry about that. It's up now.

Hi Veronica, SHF is held once a month on a Friday. The theme, date, and host of the next SHF event is announced three or four weeks in advance. You can always find it through the Sugar High Fridays link on http://www.domesticgoddess.ca On the day of the event, post your entry of what you made on your blog and notify the host. A couple days later the host will write a round-up summarizing everyone's posts.
Hope to see you at the next SHF!

[chika]

Hi Clement,

Wow everyone's done a great job! I was contemplating to try Pierre Herme's inside-out puff pastry as well, but I have been distracted by many things in my life as of late and figured that I didn't get to take much time out of it to concentrate on this challenging project. Your dessert looks so dainty and everyone else's also sound great... Congratulations to the great success!

[Viv]

Fabulous turn-out! It was an honor to participate, Clement! Thanks for a great theme and superb round-up!

[rowena]

Thanks for the comment on my site....but....where is my entry? I made the pears in puff pastry with a cinnamon budino? Or was there some other specification that I missed? If this was a members only event, oops... My apologies.

[Jeanne]

Hi Clement - wow, what a selection of entries!! I will certainly have no trouble thinking of something to do with the leftover puff pastry in my freezer!! Thanks for the great roundup and the yummy theme.

[Clement]

Chika - Thanks! I do hope you get to try making inside-out puff pastry sometime. I didn't find it to be any harder than normal puff pastry, and the double turns method that the recipe uses saves a lot of rolling time.

Viv - Thanks, I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to host. Thanks again for your wonderful entry.

Rowena - I'm incredibly sorry for the omission. I've just added it to the round-up. Thanks so much for your entry - it's very creative and beautiful.

Jeanne - Same here, there are now so many things I want to make with my leftover puff pastry. I might even have to make more dough now. Thanks again for taking part!

[Nic]

Great Job, Clement! Everyone's creations look superb.

[Moira]

Thanks again, Clement!

[keiko]

Hi Clement - Thank you so much for adding my a little-too-late entry and congratulations on the great success!

[Chefdoc]

I read your elegant site while beginning to look at food blogs for the first time and decided that I have to do that! I am just starting and know very little about how to format my blog - I have a lot to learn. I've put up my first posts and would really appreciate any comments and suggestions. www.aperfectpear.typepad.com
I made the salmon tartare and white chocolate flan recipes off your site last Sunday to much applause. Thanks again. Chefdoc

[Clement]

Nic, Moira, Keiko - Thanks so much for taking part. Each of your entries looked so delicious, and they were all so beautifully photographed!

Chefdoc - Congratulations on your new blog! I'm very glad to hear that the white chocolate and salmon recipes worked out for you. I'd be happy to take a look at your blog and send you some comments.