Heid’s Blog is brought to you today by the numbers ‘8’ and ‘1’, and the letter ‘L’. If you’ve ever taken a Baking or Pastry class, you’ll get that reference immediately. If your only thought was of the gang on the left, that’s fine, too!!
Prior to laminating dough for Croissants, Danish or Puff Pastry, I would highly recommend a few weeks with a personal trainer focusing on an upper body routine including shoulders, lats, triceps, biceps and consistently squeezing a tennis ball in each hand. If you ain’t all pumped up, you could wind up with that metaphorical feeling of a head on collision with a Mack truck! Week 2 in Baking 101 totally kicked my….entire body!! Was it worth it? Hell, yes!!!
I used muscles I’d forgotten existed, and after having resurrected them from their deep, dark coma; they came kicking and screaming back to life, leaving me on the couch with my feet propped up on 3 pillows and an ice bucket containing a bottle of Pinot Gris. Oddly enough, ‘3’ and ‘pillows’ are essential to the process of laminating dough.
Regardles
s of how many layers one espouses for a particular end product, they are all divisible by 3 and each roll of the dough multiples your layers exponentially. So, you start with your first set of dough/butter/dough and ‘lock in’ the butter so it looks like a pillow, 3; then roll, tri fold, rest, 9; roll, tri fold rest, 27; roll, tri fold rest…..81 layers, baby!!
Being the inquisitive gal that I am, I googled the history of laminated dough and found that there are as many power grabbers for this invention as there are for Eggs Benedict and The Reuben. Remaining loyal to my current classical education, I went with the French. In 1645 an apprentice baker named Claudius Gele wanted to make a bread for his sick father who was prescribed a whacked out diet of flour, water and butter. His master baker wasn’t too thrilled with the idea, but Claudius persevered and voila! Puff pastry was born. Bummer for CG’s dad was that his serum cholesterol levels spiked and another quack prescribed a diet of oysters, blubber and Zagnut bars. YIKES! Next time I take a tasting tour of France, remind me to pop over to Germany in case I fall ill.
In my desire to keep things relative, I was sipping my 3rd glass of grape, randomly researched the number 81, and found some pretty, well, random shit! Numerologists can be fascinating, but I wouldn’t date one, or quote them. Here’s a little looky loo at what I discovered. 81 is:
The number of squares on a shogi laying board
The code for international direct dial phone calls to Japan
The atomic number of thallium
A perfect totient
Number of prayers said in the Rosary in each night
‘The 81’ is a 1965 song by Candy and the Kisses
How interesting is that? However, my favorite and the one that made my heart skip a beat was this: 81 is the symbolic number of the Hells Angels in that ‘H’ and ‘A’ are the 8th and 1st letter of the alphabet. Although he wasn’t in that club, I was instantly reminded of my friend Chef Glenn Humphrey, so I raised my glass in a toast! He played a major part in my decision to attend ACI and I guess he’s watching over my shoulder, urging me to explore this wonderful world of culinary. To learn, to live, to laugh to love and to laminate! Oh, and he’s probably saying something like: “Wine? Where’s the tequila?”
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