Chapter 135 - Perfect Palmier (1/2)

Chapter 135 Perfect Palmier

Alex watched the commotion excitedly while Zhang Liang followed him into the kitchen. He said, “Is it troublesome to make the palmier? Why don’t I help you?”

“Sure.”

“The most troublesome thing about this is the forming the crispy layers, so the choice of flour is especially important. You must use T65 high-grade flour. Only then can the dough be kneaded and stretched again and again without breaking.”

Xu Le took the flour, butter, sugar, milk, salt, and water and mixed them together. First, he wore gloves and stirred them evenly. Then, he added the liquid ingredients into the dough portions by portions until it was soft. Zhang Liang said, “It doesn’t look too difficult.”

Xu Le shook his head with a sincere smile. “I don’t recommend anyone to try making this dessert at home. Some desserts still need to be made by professional bakers.”

“It’s not like you to say such depressing things at the start.”

“To make the palmiers, you need a professional Pastry Machine and some other large equipment. If you make it by hand, you can only control the thickness of the dough based on personal experience. If there’s even the slightest deviation, it will fail.”

The dough was kneaded until the surface was smooth. He used a knife to form a cross in the middle and then put it in the refrigerator to cool down. When the time was up, he took it out and rolled it flat.

Xu Le kneaded the dough and held the rolling pin. He knew that making butterfly crisp by hand was a huge challenge. He rolled the dough into a rectangular shape and put a large piece of butter in it. He folded the sides and formed the seams.

Then, there was an endless cycle of folding, rolling the dough flat, brushing the flour on the surface, putting it into the refrigerator, and continuing to fold… He repeated the cycle three times.

The principle of making the palmier was to fold it repeatedly so that the skin would be covered with butter, and then the layers would form.

He cut open from the middle and sprinkled sugar cubes on it.

“The sugar cubes are made of white sugar, cane sugar, and yellow sugar. Then, fold the two sides of the dough into a heart shape, cut it to 1.5 cm thickness, and bake it at 180 degrees. Once the color darkens, flip it over until both sides are brown.”

As Xu Le spoke, he cut off a piece and laid the oven tray flat with a serious expression. Seeing that the steps did not seem difficult, Zhang Liang rolled up his sleeves and came over to help. He cut off a piece and could not help but say, “It’s just that the crispy part is a little troublesome. The rest seems easy.”

Xu Le smiled and frowned while saying. “Actually, I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to succeed in making this pastry.”

After saying that, he looked at Zhang Liang’s dough and said, “If you slice it too thick, it will break easily when it comes out later.”

“It can’t be? It looks almost the same!”

Zhang Liang refused to believe this. It was impossible to see any discrepancies with the naked eye. He took out a baking ruler and carefully measured it. Xu Le’s standard was 1.5 cm while his was only two millimeters different.

“1.7 cm, just a little bit. The difference shouldn’t be too big, right?”

“Hmm?”

Xu Le shrugged his shoulders. His meaning was obvious.

The dough skin in the oven gradually expanded and became fluffy. The surface was baked until it was golden and sizzling.

Ding!

Xu Le quickly took out the tray with his gloves. The palmiers had expanded too much. The left sides had become much bigger than the right side, while Zhang Liang’s one at the bottom was broken into pieces. He could not even lift it up.

Zhang Liang’s face turned red as he held his chest and said, “My heart feels like it’s broken like the palmiers… Why is it so difficult?”

Xu Le had failed in front of the camera for the first time. He stared at the palmier and then looked at the dough. He had an idea and said, “I missed out a step just now.” It was not written on the recipe that oven arranged by the program team was different from the top baking oven in the system. That was why he had failed. However, it was not a big deal. He just had to try again. “Do you want to try the taste?”

“It’s okay, I’ll just eat mine.”