Today I spent my time making my family’s favorite cookies, palmiers or elephant ears, the dough is time consuming but only in the sense that the dough needs to rest in the refrigerator for an hour in between each time you roll it out and fold it two turns. Once the dough has rested three separate times it is ready to be fashioned into what ever pastry you want. I made the dough because besides making the cookies; I was also planning to make an apple galette. An apple galette is a French tart made with the thinnest, flakiest pastry dough.
As I’m writing this post the apple galette is done for tomorrow and the palmier cookies are all baked into golden caramel lacquered buttery, flaky, crispy cookies. I am resting on the couch nursing a deep cut on my left thumb and two painful burns on the same left hand. My right hand is unscathed which I am very much appreciative because I am lost without my right hand. I am pretty sure that my left hand always bears the brunt of the injuries because it is weaker and slower. My cut was very embarrassing just in how stupidly I handled the knife while I was slicing up the butter into small pieces to put into the freezer before combining the butter with the flour. Whenever you work pastry dough you need the ingredients to be as cold as possible, especially when working with butter. The cut went fairly deep as my thumb got in the way of the blade as I was pushing the butter off onto the plate. I don’t know why my thumb was there, it wasn’t really doing anything besides get in the way.
My two burns were stupidly gotten as well. For once I didn’t burn my fingers getting the cookie sheets out of the oven. This time I burned the front of my hand, right on top of my bulging vein, pulling the oven door down, I think, or that may be the time that I burned my inner wrist right by the small tendons; either way fragile skin feels the pain much more acutely than my work hardened fingertips.
Everything came out looking quite yummy so the results are worth the pain. My mother used to say that excellence came from suffering or pain, she used to say the same about beauty; you have to suffer to be beautiful. I am really happy with my day’s work and that’s what counts.
laurieanichols 