Pailles

 

Some thoughts about this recipe:

• Paille means straw
• These are puff pastry rolled, folded, and then frozen.
• Once frozen the dough is cut into strips, pinched together, and baked golden.
• Finally, two are sandwiched together with jam or jelly.  I used lemon curd.
• You don’t much “make” these pastries as much as you “construct” them
• Cutting frozen puff pastry is hard on the hands 🙂
• I only got 4 sandwich cookies out of my batch
• Seems hard to make these for a group or gathering…you don’t get many and they have to be eaten right away
• The response was, “Really good…like a lemon bar but a sandwich!”

I think my husband wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the looks of these, but was pleasantly surprised with the taste!  He said they were fantastic…that the lemon was really good but probably any jam or jelly would be just as great.  Apparently much to his surprise…they are a keeper. 🙂

Apple Weekend Cake

Apple Weekend Cake, we are told, is found all over the country of France…with coffee in the morning or tea in the afternoon.  It really is a simple loaf cake with some added flavoring coming from some dark rum, cinnamon, and vanilla.  The real sweetness comes from the apples.  I added some sparkling sugar on the top of the loaf before baking. You can’t really see it, but it gave a crunch to the cake that all of my tasters raved about.  I would definitely do that again!   All in all, everyone said I shouldn’t save this for a  “weekend cake”, but rather they would love it any day of the week. 🙂

Ps. I love when Dorie gives us instructions like, bake for 60-65 min or until golden, crowned, and cracked in the middle.  Looks exactly like she said.  This one is a keeper!